City and County of San Francisco Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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secretary boomer: [Reading roll]

We are very pleased to have

director heinicke back. Congratulations.

director heinicke:   I had a nice long lunch.

I had to be sworn in, and that was taking care of on thursday.

vice Chairman Brinkman:   so the next minute it?

-- minutes?

Secretary boomer:   you have a quorum.

Anyone who cannot comply might be asked to leave the room.

item number 4, the approval of the minutes from May 1, 2012.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   all in favor?

Secretary boomer: identified, communications. Item number 6.

vice Chairman Brinkman:   any others?

A hit and run yesterday, those are really stark reminders to us

that we still have a lot of work to do on pedestrian safety.

it is easy to think of those as private tragedy is affecting only the families or the drivers

involved, and again, the second one I am not even sure is

recognized as a tragedy, but I

feel that we need to have the pedestrian safety task force

back to the mta board or to policy and governance.

Chicago, I read, just adopted a goal of zero pedestrian

fatalities by 2020, and we have

some very ambitious goals, but

they are really stepping it up, and they have developed a task

force to examine each site where

a pedestrian incident occurred

to see what they can do, and it would be very interesting to see

if we can do that, especially on that masonic one.

I do not believe it covers that block, and that block is particularly bad. That trader joe' s.

we have all done something that

was a bad judgment call and was something we should not do.

Thankfully, last weekend, we both stopped.

And this calculation or an error in judgment should not result in death.

i really feel like we need to take a close look at what we need to do there.

I do not know it speed was involved, but we do know that the speed limit on that stretch was 25 M.P.H..

I believe if that car was going 95 miles per hour, I think the chance of survival would have

been over 90%, I am not sure,

but I am asking for a pedestrian task force to sit down and take a look at that

blocked in particular and involving the trader joe' s and that.

It also again calls out enforcement. If we had speed cameras around that, we would not have some in

the speeding cars, and what incidents we have would be less fatal. The other thing I would like to

bring up, I would like us to take a look at how we can

prioritize transit and bicycle traffic on the key connections from certain neighborhoods in

the city to the downtown

economic war, and to prioritize.

My co-workers and I have recently switched with our

morning coffee break and are now at another corner, and I was

shocked to see how many bicycles are coming down, so I think especially with our bicycle

share coming up, we need to do something to make sure that they are comfortable. And that is all. Thank you.

Director

along with director you were on a different one?

>> I rode with mayor

lee and

director reiskin, so thanks to

leah and the coalition. Very well done.

Two things that came to our

attention, one is that the requested painting of the bike lane to make clear to pedestrians, particularly

tourists that that is a biplane

and not a link to be walking in our parking in, that sort of thing.

We have had a very good example of that.

The mayor himself was getting ready to ride and was walking across. He knew enough to get out of the

way of the oncoming cyclists,

but it is a good example of how that could be made more apparent.

I realize there is a price tag associated with that and that

recreations and park wants us

to, with a way to make that

green, and we will probably like

the same from them, but it is a relatively low price tag.

i do not want to make tradeoffs yet, but I think that could be

something where we could see if there is a collaborative way that we can find that. The of the thing that is noticeable is we got a good look at the area where there are

going to be improvements, down there by baker street, and,

indeed, as I was pointing out to our colleagues here, almost as if the bike coalition planned

it, our Chairman Was sideswiped by a parent and child on their

bike.

I can assure you that is not why

he is not here today.

The rest of the ride was pretty impressive.

All in all, tom gets the purple

heart for that, but, again, congratulations to the by

coalition for a successful event. The other thing I want to bring

up, and I am not sure if this is

qualified as an unfinished business rather than ongoing business, but one of the things I asked the director to work

with the staff to implement this

sort of onboard communications, a projection for our metro

riders, and that has been going very well.

I have seen it implemented a few times. there have been delays and

tunnels for various reasons, and if those persons, I will ask for

a report on that, but it is my personal experience that the

writers initiate it, and I would

also say that we have the union President Here. i would say that this is something the board is interested in.

I think it is better for commuters and better for the

operators, so I would tell you personally that I look forward to working with you and meeting

with you in the near future, but this is an issue where if there

is an operator feedback, we would love to hear from our

operators to make that better.

Vice Chairman Brinkman: thank you. Thank you, director heinicke. Next item?

Secretary boomer:   item 7, the directors' report.

director: good afternoon.

Just a few things.

The bike to work numbers.

We had a record number of bikes

at van ness, nearly 1100 bikes

just between 8:00 and 9:00 A.M.,

and during that period of time,

even more exciting is of the eastbound traffic, 73% were

people on bikes, said that intersection during that period

of time, we had that much room share with bicycles.

The number of people arriving on the bike to work day increase in the last five years.

54% more bikes at that

intersection then at our peak hour counter the previous month,

so it was not just the kind of heavy ridership.

And as you know, one of the ideas on bike to work day is to get more people converted to the

idea of the pleasures of writings -- writing one' s bike to work.

-- riding one' s bike to work.

Some of the 54% will make the jump, at least once or twice a week.

moving on, we have been

reporting on the progress on the

church project, and we have been

kind of gearing up for the shutdown that is part of that project.

They will start on memorial day weekend.

At that intersection.

we will be basically replacing

the rails for that entire intersection.

It is a very complex specialty piece of track with a lot of curves and switches.

That will require a total of

nine-day shutdown of the n-du

dah -- n-judah, and this is not

for that project alone, but we

are dovetailed -- dovetailing

it, including out further where we are doing some switch replacement. We are using this down time to

get as much repair work done as we possibly can.

It will be pretty significant.

Very hard work on outreach and developing a substitute bus

plan, we routing buses --

rerouting buses and traffic

closures, and the previous shutdowns have largely gone very well.

This includes the four-day week

of memorial week, so that is much more significant. The good news is that this is a great investment for the immune system and for the neighborhood. This is not just replacement on the street.

This being a critical step, we

will have much better facilities for pedestrians and a safer environment, where we have

got two trains, cars, very heavy

bicycle and pedestrian traffic

on one very small spot, so a

little inconvenience.

Some very good news from the recent us conference. Every year, they have a competition.

This was the 37th annual bus

rodeo, and I am told this is like the world series for bus

drivers, so the best of the best around the country in terms of bus drivers compete.

There were 52 operators from the

U.S. And canadian transit

system, and one of our own

sfmta operators, kevin, came in

second place internationally, international second place winner.

He currently works in the cable car division.

I do not think he was doing the cable car for the competition, but he would have won that one.

and this is his second

appearance, taking first place

back in 2005, so we want to honor him. There is a lot of practice that

goes into that and certainly a lot of skill.

We want to congratulate kevin, and perhaps at a future meeting, we can get him here to congratulate him in person.

A few meetings back, in closed

session, the mta board approved our side of a settlement with

the california public utilities commission rock -- regarding an investigation they launched a few years ago.

very happy to report that that was approved I think last week. Voted out.

It was on the commission meeting consent calendar, which really

kind of closes the door on the live investigation part of that process, and it is an agreement that we believe will increase

public safety as well as settle

those disputes, so we think this

is a very good path forward for us.

We come out of it with a much

more constructive relationship, and we will ultimately have a better, safer system.

we agreed to go forward with a number of capital improvements,

including be finishing of the project I just mentioned at

church, replacing the track, and other places in the system,

including the metro turnaround.

there is the upgrade of 27 transit' s signals across the

system, replacement of communication cables as part of

the control system, a few other miscellaneous things, but really the best thing that came out of it was working constructively

with them to kind of proactively improve the system.

Good investments, a good state

of repair.

And I wanted to just give a quick report on the transit effectiveness project. I think I would have mentioned

this.

We have just completed two

months work of workshops, and I know that some of you attended some of them.

We had 300 people attend, as well as feedback that we are receiving from other means, such

as people falling us on twitter, calls from 311.

Generally, the feedback has been

very constructive, and what we

are really aiming to do is help people understand the different

trade-offs that the

T.E.P. Would bring. And we were trying in these workshops to make sure that people understand what the

trade-offs might be, and I think

most importantly, this was really a two-way dialogue.

It was not just our side going out and saying, "this is what we are going to do."

this is some people felt heard and listened to. This is based on some of what we have heard.

and we did get some very

specific feedback down to where we should keep this.

One example was a lot of support

for more -- for maintaining this

at 19th and irving because of

typography , but one of the trade-offs that came out of this

process was a nearby stop that does not have those issues that we were planning to keep.

That we can probably removed, so

we can get our travel benefits.

so good progress moving forward

on the T.E.P.

We have completed these

workshops, but we are now going out to other stakeholder groups.

I think there is the merchant' s association. We will be meeting with power and a lot of other organizations to really get as

much feedback as we can, and with all of that, we will be

revising the proposals and coming back to the community in the fall with revisions so we

can tell them how we change,

based on what we have heard from them, and still, we need to read

the completion of the initial

study done this summer, and the eir remains largely on track to be done next summer.

And then finally, two awards to mention.

Sf parks again was recognized. I think that every meeting, we are talking about another sf

park award.

In santiago, chilly --

chile, and they won an award.

They were looking at the parking

meter attendants to process transactions, and they basically

adopted the sf park plan, and we

did not have any staff there,

but we have lots of volunteers

-- not in this budget climate --

but I believe there was another agency person who accepted on their behalf.

Great work from them and the park team.

And then finally, the american planning association, california chapter, recently awarded

innovation and korean community planning to the treasure island

development, which got the green and community planning board, and while that was not a

project that was out of the mta, and there were many empty

staffers that contributed to the work that went through city hall and the treasure island' s

planning, and I want to

acknowledge bond ye and another who left us.

Mike, jack,

and an engineer really shaped the engineering

side of what is being held up as

one of the most sustainable green developments in the country that we are all looking forward to seeing.

Somali bose, chris, and julie

from the transit side, and a

great team effort throughout the mta and the city attorney' s office.

A model plan right here in san francisco. And that is the end of my report.

Vice Chairman Brinkman: thank you. Thank you very much.

I want to say that our soon to a board member has joined us. She has come to find out what she is in for.

She will be appearing at the rules committee meeting on thursday and then hopefully

joining us for our first empty meeting in June. Very nice to see you. Thank you.

Director reiskin, I, for one, do

not get tired of hearing about the awards. Keep on announcing them.

And I went through their I think just yesterday, and the new thing is just nice.

I do not know if anyone else has had a chance to go through

there, but the inbounds side has been widened, and it is much more comfortable and feels much

more secure, and I have noticed that the street cars going through there are quieter with the new tracks.

Director reiskin: noticeable where we replaced the track.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   I am

sure that the neighbors are pleased.

Director ramos, you had something to say?

Director ramos:   yes, I wanted to

ask about the n-judah.

i am sure you consider it, but it would be nice to hear back. I have been on the shuttle if

you times now, and where you have to get off at market street

now, going towards downtown, I am wondering if it was ever

evaluated to have the shovel go all of the way to the board station. It seems like there is a whole bunch of folks that are having

to get on to the other line, and

in the rush hours, those other lines are already crowded.

Inbound,

and then this mass crush load of folks, just try to

get to the civic center, so if there would be any possible ability, at least during the peak hours, to maybe consider

that to be longer. I think that would be helpful.

Director reiskin:   ok, I think we

were planning on it is shutting that to the van ness. We have a number of events happening around the same time.

There is the seventh anniversary on sunday.

We have the giants, so we have a lot of demand.

So could we extend any of the substitute service to stretch

those further, it nevertheless,

it is very good feedback to relieve some of the pressure

through the bart system, some going to church or van ness certainly might be helpful.

director heinicke:   and I think we have another line.

One possibility would be to add

stops so that they could have an option to get them down.

This May be above our pay grade,

but this could be one difference

that we could comment on what that bus line in place.

Secretary boomer:   herbert weiner?

>> herbert weiner, a member of the public.

The transit project is

abbreviated T.E.P, and for me,

that stands for trashing elders period. The jackson 5.

People are going to have to walk many blocks to get to california street.

many of them are physically impaired. Many of them are ill.

It is a great hardship.

Now, it has been called a trade off.

I would call it a sacrifice, and

people are being traded off.

This is essentially a zero some solution.

This has been admitted to by mta.

so, in essence, you are robbing peter to pay paul.

This should be in light of the increasing population of the city. You should be slowly adding

buses instead of going through with this project.

Now, that money should be spent

for extra buses and drivers, and i am wondering, what do the

drivers think of the transit effectiveness of the project? We have not heard from them at all, and I think it is very important to get their input.

Now, for me, what is the

difference between these? The one is the train wreck that happened.

T.E.P. Is the train wreck that can happen. It is time to pull the switch now.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you, Mr. Weir.

Secretary boomer:   and that is the last person to turn in a car under the directors' report. moving on to the next item, I do

not see Mr. Murphy here today,

so we will move on to public comment, a time for members of the public to address the born

on matters that are not on today' s agenda.

You do have a number of speakers who wish to address you in this section. We will start with christopher, followed by eric.

vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you, Ms. Boomer.

I think we will give them a two time limit.

>> hello. I am christopher.

The mta is violating its mandate. I refer you to the text of

proposition a, with the text

says if the taxi commission be dissolved, the mta shall carry

out this.

This does not accrue to the mta with the medallion sales.

You have the duty of the taxi commission to administer the precepts fairly.

it is the duty of the mta. He mta should assume this means

giving medallions only to individuals. This means a they should be denied to companies. This does not mean medallions themselves.

We were given assurances that this would not happen.

As Chairman Nolan has called on previous times and income constraint, to violate

proposition k, it is a violation

of law and the assurances of key politicians.

Specifically, the mta carrying out the rights of the taxi

commission.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you.

secretary boomer:   eric williams. >> thank you.

Sir, if you want to call me, we can discuss quite a few issues.

Under my leadership, we are promoting safety and professionalism and courtesy. Period. Nothing but santa. Give me a call.

two minutes is not enough time for me. Seriously.

But today, I am here, just like you are asking us to help you

out, I am going to need your

help, particulate restaurant issues for our members.

This has been an ongoing issue

for 10 years surrounding the operators that work for the city and county of san francisco.

when it is easy for a female

secretary, if you will, to walk down the hallway and sit on a

nice warm-up toilet, and I am

being outspoken here, because this is a serious issue.

the agency as $1.5 million for restaurants. We have identified locations or restrooms for the members.

Under the issue right now, out of seven locations right now in the southwest corner of the

city, there are no restaurants at the terminals for the operators.

They are being instructed by the superintendent to pull the coaches and to use the restroom,

which I am telling them also, particularly our women operators.

Going to a respectable place to use a restroom.

That is what they are doing, but it is affecting service and everything else.

Our problem now is permits to

get a prefab restroom, not something smelling like last

week, but a prefab restroom was running water.

We need your assistance to get

this done, to keep service moving and to have this service run at all as we think it should be.

Please, I ask that you contact me.

I will contact each and everyone of you individually. we have to get this done. I have to say this.

Even in your agenda, you guys

have a resolution to approve taking away parking spots.

One of the issues with these prefabs spots is parking. Please get this done.

If you want to tell the members

of the local, please have the system do what it is supposed to do.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   I think

director heinicke has something.

Director heinicke: is it

currently the problem of the restroom facilities at the terminus of the line are out of commission and that folks are

being asked to use the other ones? What is the problem put >> have

you seen a porta-potti?

Director heinicke: right up there, they are using a porta- potti.

>> I would not send my wife or

tell one of you ladies to go into a restroom like that, particularly if you' re working as an employee as a system that has the revenue in the location.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you.

I think director bridges has something.

Director bridges:   southeast or

southwest request southwest.

i am spoken to members of this

body, and he is dedicated to getting this done, but right

now, this has been ongoing for over 10 years.

There has been steering committee after steering committee. I went to a couple of steering

committees, and I can tell you, no wonder nothing has been done. Seriously. No wonder.

Because everybody is chasing

their tail, and what happened 10 years ago when you were supposed to be pursuing permits?

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you, Mr. Williams.

I think we will ask for a quick

recap to see what is going on, so I appreciate it.

>> appreciate it. Look forward to working with you all.

Secretary boomer: adam greenfield, chris, herbert weiner.

>> good afternoon.

My name is adam greenfield, an I am a board member of the sunset

park neighbors at the sunset,

and I am also co-chair of what

used to be the inner sunset fair.

Mike co-chairing is here, and he has got a very nice image of what we are talking about.

There we go.

That is me playing the violin there. So over the last couple of years at the inner sunset, we have

come to realize something that many people are realizing, which is the importance of gathering

spaces right in a part of our communities.

this has been a huge game

changer for the city, as have

the parkwood -- parklets and other areas.

We had a street fair in mid October last year. Some of you were there, I remember.

one of the reflections we had at the end of it is that once a year is not enough to build community.

We need to bring people together in the streets as they become familiar with each other' s faces.

After that, we decided to have a

go at creating an event program

in the vein of sunday streets, a nonprofit event, but something

that we can really own in the community. We can have staffed and volunteered by people in the

community, so I am not going to take over what chris is going to say, but we basically have come

up with a financial hurdle with the fees that the city has to

make this happen, request that

the mta look in the possibility of creating and you nimble program in the manner of sunday

streets but something smaller, something for non-profit community events.

Our co-chair chris also has something to say after me.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you.

>> my name is chris, and I am also with the inner sunset park neighbors.

As he said, we have held our street fair twice.

Each time, we have had to extend additional distance but to bring in others so we could pay for it.

Last year, we had $9,500 in fees before we started to do anything.

The health department, the

police department, plus others, so we decided to pull back.

We are going to pull it back to

a single block so that we can

concentrate this stuff that the neighborhood wants to do.

In doing this, we are finding it very difficult because the fees are very onerous.

We are left with, and I

appreciate mta has one fee for four events.

Even at that, it is still going

to cost us $4,500 per event to simply close one block. That is the fee for one block.

that does not even include the fire department.

Assuming we wanted foods, it is

$200 and that is a restaurant on the block.

The police department wants $1,660.

The officers want $750.

We have chosen a block which has no transit no driveways.

it does that 30 metered parking spaces, but it has no

residences, so we are trying to work with the city to make this

as compact as we can, but the price is still much.

If we can come up with something

between the block parties which

are wonderful, $175 for a block

party, but those are limited to the people on the block, and the street fair, which become a huge economic things, so if we could come up with something, that would be good.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you. Members, you will remember at our last meeting or the meeting before, I talked about this

issue working with the mta and your organization to streamline.

It does seem like it is quite costly habit of. How are you raising the money?

-- it is quite cost prohibitive. How are you raising the money?

>> we have the banks, which give

us some money, and we go to

doctors, insurance.

We have to beg people in order to come up with the money to basically pay city fees.

>> and it sounds like you do have the community support for this event. I see the pictures.

I missed it last year.

>> yes, supervisor olague is in favor for it. I am sorry.

Susan king said it was the next one.

Olague, 4l

she says people from

oliver district 5 are coming to her and saying, "we have got to sort this out."

quite frankly, if we do not sort

out these fees before, we will not be able to do it.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   this perhaps is another one that should, to policy and governance, and I was reading and blog, and he mentioned

something really similar to this with creating a really innovative pilot permit process to make it a little more

streamlined and easier, because they are very popular with the

community, and we have streets

being used in other ways that we have not discussed before.

For example, sunday parking for organizations which do not pay these fees.

it seems like this is a good opportunity to look at all of that.

Director ramos?

Director ramos:   I have seen him at our little hang-up.

It has been amazing.

the last one, they showed the historical evolution of the

sunset, which was awesome to see. In the middle of the street, it was like a theater. Amazing. One of the things I found

wonderful about the street fair and even that you guys put

together is it really does feel

homegrown, and I feel like the fees themselves are meant for

these mega sponsors and mega events, where they have money to spare.

A way to bring this home, and I am really looking forward to finding a way to make this work.

vice Chairman Brinkman: thank you. We appreciate it.

Secretary boomer:   herbert weiner, followed by -- >> herbert weiner.

One thing I want to comment on is the bus stops. In order to speed up muni.

Now, it has been pointed out that studies have been shown

that buses run faster if bus stops are removed.

I would like to see those studies. I would like to see how they were conducted.

I would like to see the sampling that was done, because, frankly,

they do not run any faster since

the bus stops have been removed. This has been going on for 20 years.

what it does do is inconveniences' people, especially those who are sick. They have to walk a longer

distance, and the loading time is increased because there is a greater concentration of people, and nothing has been

accomplished except for removing bus stops.

I think this has to be examined.

another thing I am concerned about is the new bus shelters.

The apparatus showing the time

for the vehicles, when they are going to arrive.

It has not been installed in all of the bus stops.

California streets, going outbound.

one-stop has been there for a

long time, and I still do not see the apparatus for scheduling

the buses, and I have been waiting a very long time for that, so I wish you would look into that.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you, Mr. Weiner.

Secretary boomer:   [Reading names]

david pilpel.

>> good afternoon.

United -- workers. I have a petition which I will

present to you signed by over 900 cab drivers, and it has two parts.

The first urges the board of supervisors to approve a measure

for the November ballot that

would accomplish, mainly accomplished two purposes.

One would be a guarantee that cabdrivers continue to be the exclusive recipients of taxi

medallions and permits as has been the case for the past 34 years, and the other would insure that any revenues that

you collect from the taxi

industry are returned for tax

purposes, whether that be for the benefits of the drivers, enforcement against illegal activities, or improvements to service.

The second part of it addresses

the proposal that staff has

brought before you bet , and the

language of this related to the proposal in the last few days, we have seen that that has been

revised, says some of this

language does not square with the proposal, but I have to tell

you that this agency has

engendered so much distrust and

suspicion among drivers that whenever it puts forward, there

is not going to be any faith that you will not turn around,

as you have the power to do, and

simply wipe it out with a new proposal.

What we see here is kind of a

tactical retreat, scaling the

proposal back to make it more

palatable, and the real problem is the authority that you have

to change anything at any time

in any way you want to, so I will leave you with this.

Vice Chairman Brinkman:   thank you.

Secretary david pilpel, another.

>> good afternoon, david pilpel.

i appreciate it with your response, which you have done more today, and where you indicate something is going to a

policy and governance, if you

could ask staff to follow up, because not everyone knows when

those meetings are and that those discussions are actually public.

the next point, in the last few weeks, there have been a couple

of instances in the subway, and unfortunately at least one

resulted in fatality, I do not know what happened to the other one, but it seems that there

were segments of the subway that could have been isolated. I think both of the incidents were at the civic center, and

yet, there was no ability to operate service to castro or van

ness, and the t line

to the embarcadero.

Its staff can exercise and try to isolate those segments, because we know there will be

problems in the subway from time

to time and be able to work around them and still deal with

the incident but using a

schedule, a different regular

routing, so not everyone is

inconvenienced, and we can sort

of isolate those segments and operate shuttles over that portion as absolutely necessary,

just being able to react to that would be better.

I asked at previous meetings about the installation of the

new transit shelters and those

locations that do not have the muni signs. There is a new shelter.

There is a no -- is no next muni sign.

I suggested continuing to do town halls from time to time so

it does not just wait until we have a budget crisis.

I am wondering if we can do that again sometime.

Not just in two years, and finally, for the november

ballot,

Mr. Gruebeer -- grueber mentioned, I am wondering if you could comment on that so we can anticipate the timing.

secretary boomer:   barry toronto,

robin barrasso.

>> good afternoon, commissioners. I have several issues. I was not at the last meeting.

I have been trying to catch up for watching it.

At first, I want to say I am very excited, more than anybody

else here, to see this new commissioner on board. I want to welcome her more than

anybody else, because I got

tired of filling out ethics complaints against her predecessor.

He was interfering with staff,

interfering with investigations, and I think God.

I look forward to her getting to know the taxi business.

When she comes on board, and I hope she give some feedback.

The next which segues into the

issue, did anybody see the " basis and" article that came out last thursday?

-- did anybody see the "bay

citizen" article?

The agency is being sued, and I think it is trying to be a

deterrent, trying to avoid the

charges and to make accusations, and there is no way they can prove it. i think you need to make sure you get reimbursed for

everything you put out in the city attorney' s office for this case. Please get reimbursed.

In terms of the brooker issue,

this also said ways to the issue that we have got to get to the

bottom of this problem, and as the investigators who are doing a great job dealing with the

illegal taxi limousines, but unfortunately, they are also dealing with a wide zones.

If we can get some help out with

that, especially at fisherman' s wharf and around the hotels, then we can spend our time dealing with those more

important issues, and in

closing, they hired a new employee who is doing a great

job as secretary and dealing with the waiting list. However, the website is still not good enough to help us know

what is going on in the agency.

We used to have all of that information on the taxi commission agenda. All of that information was there. Now, we can hardly find it.

i ask that to be a priority. Thank you.

Secretary boomer:   robin -- carl.

These are the last three people who have turned into a speaker card.

>> hello, I formally served on an advisory committee in district 7, and I am reapply.

i was with a committee on thursday, but just to comment on

jfk drive, when the configuration was created, it

was done by rec and park and the

bicycle coalition, and there was the disability council.

they were contacted only after

the fact about this, so we do

not consider this finished, because as far as I am concerned, it is not a done deal.

I still have a lot of concerns about the current configuration.

The of the things I want to see is a I want to thank chair

person brinkman

for mentioning the accident that took the life

of this young woman, and with the current hit and run

incident, one of the things I have been advocating is the

bicycle ambassador program.

It is now going to be part of

the pedestrian safety joint task force at some point.

This means that the bicycle

coalition will be training bicyclists to be out on the street, handing out information,

but to pedestrians and bicyclists about stopping at

stop signs and not running red lights and yielding to pedestrians and to remind

pedestrians to not jaywalk. Thank you very much.

Vice Chairman Brinkman: thank you. Thank you very much for your service and for the ambassador program, and I look forward to this.

>> thank you very much.

Director heinicke: if your committee doesn' t input, we would certainly be interested.

I would also say, I noticed this before, but it becomes more apparent when you are riding

around, not just violations and that sort of thing, but the amount of people not wearing a

helmet on their bicycle was

truly staggering to me, and

maybe it is just because I am a parent and I have sort of become

familiar with that law or whatever.

Maybe we can add to our bicycle ambassador program some coupons for helmets.

>> is that a requirement or a law?

>> it is for a child.

It is remarkably unwise, is what it is.

>> the ambassador program will

help the police, with all of the layoffs. They are very supportive of this.

secretary boomer:   [Reading names]

These are the last two people have turned in speaker cards.

>> good afternoon.

I am sorry to see he was not

reappointed, but I hope that his replacement has a very wonderful tenure with you.

I have the very highest respect

for

chris hayashi.

it has been a success.

I am extremely disappointed that they have recommended that they not sell the medallions. All medallion holders should be treated equally and fairly.

They pay for the medallions with

their hard earned money, and they all earn the same amount of rent for their medallions. the argument that they do not

try is bogus, because most of them have driven for years.

The yellow cab company from bankruptcy court from 1977 came

from 163 medallions that were taken away from them.

as they turned over 138

medallions if the city evert --

ever needed them, they would be given a call a what appeared in

essence, the drivers of the

attack -- of the yellow cab had them whenever they needed them.

I am asking you in fairness to

treat all medallion holders

equally and give them the same rights.

I also want to be honest and say

that I live in texas now because my wife is ill.

She has to live there. I would rather live in the

tenderloin apartments than in a mansion in taxes.

i want you to know that I am in taxes now, but I was on the board of yellow for 13 years.

My heart lies with san francisco.

>> thank you.

It last speaker in this section.

>> good afternoon.

36 years ago I began driving a

taxi and I' m speaking as an individual taxi driver.

I would suggest that you

establish a taxi folder and I have a document to get historical information on the regulators. I need to update that. I will try to send that to you before June 5th.

Generally cannot before 1978, the business licenses --

generally, before 1978, the business licenses could be bought and sold. Then they were on a list for a long time, but then they get the

permits for a lot -- a nominal processing costs.

Then the legislation in 2008 allowed for these medallions to be bought and sold. But we have a dual system.

Going back five years ago, gavin

newsom blurted out to the press

that he identified that the city

needed to start selling the medallions rather than give them away because it is a valuable city asset.

The public policy director met with a group of us.

And we said, we do not want to pull the rug out from the people

on the waiting list, but we need a transitional policy.

The ultimate, what was proposed

is to give more medallions and a discounted sales model. Now we they have another plan that is formulaic.

I think that they did a great job.

I think the formula needs to be

tweaked and allow for 20% direct

sales and 50 --

50%, I think it is weighted on the medallion side. There are 12 people -- 1200 people lined up wanting to buy with cash.

We need to be fair.

>> thank you, Mr. Murdoch. Anyone else?

seeing none, moving on to the consent calendar. These items are considered to be routine.

Madam Chair, you do have a mayor kurt -- member of the public

with several items, 10.2 f and g

with regard to quite tower, 10.2

k and l with regard to the city

services and the electric taxi program. Brecht' s we will go ahead with f

and g, k and l

, and others.

All in favor? All opposed?

Can we go ahead and have public comment on all of these items together?

>> I would like to do public

comment on f and g, and k

an l together. This is about taxi service.

f and g are related to the fact

that cab drivers take tours to quite tower.

They take pictures, they take a look.

sometimes you get an

overzealous pco that are just

tagging cabdrivers.

People want to have over to the airport and take a picture of quite tower, or they want to

take a look at it for 15 minutes. You' ve got to allow a provision

for cabdrivers to be exempt from f and g. This is what san francisco is about, tourism.

I urge you to put this on hold until we get this resolved.

In regard to kate and out, -- k

and l, because we' re going to

expand more cabs in the city, there' s not enough space for the

caps to park.

You say it is a private

business, but you regulate the businesses and the cab industry.

if you want more cabs on the street, you have got to not eliminate parking.

It is already eliminated on a

lot of cesar chavez because you

put bike lanes there. You are telling cabdrivers' we need more cabs, but we have no way for you to get to work. Take a bus.

A lot of the cab drivers do not live in the city. And they are to be there at 3:00 A.M., 4:00 A.M., friday and in

the city and then they finished

at 2:00 P.M., 3:00 P.M., 5:00 P.M. In the afternoon.

I' m saying, don' t take away parking.

You are making it difficult for cabdrivers to come to work.

and we need the drivers, and we need good drivers, where they live.

>> k

and l, as I read it, move the parking limit from one hour to two hours.

How is a working cabdriver going

out and working -- parking his

car in a two-hour and then working his shift? I do not understand.

>> I understand your point. Richard have been addressed earlier.

>> I am understand. I move recommendations. >> all in favor? All opposed? The motion is passed.

Item 10.4, authorizing the director of transportation to execute an agreement with the

city of san jose and better placement of facilities for the disbursement of $6 million in

grant funds for a 10-year term for the implementation of the batteries which an electric?

The program and authorizing the execution of a memorandum of

understanding to pay the rent for the use of the property.

Any public comment?

>> this is an interesting

program here.

i think it should not have been a consent calendar item. The program itself should be outlined and we should hear

about it publicly on tv and online and in person so we know we is going on.

-- we know what is going on.

Not everybody has a chance to go

on line and spent hours looking for to go down there and try to

get something out of them about the packet.

I think it is important, so that

anyone who is interested in including cabdrivers can go on line and look at what this program is about. I' m not sure what this program is about. I'

m saying it is important that we at least hear about it. Wouldn' t you be interested? >> thank you.

Do I have a motion to approve 10.4? >> yes. Cracks all in favor? All opposed? The ayes have it.

>> Madam Chairman combatant -- that concludes your consent to out there.

-- Madam Chairman, that concludes your consent calendar.

Next is the locally preferred

alternative for the van ness bus rapid transit project.

>> this is a project that you

have had intermittent updates on

in the last couple of years, and I think we' re on the verge of

achieving a very significant milestone in the environmental

process, which is an important milestone overall.

mr. Papandreou is going to give at a presentation on what we' re recommending.

>> good afternoon, directors.

i want to give you an update on the long, hard work on this project. I would be remiss without

thanking the mta staff that have

done a lot of the work, but also the interdisciplinary team within the mta.

i want to thank the planning team, a bunch in the construction, jock -- juli cruise from.

I think it is a really good solution to a fairly complex problem that we have.

The project that we are talking about right now is on van ness ave.

right now, is

the 47 right now.

There is great potential of seeing some changes in the corridor in the last couple of years.

we' re looking at ideas for improving bus service because we really could not afford to improve the rail service, which obviously, many people want to see happen today. One of the project goals that we came up with was to reduce the travel time.

I think we'

re also doing that system-wide as well.

As long as you can improve the

liability , then that is improvement.

Making it a big event -- a pedestrian arm is one of our core goals.

As for the project, we are maximizing our fleet and optimizing flexibility.

There are two different modes of transit on this corridor.

It is really important that we maximize this opportunity that we have. And there is a standalone project that started at market street and ended at north point.

It started before

the tpu was growing, but it is very important for looking at connectivity. We have been looking at this

project for quite a while and

you can see the tp muni rapid corridors.

But there is also the geary project that we' re working on a transportation as well. There was a call out to the

shipyard plant. We' re trying to develop this

network of high-quality, more frequent, and more reliable service.

With the van ness project

itself, it could combine 47 and 49 and the point from market street on is what we' re doing with the project. We' re looking at various components.

it is a very complex this

street.

The state highway

transportation statewide has a lot of issues in its corridor.

There is a lot of information that we have to work with to make this work.

what we were looking at with the

environmental process was four options that we could consider in detail and what would make sense.

The first was the conditions that are out there, what we call

analysis.

The second was a side main bus

rapid transit project, which dedicated a lane on a curve.

There is also lot four parking on the inside of that.

Third street to manhattan to the

34th street project where they have the brt name. There are certain issues with

this. There' s a good vantage using the existing fleet.

We had a lot of discussion on how we can make this work.

The third option is the third

platform brt, which basically took out of the medians that are there right now and uses the bus will run in the middle.

It would have a fully dedicated , fully protected service.

There are specific advantages in

terms of better runtime and better reliability.

It it has specific issues with taking out the median.

As we were doing more work, the commission has a fairly significant sewer running through there.

I' m not sure exactly what the sewer life is and how they are going to act as its, etc.

There was concern that we were taking out the trees in this corridor and not replacing them

with significantly enough trees as there are today.

And there was some concern over

having the buses indian to this broadaway. -- painted in to this right of way.

The fourth option is on the side of the median.

Again, performance wise, it is doing fairly well.

There were some major concerns with the need for a brand new vehicle.

And while there are buses that

exist in the U.S., --

cleaveland and eugene, ore. Have

them, for example -- we will be stuck with the decision of if we push forward with this alternative, we would have to

have just -- not just one sub fleet, but another.

And from across perspective as

well as minutes, that is a big challenge and risk for the agency moving forward.

Fast forward.

We had a lot of conversation back and forth about what we could do.

We have come up with a local alternative, which is the best of three and four.

It is a center- running, median-

adjacent, with side platforms.

Similar to what we have done

with market street with the cars

in the middle and the other on the right-hand side, but it is in the center of the street.

It really has the best

performance with the passenger

experience and it maximizes the transit liability.

This will be the connection to

the overall network and it has

that network connectivity for all of the pieces.

it allows for the next generation of vehicles to come in.

It will have improved pedestrian safety.

There were be shorter distances to go into the station platform areas.

They will have all of the

accessibility requirements and

it will have an overall improvement project. It is more than is widening the streets.

Will have beautifying and it will beautify the corridor as well.

In terms of the performance with this project, we' re looking at the general layout right now.

Because it is fairly recent in

our discussion with the transportation authority and now other partners, we are just

various -- looking at the

various segments and how it will come in and out of the platform.

Here is one of the illustrations that we have come up with to

explain that with where they

are, the buses will merge in together and then load on the

right hand side and then merge back together again and go to the right of the median.

They have merged alternative

for -- four with alterative 3.

-- alternative three.

It will be 30% faster than what is out there today right now.

It is about 21 minutes from mission street to lombard. It will go to about 15 minutes.

We will have a 25% increase in passenger capacity because we

will switch out be wrapped 47 -- the route 47 buses.

we should see a lot more

growth , which will probably be more significant.

i should also mention that polk

street service will stay as a local one block away.

We will still have the local . These characteristics are very

important because the trends -- the transit organization has made is one of the highest priorities in the budget for transportation.

We' re really interested in the profits right now.

Where we are on the funding

side, the cost of this alternative is being refined. It is somewhere between altman to three and alternative four.

-- alternative three and alternative four.

We are expecting to receive more funding from the federal government, and some proposition-based sales tax.

And we have about a $10 million

to $15 million gap that we' re working to close to get this project fully funded and delivered as quickly as possible.

On our schedule

itself, with the red line right now we' re working forward with an alternative to complete all of the analyses that we need to

complete to get it ready for the federal government' s decision process. We' re working very closely with

the transportation authority to

complete the final environmental

impact report at the end of

summer/mid-fall.

And we' re looking to complete

the project sometime in 2016. We' re working with everyone to me that as quickly as possible.

I know we have a lot of catch-up

to go -- to do.

It has been complex, making this project actually work.

and there are some issues that are important to note.

If we will be under construction during the

california construction, we

have to coincide with how we

have that impact 38 geary.

the geometry of the right of

way right now, the left turn stops at where we are moving.

Some of the stops spacing, how many stops can we have.

We' re working very close with john henry'

s team because we want to get musical'

s out as quickly as possible.

Braques and do we have any

questions before move on to public comment and then discussion? >> 51 question. May I?

-- I have one question. May I? >> yes, please.

>> I do not understand these drawings. If you could look at slide 8 and

slide 9, I believe in both instances we are looking north, correct? Rex yes.

>> I get how the northbound passengers will board the northbound bus.

It will pull in front of them on the platform.

How will people aboard the southbound bus?

Is the idea that they will pass

the northbound crossing and get

on the side where the doors are to the north?

rex -- >>

northbound stops at

northbound, southbound stops are at the southbound. >> if we are looking at a southbound stop, we would

eventually -- essentially be

looking at a reverse of the northbound. >> yes. Gregg' s to be clear, in these

two pictures we are -- >> to be clear, in these two pictures we'

re looking at two northbound stops. Gregg' s you are right.

-- >> you are right. Gregg' s next time, would you

look -- >> next time, would you rather sad for someone?

>> we are working on all

stations.

>> can you talk a little bit more about the enforcement

issues and the side running brt and why that is not being recommended.

Enforcement issues that have helped to come to the conclusion that you are not recommending

that l p a, and are there other issues aside from enforcement issues?

>> yes, what we'

re looking at is the many opportunities for how to make this look better.

It really was the issue of the

cars that are part to new rate -- that are part to the right of

the transit train, and the cars

that need to merge as well.

The mixture of these two would compromise the for performance of the facility itself.

On the center lane, you have no

reason to be on the same -- on that center lane. Why would you be there?

if there is a way to add

pavement, texture, treatment,

some sort of barrier, it will be pronounced.

We need to have some target enforcement plan that needs to be monitored very carefully.

It would be another cost to add

to the project with a performance read for us.

And it might be as low as the

curb lane alternative.

It got you the better performance that we have today,

but this

is a 50-75-year or more investment.

Does that help you answer the question? Rex it does.

>> I know the

cpnc project is in development. Are you working on this? >> yes.

We are working with the planning commission as well.

To be determined to release soon. >> thank you very much.

It looks like a really elegant compromise between the alternatives. i would like to hear from public comment.

>>

when it was on peace that, we lived at various alternatives

presented it to us and purely

from a pedestrian safety point of view, I felt very strongly that having the buses run down

the center of van ness was the

best popular -- possible solution for addressing all of

this cd issues for pedestrians

and it moved out of the way of

the traffic flow other than it

is now.

It you have these large buses running up the middle. I know after the board of

supervisors meeting today, I

heard that people who drive are a little concerned about this, but frankly I think it would

allow for a better flow of traffic.

I think it will allow for pedestrians being hit because the turns can be set dangerous.

That is when pedestrian fatalities happen. And it keeps the buses out of

the right turn lane when pedestrians are also getting hit. I'

m not thinking about the cost, or I do not know how the municipal drivers feel about

this, but just purely looking at it as a pedestrian safety issue, that is where I am coming from.

>> michele browne, followed by

david pelle pelle.

>> the issue to me is not so

much an issue of the

alternatives that take away a lane in each direction would work best.

To me, the issue is taking a

way -- away a lane in each

direction and making a busy

street from six lanes to four

lanes, which moves traffic all

you still traffic over there.

Because the plan that they came

up with was just come up with

about two weeks ago, the final compromise plan, the neighborhood as says the asians are just reacting to it.

The association -- of the neighborhood associations are just reacting to it.

One association is meeting tomorrow.

Another is meeting in the next couple of weeks.

I think you are getting a more

negative reaction to taking away

two lanes that I think is being communicated to you and what is

being cured now.

The cost of this , the transit

authority program tabled it said they could study it more.

Basically, by reducing from six lanes to four lanes, rather

than focusing on an alternative with all of the improvements except that you are leaving the extra two lanes, compare that

with the alternative being suggested.

Even under current conditions,

they admit that you are saving less than five minutes.

Five minutes in traffic time for

a cost of 80 million -- not traffic time, but in terms of

commuter bus time for a cost of $80 million extra.

No build, with all of the improvements.

this is taking very busy street and shoving the traffic into various neighborhoods. Correct thank you.

David pilpel .

>> if you go to slide 7, alt 3, it shows you a southbound

running mockup.

>> but we have the hybrid

alternatives three, four.

>> I want to point out that this project would actually restore

the median to the transit avenue where the street car and ran for

a number of years from 1946-48 or so. We' re just reclaiming territory where there originally was not any.

What I' m not clear about is the

motor court -- motor coach 47,

trading that up to and arctic.

There is an issue with the flinn division. Does that mean that the other route would have to become a more standard motor coach?

i sensed that there is a tradeoff there.

It is also not clear, since the project limits are only to

lombard, what happens to lombard.

If you are out in the curving,

will that involves a complicated

move between lombard and chess that in both directions?

How would that work exactly?

And with that lead to 30 at van ness and jazz -- and chestnut?

I do support

this selection of the lpga. Thank you.

>> next speaker.

>> good afternoon, directors.

Terry mascow

, representing the board of directors.

You have a letter dated May 9th in your packet.

i will not belabor the points

made there, but I would just suggest that spurs strongly

supports the adoption of the preferred alternative for the van ness brt.

and just a side comment , let me

commend the cta staff for coming to this grant, if you will.

We see this as the best option, as was mentioned, with the

biggest expansion of writer ship with lower cost.

As a result , we urge your board

to adopt the running brt with limited median and left turns.

Anecdotally, I will say that spur just returned from its

study trip in loss angeles.

We learned how important brt is for increasing ridership.

the san fernando valley is packed and very successful.

The sooner this is implemented, the better.

A 10-year project, which went-

year per -- with one-year construction, but a 10 year project. >> thank you.

>>

good afternoon, Mr. Wong.

>> good afternoon, board. I' m here to talk about the van ness brt.

I am concerned

about the

elimination of the local 47 and 49. I am understand that they

basically want to eventually make it wider. People with mobility problems may not be able to walk to the next bus stop.

I know it is already pretty

much a final design.

I was thinking like the 38 gary

that they have, limited staff

for example , 48 blocks. And they also have the 38 local.

People have a choice of using

the rapid bus and also the local

for people who want to go in between the bus stops.

I do not know.

We need to figure out what is

the solution for just using the van ness corridor because people have to walk up the block to get to van ness and then go back down. It is one of those things that

we need to look into more.

And you know, talk about it more. Thank you.

>> thank you.

>> good afternoon.

Deputy for the planning and transportation authority. I' m here to say thank you for your continued leadership considering this lp a

a .

As the director aptly put it, it

is an alternative of the current alternative. We believe it will demonstrate the full opportunity for this

new mode of transit for the city brt, and not on the for the city, but for the region and our

nation as we struggle to do more with fewer resources.

We want to pledge our continued

support together. You' re the previous speaker that the item had been deferred.

I would characterize that as procedural.

We did receive some late correspondents yesterday and did not have an adequate time to

brief the stakeholders.

then the authority board will

consider policy action in the joon plans and programs meeting.

And I just want to clarify that

we do expect the center running

alternative to maintain%

throughput will have so many --

maintain person throughput. We will have some any more people on buses.

The fewer left turns and signals will benefit traffic

appeared thank you for your of leadership and your support. >> thank you. Thank you for all of your work

on the mta wit -- with the mta on this.

>> good afternoon.

I am the director -- executive

director of walk san francisco. I'

m here because walk sf

strongly supports this as an

elegant solution to the mta and t a' s earlier differences on how this could run.

It was a mean faster public transportation through a major

central corridor in our city and it is something that people in our city really deserve and that

something -- and it is something that san francisco should be leading on.

We are excited to be hearing

about widening of this ought --

of the sidewalks so that people have a shorter crossing distance. Reducing left turns. Putting audible countdown signals through the entire

corridor as well as lighting, so that folks can see and be seen.

This is a step forward for

better public transportation

and, really, 21st century sustainable transportation.

I also want to say

congratulations to the mta on

getting 181 schools sounds done since August. It is a really big deal. I should have done it at the

general comment, but I have 40 seconds.

San francisco is the first big city in the state to do this.

The media is very interested in

helping other cities like L.A.

-- is very interested and hoping other cities like L.A. Will do this.

Thanks. >> thank you.

Ben kaufman followed by eric williams.

>> ben kaufman with the san francisco transit riders union.

i want to echo what a lot

of folks have said on the ta and

the mta in collaboration . I thank you for putting your head together outside the box.

We wholeheartedly support center

writing brt with right door boarding.

I want to acknowledge Mr. Wong' s

comments that the stocks should

be maybe given a little more

thought -- the bus stops should

be given maybe even a more thought in terms of accessibility.

But as far as projects, this is a great one. It is an investment in our future.

It is a connector to an isolated neighborhood, or a group of isolated neighborhoods to transit. And it is the first example of

bus rapid transit coming to san francisco and we hope it paves

the way for many more in years to come. Correct erik williams.

The last person to turn in a speaker cards -- >> erik

williams, the last first person to turn in a speaker cards.

>> if we are talking about the alternative on the right-hand

lane and making it a transit-

only lane, saving the agency

millions upon millions of dollars for operations, I think one would think about that first. We are giving the police

department $16 million to make

sure lanes are open, make sure bus lanes can' t follow

accordingly -- can follow accordingly.

Tuesday that it is going to

help with traffic, to say that

it is going to help all of the above -- at what cost?

This agency is going to hemorrhage millions.

We are going to invest again.

I appreciate the effort by

whoever put this in again, but we are hemorrhaging millions already. We can just make that right hand

lane bus only with the

enforcement that we give $16 million a year to. Let' s think about this.

Are we seriously -- and I hear from the public.

I have to work hand in hand with

the public and the agency, but honestly, we cannot have both.

The agency has wasted $850 million and it cannot even run on time.

The next question, how much is caltrans putting into this project?

How many federal funds are going into this project?

And how much is coming out of the operations fund for the

sfmta to get this done?

Really quickly, on the restaurants, they were spending

$500 million on the -- $500,000 on one come out. That is the type of spending that has been going on.

>> thank you. Last speaker.

>> thank you.

I am a taxicab driver.

I do not know what you' re

talking about, but I basically- gregg' s van ness. gregg' s yes, van ness street.

-- I do not know what you' re

talking about, but I basically -- >> van ness.

>> yes, van ness street.

I always take van ness street from 4:00 P.M. To 7:00 P.M.

The traffic light system is all the way green lights. I never take franklin.

Franklin is so packed. And no parking on franklin streets.

Always too many cops.

I take van ness only at the rush-hour.

i hope you will open any bus lane said that the taxi driver

can use it because we never block any traffic lane. We go very fast. [Laughter]

But we try very fast, too.

in a collision with a taxicab

driver, the first question is, what that company? But that is what we asked.

We always have chinese drive by muni.

That is not always fair for you.

i hope the police will take care

of the street.

Sometimes they do their job and sometimes they do not.

Rush-hour, they do their job.

if you look at kearny and market street and always a big line there.

>> thank you.

>> Madam Chair, that is the last

person to turn in a speaker cards and it does not look like anyone else is looking like they would like to address anything. >> director heinicke?

>> Mr. Papandreou, emasculate few more questions?

-- May I ask you a few more questions?

As I understand it, there is not a lot of operating budget, if

any, to go to fund this.

I think it is a fair question and one that should be answered. >> absolutely.

and thank you for the opportunity. As what' s touched on this

presentation in the staff report, the lion' s share of this

funding coming from this

project comes from our federal program.

These funds are available for this program only.

They are not coming to us for discretionary use elsewhere.

we anticipate no mta operating funds to be used for this project.

The balance of this fund is

proposition k project funds,

which was called out for this

plan is physically and voted on. And to the extent that we can

make muni more efficient and

faster and increased writer ship come out it would ultimately be

a positive for muni, not a

burden.

it is a positive from an operating perspective. We will make sure to circle back

with Mr. Williams and twu so they are clear on the components of this. >> I agree with that.

As for state funding, we are

aware of what is going on in

sacramento and there are being revised budgets floating here and there.

What I will simply say to our

planners and directors is, if an ongoing program where we have

counted on state funding now

appears to be a situation where funding is not a ploy to and

through, I would just -- is not

going to be updated through, I would ask that the board be updated.

I' m going to vote for this program. I like the solution now you have explained it in a way that I can understand it.

But I do have a few other questions. i' m very glad to hear the

pedestrian in input and the advocates for the pedestrian

state -- favors this.

One question I have is about

getting off of church on to the 22. When you see your boss and you at a station to cross to get it, what do you do?

You should wait for the light,

but some people understandably run for the boss. When you look at this model,

especially when coordinating

signal for the vehicle, you have several pedestrians that have to

now cross lanes of traffic to get to racing will preference.

I wonder if this is an issue that you have thought about and

if there are plans to address

that particular precedent.

If drivers are paying attention, they will stop.

>> I think you are exactly right. We have been looking at what we

could actually do using the

existing tool kits -- widening

the sidewalks, shortening them where possible.

people might have to cross

through the intersection, but

the most they will cross is two lanes. It is very different from

crossing -- in-line >> and if

there -- and if they are crossing more frequently, maybe there will be more awareness. I just wonder if there' s any outreach to the public on it.

The van ness green project, I have not driven van ness in a

while, but the last time I did I seemed to recall lots of nice

trees with lots of signs touting

our current the good -- lieutenant governor and thank him for all kinds of green.

Imagine that is going to be disrupted.

The trend is our first priority, but green stuff is good, too.

What is the plan to deal with the plan beds that are on the northern slope of the van ness?

>> the plan retains the bulk of

the medians.

By combining the aspect of alternative four, we are using the traveling adjacent to the median.

There are many places where the median will remain untouched.

When we get to the stops , that

is where we will ankle and --

angle in.

We will also be creating other spaces where we might be able to increase green' s base. There will definitely be some impact to the medians.

We will work to minimize those.

That was one of the elements

behind this optimized solution.

In either three or four, the ends of the medians would be converted to busways or stops.

it is a similar scenario to what we would have had in alternative four, but the core of the

medians well remain. >> thank you. You said there was a concern with the center lane approach of

the buses perhaps being pinned

in . Is that because they can

negotiate with the lateral buses? I did not understand that. Gregg' s this is where there ought were limited medians -- >>

this is where there are were

limited medians and that bus was basically crowd into two lanes. gregg' s ok, got it.

-- >> ok, got it.

The final question I have is, is

there a plan -- the last time

this came up I supported the

center median, which is still

the way to go, I think.

Is there a plan that is open to

emergency vehicles?

Have we spoken to police and fire to allow them to use these

lanes in an emergency? >> there is no design that would preclude that from happening.

And we have not had a detailed discussion on all that they

would need.

Correct and that brings me to my

final point.

-- >> and that brings me to my final point.

I think this is wonderful. The groups that have said that

we have just sprung this on them, I do not think that is the case.

It has been going on for a long time. It is more a question of how we

will do it, not whether we will do it. And certainly, is a price worth

paying to get expedited bus service through this very important corridor. The staff and I have talked

about my daily ride is the underground rocks.

I ride them in the -- right that muni metro.

And this, we cannot tunnelled through all of it without a massive expense either way.

My closest view -- in my view, this is as close to an underground subway as we will get. It will have dedicated lines. I' m very excited about this project.

It runs in the center lanes with

boarding options there. And this is going to be even better in this situation because

there will be signal preference and that sort of thing.

I think this is a wonderful project and a wonderful compromise. I compliment you on it and I plan to support it.

The cracks good -- >> good questions as always.

Any questions, director bridges?

>> bebb kudos to you for your

team and for everybody who came

up with the spirit I understand there were some challenges earlier.

Your bright folks and I appreciate you coming up with this. To everyone who came up with a solution, thank you.

i speak as a writer from

experience

who -- as a

rider who worked.

For you to say only five

minutes, that is disheartening.

there are many transit riders on

that bus -- it feels like an eternity back and forth, back and forth. I know people who were fired because they were wait -- late to work too many times.

I sit on its -- I sit on it

still and I heard a guy comment on how slow it was going.

Clearly, he was a worker that was worried about how long it

was taking to get to work.

This to me will mean that those

workers will get to their jobs on there -- on time and not have to drive the way I would have to

drive and then take up more precious parking spaces and cause more traffic.

I understand the time difference is not substantial.

We will not turn a 30 minute drive into a two-minute drive. but that five minutes will make a big difference to a lot of people.

The increments that you found, actually, I' m thinking it will be a lot more than just five minutes.

I think the times that you have suggested it.

-- that you have suggested, i seriously doubt that number.

I think it is closer to something more significant.

Regarding the operations, I did

have a question, and I do not expect an answer on this right now. But I hope it is something that you think about in the future. We' ve got our brt running so quickly with such great

frequency and then we reach a point where some folks are going

to continue to move along along mission street. I hope you are paying attention

to regular mixed-flow traffic when you cross market and get back into mission street.

I am under the assumption that

operations actually go down, operation costs per passenger actually go down because the

efficiencies and the amount of

riders by U.N. With brt, and

the -- a that you win with brt,

and the relationship with the transit riders in other districts, it supports this across the board.

They are much less stress

because they and they can get some regularity in their schedule.

To hear the operator, the President Of the operators even

be not supportive of this -- I' m hoping we can get to a place for

they are more informed as to what the benefits bring.

i also wanted to address the

comments that we will be putting somebody to walk five blocks

would suggest the stations would be 10 blocks apart because she would have to walk five blocks to get to a station.

I don' t think anybody is proposing a system where there is 10 blocks between the stations.

You would never have to walk

from one station to the next station five blocks.

you might find yourself in a position where you have to walk

to a half blocks because you are

in the middle of stations that

I understand that with the level

boarding and the ramps that this is going to be a benefit to people in wheelchairs' and I

hope we can get some universal

access built into this and I suppose that we will.

I am really looking forward to

seeing how this improves everyone' s experience.

I am totally a fan of this and I' m looking forward to seeing this happen and moving it along

as quickly as possible so we can

do it in other places in the city.

We will go through the motions

and put it in where it is most needed.

kudos to your great work and let' s get this thing going.

>> thank you. It is good to have your

experience from all the working of dead and that' s really -- really appreciated.

We have a motion to approve and a second.

all in favor? All opposed?

The item passes.

I think you have come up with a really elegant solution. Thank you.

Next item is I don'

t 12, approving the new muni route as

the met -- the mid market express. we do have a number of the public to witches -- who wishes to address you on this.

>> do we have a staff report on this?

Let' s go ahead and take public comment.

>> I May need three minutes on this item.

The calendar item I got only referred to operating inbound

from 7:00 to 11:00 and I am

questioning whether this action actually feeds the scope of the

notice provided.

i would note that on the substance of this, I do support this route proposal and I think it'

s a good idea and will likely

be a winner, but I still have some procedural concerns.

I support the expansion so that it' s not just serving market

streets but the commuters taking tell train and the people who live in the area going to

cal train and those who work at city hall and the state

buildings in this general area

have better access beyond the market street corridor. I still think we need a better

process for proposing and

evaluating changed services.

The staff report I saw did not

totally route costs and claims the part-time operators will pay for it.

my understanding is part time

operators and other savings were

to reduce the budget deficit and not to expand service. It'

s a bit of a mixed message.

I would suggest the board asked

for a report on this service combine back to see how it is

doing and as recently as last night, there' s a run that was not filled.

I would argue that it is at the

expense of existing services and I'

m wondering if there is more of a priority that' s going to be given to this service as opposed to existing services. I would ask that you follow

bonds of these points. >> thank you. Anyone else?

>> I do have one concern on this.

As we look on the map where it

makes its one turned a round of

vision, I would ask that -- so that people can actually get on and off at that point -- the

first leg of the journey is

about 0.75 miles if my math is

correct.

It seems to me like that is

going to add to some

ridership there. I' m wondering if we can amend this to add a stop there and

that look at it in awhile.

it becomes a self elimination.

>> I think the recommendation to come back and report on this

service is a good one and will

be monitoring the service and is meeting the expectations closely.

with regard to the addition of a stop, I would like to request rather than giving it on the fly

here that you would give us

authorization to go back to what the connection routes are and

what the assumptions were.

i know there is a lot of growth

in that area as well so I see

your point on that but rather

than agree to it here -- I

prefer the ability to look into an old war.

>> I think we can go ahead and pass this and it will give the

flexibility to go and do this

and look at adding us up on that.

>> one thing that was not

discussed and I guess that beast 60 some odd times during the year, we' re going to of a baseball game there during the night time.

It is a connector from civic

center to the ballpark.

Have there been any

considerations about what the scheduling of a ball game would

to to capacity on line and are

there traffic considerations at or near a ball game that would

affect it that need to be taken into account?

>> I don' t think this would

experience any different kinds of things that run around the

area, particularly the 47 and I don' t think we see a significant

impact on the bus routes.

We have much more of a surge --

things like that or we have -- is going right down to the

station and it seems like we are

able to manage that pretty well.

>> it is designed to attract

employers and businesses and I think that is a laudable goal.

I am happy to move the item.

>> I have a motion and a second.

Any opposed? The motion passes.

>> item 13, authorizing two

enter into an agreement for a

parking meter collection for five years and to extend into a

mound -- into a amount. There is no member of the public and has expressed an interest in addressing this matter.

>> we do have a brief presentation if you are interested.

>> with any board members like to hear the presentation?

>> I think that because of the size of the contract -- it' s just the information in the staff report but for the benefit

of the public, just a few slides to do the context.

-- to defuse the context.

>> very quickly, this is

rfp you approved in December 2011. I'

m going to start on slide #3.

We have eight potential vendors show up.

Unfortunately, only one vendor

responded to the rfp.

We reached out to the other vendors to find out why they didn' t respond and they give a several reasons.

The main reason was they felt the contract had such a

significant amount of work and they have other things in the hopper and they did not want to take this on.

The contract is very specific on what we asked for from the

vendor and he had a lot of specific san francisco-related issues that required a lot of programming and things like that and that' s why we didn' t get any of the vendors responding.

We also did break up the service.

It has historically been a combination of coin collecting

as well as processing the meters.

We have broken it up now and to coin collection because we' re

going to be getting new meters and we did not want to combine these two.

The main schley want to talk about is no. 5 which brings out

the dollars for the contract of.

The current contract, we pay

about $5.4 million and we' re projecting that will increase to a little over $9 million.

The majority is an increase in technology we will be making on communications and credit card fees.

That is the majority of increases.

This is all little over $40 million a year in parking revenue and we expect to see

that go up as we enhance our parking meters.

The cost of the contract is about one year of the revenues

and we get over $200 million plus over the five years.

With that, we are asking for your support on this item.

>> I have one question.

Thank you for explaining why none of the other folks submitted bids.

Do you have concerns about agreeing to a five-year contract as opposed to a shorter contract

when we only received one bid or is this the nature of the contract and the economies are such that doing it for shorter times does make sense?

>>

I would imagine because of the level of specificity that we

need that doing a term short and five would be significantly less

viable and we would get a significantly higher price.

The core service pricing is actually down a little bit from

what it was in the previous contract.

Had that been moving in a

significantly in another direction, we might have wanted

to pause and rebid but since we were able to get the core pricing in line with what we had before, we thought it was reasonable.

>> we are generally satisfied with the experience we have had so far.

i am prepared to move the item.

>> any other questions?

I have a motion, to have a second? All in favor?

The motion passes.

Item 14 is whether

to conduct a close session. >> motion to conduct a closed session? all in favor.

It will take a moment to put the room into closed session and we will take a break.

We will be back.

if

>> a motion to disclose or not

disclose what we discussed in closed session. All in favor?

>> that concludes your business today. >> thank you. We are adjourned. thank you very much.