Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

So for the pieces that are around the turn restrictions, when will those happen . You will see those in early 2020, either january or february , depending on when we get our clearance, and then m. T. A. Will be ready to submit all the work orders to install the signs and the striping changes. And what are the clearances that are required for that that require us to wait for six months . It is part of our Environmental Impact report from ceqa. We need ceqa clearance. It is part of the project description in the federal clearance, so that is why we need that clearance. And we need the project approval from the director of public works and the m. T. A. Board. Those are the four things we need in order to implement any of the better Market Street improvements. Right. Will there be other shortterm improvements before 2020 . You mentioned this short area of a pilot around some of the changes around bikes. Yes. The bikeway pilot is between on market between franklin and goss it is where we have a 2inch race and a four and raise bikeway right now. We will make it we will increase it to 6 inches and make it sidewalk level. That is a pilot of the bikeway design. Theres also a couple of locations where we will be able to create painted safety zones because of the turn restrictions that are being implemented. Those are the key early implementation elements. And for the phase one in 2020 , the summer between fifth and eighth, can you talk a little bit more about what those changes will be . Sure. That is the full better Market Street project, complete redesign from building phase two building phase. It is 120 feet wide. You will see new accessible sidewalks, and by accessible, that will mean replacing the brick with a larger paver with fewer joints, which will be easier to travel along. You will see all of the Street Furniture, including the trees and the path of gold in that furnishing zone that varies between six and 10 feet. Right now the Street Furniture goes all the way out to the curb and takes a much larger area. Even the bike share stations will all be neatly within that furnishing his own. It will create that delineation between the pedestrian area and the bikeway. There will be a new sidewalk level bikeway that is, typically 8 feet wide from stewart to octavia. Right now it stops at eighth street. We will also create a small 4 foot buffer between the bikeway and the roadway. The roadway itself will still be two lanes in each direction but it will be a completely new roadway, new asphalt, new track, new track way, new overhaul new overhead lines, a completely redone Market Street. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other questions from commissioners, are there members of the public would like to testify on items five and or and or six . Please come forward. Good morning, commissioners. I am a Senior Community organizer the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and vice chair of the better Market Street Community Working group. Im here to express our strong support for the switch in funds and a location with the end result of funding Market Street for an additional three and change million dollars. I really believe that better Market Street is the most important Capital Project in San Francisco for the safety of people walking or biking. Market street is our busiest streets were people writing, but right now, if you ride inbound from eighth, there is no dedicated bicycle infrastructure it is a painted area on the ground. There are thousands of daily bicycle riders that have to share a travel lane with large vehicles and bus traffic. It is very dangerous. And not surprisingly, Market Street is on our high internetwork and one of the top three most dangerous corridors for people walking or biking in San Francisco. This project, with side lot sidewalk level bicycle lanes, automobile restrictions, and a host of Pedestrian Safety amenities would make Market Street a safe record or for all. There are hurdles to implementation. One of them being funding. This will keep coming back here. I will continue to look to you, our commissioners, for leadership on getting this project built and in the ground. Thank you. Seeing no other members of the public on these items, Public Comment is closed. Do we have a motion to approve the aforementioned Fund Exchange motion made by commissioner brown, seconded by commissioner mark. We have the same house, same call. The resolution is approved. Mr. Clark, next item please. Al qaeda proximally 11. 8 million in proper tax funds and 618 million in prop a. A. Vehicle Registration Fee funds with work with conditions. This is an action item the first of the two request from bart is for the modernization project. This is the second prop k. Fund. There was a prior allocation last year. This fulfils and intend to allocate that the board approved at that time. The project is really going to reconfigure the station, it will move some of the fair gates and increase the functionality and the security and the capacity of the station and so bart is coordinating with m. T. A. There is a separation wall between central subway and the Palace Station and the agencies are coordinating agreements for the purchase and location of the new gates. As the chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee mentioned, there had been some concern by t. A. Staff, particularly about the High Percentage of costs that were going to be borne by Construction Management activities. We have worked with staff to clarify that, you know, this is a very tightly constrained working environment, this and the embarcadero station are two of the busiest stations on the line and there are additional life safety requirements because there are higher tech volumes. The construction will be during and alford after revenue service, so we needed to ensure minimal disruption to passenger flow. This pertains to this project as well as the embarcadero station project, which i will get to any moment. This has led to higher than typical Construction Management costs in San Francisco. We typically see somewhere between 15 and 30 . Originally these were in the magnitude of 50 to 60 . Bart has revisited the Construction Cost estimate and actually increased the construction contract estimate to reflect the current Market Conditions with a limited number of bidders in San Francisco and also a lot of work in San Francisco. So the percentage for the soft cost has actually gone down. The embarcadero station, this is one bay area grant project like this project. This is prop k. Funding that will be complementing that federal grant that you have provided and also the scope of work is to procure and install a new elevator at the station. This will be a bart elevator. The existing elevator will provide service to munimobile passengers, but it will also provide for a redundancy should one of the elevators be out of service. Next request is for the downtown Ferry Terminal. Prop k. Has funded the design phase of this project and this is for separated pedestrian area between the south end of the Ferry Terminal and the new passenger emergency staging plaza for the south terminal. This would be providing safe access and separating the cars and pedestrians for folks accessing the ferry service. The next request is for the emf streetcar extension to aquatic park. The project would fund two portions of work, if you will. The first would be an opportunity for Needs Assessment that would be basically producing a report on the overall cost benefit analysis of the project, and this would be to provide the board with information, and other stakeholders, to inform decisions about the transit priorities of the city going forward. Once task one is finished, there will be a presentation by m. T. A. To the board on the outcomes of this analysis and then Public Participation and Stakeholder Engagement would then follow. We will also be coordinating with m. T. A. On the connect s. F. Effort. The next request is for the rehab. It is essentially a rebuilding of five streetcars that m. T. A. Owns. These are double entered double ended vehicles. Their operating cabs at both end of the vehicles so they can operate bidirectionally. This will increase safety, reliability, service, and allow for vehicles to be put into service for an estimated 25 years. The funds are coming from a 30 foot vehicle replacement project that m. T. A. Is delaying pending outcome of studies on alternative fuel and vehicle projects. Lets see. This project is the first of the vehicles projects that we have negotiated with m. T. A. An enhanced protocol for oversight, and this is stemming from the light rail vehicles project. There will be an oversight protocol in place for that project as well and so it will allow for increased communication and oversight by agency and with m. T. A. Next request is for both prop k. And prop a. A. Funds for a public works paving project. These funds will fully Fund Construction for nearly 40 blocks in the city and about 70 curb ramps, a variety of straightforward paving work that will benefit street users. The next request is for central richmond Traffic Safety central richmond Traffic Safety, so this will be implementing improvements on streets with a history of high injury collisions and where children and seniors and people with disabilities are walking or cycling. It is a key target area and it advances the goals of a new yet to be launched Traffic Calming Program called the advancing equity for safer Streets Program the amendment is to pull funds from that programmatic line in the fiveyear plan and to fully fund this project. There are improvements that are listed in your enclosure to your packet that provide Additional Details to list out the locations that are shown in the map on your screen for folks watching at home as well. Next request is for ocean avenue safety improvements. This is to improve safety and accessibility and comfort for people travelling along ocean avenue and geneva avenue between city college and balboa park station. It will take the recommendations and all of the work that has been done from the planning departments ocean avenue corridor design study and advance them. It will do Additional Data collection and analysis and some outreach stemming from the work that has already been done and conceptual engineering to produce a recommended list of nearterm and longterm improvements so that and these will be produced in a final report by the m. T. A. The bikeway, this is for design of a separated bike lane between market and folsom, the scope of work, street marking signs, single work signal modification to facilitate the bikeway as well. This is for the developed design phase of the project. Nestor . Next request is for vision zero quick build implementation. This is the program that the m. T. A. Has been advancing over the last few months to really get these quick build projects in the ground as soon as possible to advance safety and advance the goal of vision zero in San Francisco. The projects are mostly reversible or they are adjustable enhancements for treatments, rather. It is like Traffic Control and like roadway and curb paint and signs, and signal timing and transit boarding islands, these painted safety zones and bike lanes and adjustments to parking to facilitate safety can be implemented as soon as possible by inhouse staffing. So m. T. A. Would like to sustain this funding level and this level of work for the next few years. We are recommending funding in this current year with funds from the sixth Street Safety project, which is now going to be fully funded with Development Impact fees and a state grant as well. The next two years, we are recommending advancing funds from the out here of the prop k. Programs. Theres a Strategic Plan amendment to make this. M. T. A. Would come back to request those funds. To . 5 million in year two and 2. 3 million and year three. We have been made aware that there is a project that is one of the projects on the list of corridors that has actually advanced in construction. This is the Taylor Street quick build project. Theres about 400,000 that might be able to be reprogrammed to a substitute project that m. T. A. Would be working to identify on the high injury network. It there there will be quarterly reporting to the board on the delivery of this program. This is to fund the phase i paving, the rock rapid project paving treatment. This is the paving portion of the scope of work. This is the hairball intersection, if you will. These are additional funds that the board was made aware of that were needed to fully fund the project and to fund the retaining wall that was identified as necessary during the design phase of work. This will cover that scope. The last project is the vision zero coordinated bulb project. These are to install corp curb ramps on corners that are really hard to get. They are over sidewalk basements , so there is additional treatments in addition to the curb ramps that are necessary so there is a raised crosswalk and bulb out. This is why the project is on the pricier side for installing curb ramps. And additional location at california and height, which is not funded by the scope, by this request, but it will advance through the project. With that, i can answer any questions. Thank you. That was 18 milliondollar mouthful. Commissioner brown . Thank you. Just have a few questions as i was looking through this. Im just looking at the quick build allocation. So you had mentioned there was a project on taylor that has been completed ahead of time, so there is actually more money there that could be used so we are not retroactively asking for these fundings. Is that what you are saying . That is correct. I just wanted to clarify that. Can you tell me, maybe i missed it, were there any quick build projects in district five . I dont believe that there was a district five location that was identified at this point. They might be identified through either a substitution effort, potentially like with the save taylor funds, or there are spot improvements. There was a pot of funds in this allocation that would be used to fund hi collision areas with spot treatments. Right. Is there an area is a reason why there was no request from district five office, or can you tell me why . Let me bring up the director of livable streets to address how the projects were identified in terms of identifying the projects, i wanted to mention two things. First is the allocation wouldve line of enforcement that would fund will city why that has been requested by members of this body. The second thing i think is this is the first of many for years of this program. We were scrambling to put this together in the last couple of months. We picked the projects that were ready to go right now. As it happened, this is where this project was. As we come back for future years , we will have more time to prepare and make sure weve a better spread of projects for subsequent allocations. Im just a little concerned because i have have five pedestrian deaths. That is 30 of the city of pedestrian deaths which is in district five. I would really love it if you would really seriously look at some projects in district five that we can use that money. We would love to sit down with your office and identified the quick build projects in district five. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions from commissioners . Seeing none, is there Public Comment on this item . If there are other speakers, if you will line up to my left, youre right. I am with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. Theres a lot of really great stuff here. I want to express our support for several in particular. The central richmond Traffic Safety project, the ocean avenue safety improvements, the bikeway , a really awesome project, the Quick Build Program , and the hairball improvements. I do want to speak specifically to the quick build implementation program, though. A couple months ago in may, this body approved a resolution compelling city agencies to work harder towards vision zero and faster. This is the result of that work. I want to thank this body but also commends the sfmta on their work towards number of projects that are crucial to the safety of people walking and biking. Already we have seen taylor go into the ground, that is a 31 road diet on in the tenderloin, one of our dangerous streets. This afternoon, we will be looking at approvals for sevente lanes, another one on the quick build list. We are moving at an unprecedented rate. It is very exciting. It will take more funding so we really hope that you approve this today. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, commissioners. I am from walk San Francisco. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. As charles said, we have an obligation in thanking you all for putting the pieces in place that we have vision zero to be realized. This year we have not been on the best path. I do want to reiterate we have ten people and one person on a bike who has died already this year and we are only six months into the year. We have asked m. T. A. To be as nimble and flexible as possible in the quick build approach. It is definitely we are seeing that. As charles mentioned, Taylor Street is already in the ground. That project was passed in 2018 and we wouldnt have seen anything happen in 2020 or 2021. This is something that walk San Francisco highly supports. Beyond the quick builds, we believe this 5 million is also important to continue what they call the spot treatments, and i like to think of it as basic maintenance. This is refreshing the zebra crosswalks, the daylighting that you have supported, Pedestrian Safety zones, and other features that this constantly needs maintenance and refreshing. It is critical to the safety needs. This goes citywide to every district. I do want to express that this is districtwide, the spot improvements are definitely necessary. Walk San Francisco pledges that we will be working with the sfmta so they have a plan to prioritize safety maintenance and quick build projects in every district. Thank you. Seeing no other members of the public for this item, Public Comment is closed. With that, colleagues, seeing no further questions, is there a motion to approve this item . Made and seconded. Colleagues, we have the same house, same call. The resolution is adopted. Mr. Clerk, we are at 10 54 a. M. And we have a press conference downstairs at 11 00 a. M. Do we do you think we can do item number 8 in 6 minutes . Or seven minutes . Okay. Good afternoon, commissioner. I am with San Francisco Transportation Authority. Today i will be presenting on the intersection safety study recommendation and this is an action item to adopt the final report. For this study, we have selected a temporary intersection for safety improvements and recommended say safety improvements that can be implemented in nearterm and as Capital Improvements. This study is funded by caltrans planning with match and all those the selected intersections are in vision zero network. Here are our ten studies of the intersections. First two are in mission and south van ness. The six of them are in six, seventh, and eighth street and two of them are in rankin hill area. Once we selected the ramp intersections, we did an existing transition analysis and we found that more than half of the collisions are vehicle to vehicle and a third of the collisions include users. We also found that in many of the intersections, vehicles blocked the crosswalks where pedestrians have to weave through them to get to the other side of the crosswalk or have long distances do cross as well as a lack of poor pedestrian signals. Once we have looked at the existing collision, we did an analysis what allows the analysis, which is the left diagram. We identify where the collision happened and the parties involved. Based on this analysis, we have recommended improvements for all different intersections. In this example, this is eighth and brian. We have opened it up opened up the crosswalk and improved lane designation across the intersection. During the outreach process, we have heard great feedback and design suggestions to include in our final recommendation. We have reached out to 70 Community Groups mean so much, met with different stakeholders and advocated and advocated a multi language survey where we received many responses. As well as design suggestions on our draft recommendation during open house. The design suggestion includes flashing beacon signs, additional curveball belts, advanced stop outs and we included them in our final recommendation. The recommendation includes nearterm and Capital Improvements. Nearterm improvements can be implemented in the next two years in Capital Improvements in the next five years with caltrans, depending on caltrans approval. We also developed a funding plan to fund these recommended improvements. Commissioner haneys office, with approval of this board, already allocated these funds to implement five of the intersections. And some of the other funding sources, we have developed a developer funds, city funds, and grant opportunities to implement this recommendation. With that, i am open for any questions. Thank you. Are there any questions from members . Commissioner haney . Thank you. Thank you for this presentation and this work. Im very excited about it and happy that we were able to be supportive of these funds. In terms of prioritization around the nearterm improvements, how are you choosing where to start and which intersection that is the most high need, or what is the immediate next steps . We have identified the nearterm improvements that are lowcost low cost and easy to implement in the next two to three years where the Capital Improvements will include more curb work and some of the more involved approval processes. One way that is one way we are prioritizing different improvement funds. In terms of intersection, we have not looked at, you know, which one will go first or second, it is just depending on what funding is available and what matches best with the costs that we have developed. [please stand by] its 2018, and we saw several fatalities at these intersections where the freeway touches down, and this is desparately one of those areas that needs heightened improvement. So we support this. Thank you. Chairman thank you. Seeing no other members of the public on this item, Public Comment is closed. Is there a motion to adopt the study, the final report made by commissioner ronan and seconded by commissioner yee. And we have a roll call, please. [roll call] we have first approval. Chairman we will now reconvene the Transportation Authority Commission Meeting for today, july 9, 2019. Mr. Clerk, would you please, and i apologize for this call, item number 10, out of order, which sa district 3 item because i have to go to the groundbreaking for the new Affordable Housing project with the mayor, and i thought i would take that out of order, and then i will turn it over to supervisor mandelman. Chairman i apologize for not giving you that heads up. I think mr. White from the m. T. A. Is here. He is here, yes. And i dont know if you want ms. Meckle to say anything she is not here, but chairman you can do it. The proposal in front of you today is the result of several years of discussion about how to advance safety in the project area, so this is a proposed amendment to the district 3 Neighborhood Transportation Improvement Program planning project. This would add implementation to the scope of work. And so it would enable m. T. A. To explore improvements at a couple of locations specifically. Just give me one moment. It would allow for m. T. A. To explore locations on kearny at jackson and kearny at washington to explore whether it is feasible to be putting in some near term pedestrian scrambles, and assuming it is determined to be feasible, this project would implement those scarmbles. There are some associated traffic and parking changes that would go along with that, that would also be potentially put into place, removal of dual turn lanes. So basically this is an amendment to the original scope of work. It would add implementation. It would allow for the exploration of those treatments prior to implementation. It is the result of a lot of conversations, and were pleased to see this safety work advance. Chairman so am i, and so are my constituents. I have no questions, ive been briefed. Mr. White, is there anything you would like to add . If not, we are good, dustin. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment on this item. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And i guess we need a motion on the amendment of the scope of work made by commissioner mandelman, is seconded by commissioner yee. And we have a different house, so roll call, please. [roll call] we have first approval. Chairman item number 9, please. Update on the muni service sorry, update on the Muni Service Equity strategy. Chairman i would like to thank mr. Kennedy for his patience today and at our last meeting. With that, im going to turn the gavel over to vice chair mandelman. I will say for the record, we did receive one comment by email from a member of the public, aaron goodman, which has been forwarded to every member of the commission. Good morning, commissioners. Sean kennedy with the s. F. M. T. A. , and the m. T. A. Is starting our twoyear budget cycle discussion. And a big piece of that is the equity strategy. The equity strategy really helps identify and prioritize Service Improvements. And, as you know, the Service Section of our budget is really the biggest chunk of it. So i wanted to take this time, this opportunity, to brief you on the equity strategy, where we stand right now, and do a limit little look forward, as well as some changes to the 2025 Treasure Island line. There is a vision, obviously, for transit in this city, and it is moving forward at a relatively rapid pace. Earlier this body was talking about some improvement projects that are moving forward, like advanced b. R. T. And the central subway. But there are day to day services and adjustments that need to be made. Obviously we dont have as much resources as we need, and so we need to prioritize how we spend those resources. And we also, of course, look at high ridership lines and future growth areas, but the equity strategy has really been the major tool that weve been using to identify and prioritize resources. The equity strategy is s. F. M. T. A. Board adopted in 2014, and it is also in our Strategic Plan. It is a very unique program. It helps us and guides us through both lean times as well as good times from a budget perspective. And it is based on a neighborhood approach. We try to prioritize projects and improvements based on what neighborhoods see and what their needs are. We also, of course, use data to help inform those needs and then monitor and evaluate how our improvements are working. There are eight neighborhoods as part of the muni equity strategy, and these neighborhoods were selected through a twostep process. First all, we looked at census data, and were looking for geographic regions that really identify three major areas. One, residents with low income. Two, there is a high proportion of people of color. And, three, there was a low auto ownership. So really trying to identify areas that had that transitdependent population. With that data, we worked with a muni Equity Working Group that helped us kind of better define and identify those neighborhoods, and talked about how we would prioritize projects with Community Input to develop the future plan and planning process. And i do want to point out one thing, one neighborhood that is not on here that does need a lot of the same criteria that the others meet, and that is Treasure Island. That was left off because it has its own planning process. A lot of agencies are working on that process, including us with this equity land for them. Well talk more about that in a minute. But the principles that the equity strategy lays out, as i said, are communitybased with Community Feedback directly where our resources or having major input into where our resources will go. We work with service providers, on the Ground Service providers like soup kitchens and churches, and we work with riders, everyday riders, intermittent riders, residents, and our own operators that both live and work in these neighborhoods. And through that are able to identify both important but also issues that are important to them that we wouldnt be able to get just by looking at data. We can apply our various tools and toolkit items, to address these issues. That could range from more concentrated Service Management to service changes, like adding buses,moving where buses go, to actual Capital Projects that help reduce delay and muni performance. The guidelines are many. Those eight neighborhoods have a lot of service on paper going through them. And so, as you can see, the lines that are considered equity lines go throughout the city, touching basically all four corners of the city, are on a fairly robust list. I want to point out, before going into more specifics, aside from Service Planning and Service Capital changes, we have other programs that have an equity strategy principle behind it, our affordability programs, lifeline program, as well as free muni for youth and other programs. Not only do we have these programs, but we promote these programs. It is actually in our Strategic Plan to increase the number of people that are involved in these programs and that are signed up to get these programs. We try to point that out at every chance we get. Please steer your constituents that way if you come across anybody who doesnt know about that program. Wed be more than happy to provide more information on that. Back to the specific equity strategy proposals, here is a recent list of accomplishments. I want to point out a few for a flavor of what type of stuff comes out of the equity strategy. One example is the 9r, in the intermission neighborhoods, where were discussing how the 9r is over crowded. And several months ago we implemented 60foot buses on that line to reduce crowding. Another example is the 48. The 48 is a service that used to stop at west portal during the midday. It would go all the way to the beach during the peak periods. But during the midday, it stopped at west portal. We heard from our stakeholders they would really like to see that service go to the beach all day. There were places they were trying to access, schools, shopping opportunities, for the entire length of the day. So we implemented that ss thats jussjust an example of e use this for. That is something we never would have gotten by looking at data to begin with. The equity strategy and the relationships were forming with these neighborhoods really help identify we even miss from our own analysis tools. And, of course, there is work currently under way. I want to point out the 55r, as an example, the Western Addition residents have long noted that the 5r and the 5 have issues. And we are advancing ou advancir muni program. It will help alleviate some of the reliability issues that the entire line is seeing. I want to highlight that because our goal for the 25th is not in the western neighborhood, but it will directly affect the residents and the people who are riding the service in the Western Addition. I want to talk on the 25. I noted previously that the 25 is not an equity strategy neighborhood, however, it does have many of the qualities that make up an equity strategy neighborhood. So weve been working closely with the residents in that area to identify what they think some of their priorities are, and what the needs are in the near term. One of those needs was they continually brought up that they would like to see p. M. Service match a. M. Service. The a. M. Service was coming every 15 minutes to 20 minutes. And in the p. M. , we were at half hour headways. So in june, we implemented 20 minutes to better match the a. M. Service. One of the issues we also heard from Treasure Island residents was that, you know, gapping and ontime performance issues were a concern due to congestion both on the bridge and the city streets. When the 25 goes into the trans bay transit center, it will be using a second deck of the transit center, and it will not have to go on city streets anymore. We really think it will improve the ontime performance and the reliability of that line. Were going to continue to monitor it. And weve got some Service Improvements and frequency improvements coming up and teed up. And three years outward, were anticipating needing 60foot buses on this line, as well as additional changes to the headways theadways, to make improvements for that as well. And how do we know these equity performance changes are working . We monitor these all of the time. The three major metrics we look at are o. T. P. Gaps, which means how long has it been between when buses show up, and then crowdin crowding. At a high level, looking at all of the equity lines, you can see that the equity lines are performing better. That doesnt mean obviously individually there arent a lot of improvements that need to be made. For example, the 8 bay shore still has gaps, especially during the peak system. And those are the type of things that we are planning to address this next budget cycle and trying to find ways to improve that performance for the 8 bay shore, as well as other lines that have similar issues. So that was pretty much the equity strategy in a nutshell. I guess concluding by reinforcing that we, you know, obviously have more needs than we have resources to fill. The equity strategy is our primary way of working with neighborhoods to identify priorities and figure out where to put those dollars, for every dollar we get, where is the best place to put it. And talking to neighborhoods on how to figure that out. We are continuing to go to these neighborhoods. In the last round, the 2018 improvements that came out of the equity strategy, we talked to over 500 neighborhood groups. We met with we got feedback from over 65,000 people. And we plan to continue that effort. But were going to do it on an ongoing basis. So it is not going to be a onetime push where we go to a bunch of meetings and try to get data. Instead, were going to meetings when we dont even have anything on the agenda, when were not supposed to necessarily be presenting something. Were just going to listen and to find out what is going on with the community and how we can better serve the community and what some of the major needs and concerns are. With that, i would love to take any questions or answer any feedback. Chairman we have some commissioners ready to ask questions. Commissioner fewer. Thank you very much, mr. Chair. My question is whether or not i dont see anything around the equity measures around language access. Are the meetings that you are doing conducted in multiple languages . And, also, are we looking at who the drivers are on those lines, if there are large populations that are chinese speakers, for example, or spanish speakers, are we making sure that the drivers are actually bilingual . Yes, maam. Wonderful question. Everything is done in the three main languages. And depending where we are, for example, out of richmond, we may bring some russian ability to translate to russian. So we do try to tailer it to the specific location, if we know ta tagalog or russian is spoken. But we always have spanish and chinese translated, and also there at the meetings. So what about the drivers on these lines . Are you making an effort to put bilingual drivers on these lines . Sorry. I understand the question. It is part of equity. Sure. That is an interesting question. We have not tried to separate out the workforce that way. But thats an interesting point. I just didnt know. I think maybe this is just a suggestion that maybe one of the questions that you ask the community is would you do you find that there is a need for someone who speaks chinese, for example, in chinatown, as a bus driver . Thank you. Good feedback. Chairman commissioner wal ton. Ton. Thank you chair. I want to make sure i understand how to determine what is tangible from the presentation. If we look at page 101, and slide 9, im looking at the accomplishments. When you look at increase frequency, how has that been done . Im trying to understand it with regards to this slide. Sure. On third street itself, we have implemented there have been a number of rounds on trying to improve signal timing on third street. There are 68 Traffic Signals between fourth and king and the terminal on the line. We also changed traffic timing on the embarcadero into the portal to improve t line service there. On the embarcadero, were seeing about a twominute travel time savings. It was taking eight minutes, and now it is taking more like six minutes on the inbound side. On the outbound side, similar. On the rest of the line, were not seeing near those results. Because when we made the changes, we had to put in pedestrian signals have to go to three and a half feet versus four, so it kind of ate away at the transit. We have increased frequency on the t, went from eight to seven minutes. And put on two cars on the t, and safety has always been a concern. Were banning lefts, and adding new signage for banning lefts. So there is a number of, you know, smallerterm things. These equity strategy improvements are meant to be kind of in the near term, you know, as quickfixtyptype projects as possible. The slide says accomplishments, and i want to make sure im reading and understanding this correctly. If i look at page 102, slide 10, oceanview, engelside, and bay view, with regards to the 29 and the 44, and all it says is increased service, frequency all day. How . What am i getting from this slide . I know we need to increase frequency all day so that basically means adding buses to the line to improve service on the 29 and 44. You knew, right now i think, for instance, the 229 has 23 buses on it, and were talking about putting 25, 26 buses on it to reduce crowding and improve performance. That said and these questions are great. There is so much data to go over, i didnt want to get too deep into this. I would love to set up a time with you in your office to come in and brief you on not only and this goes to every member i would love to talk to all 11 of you if youre interested, and go over who we talked to in your district, and what were doing to address those issues. I can work with people to set up a meeting, and anybody else interested. I definitely appreciate that, and we will make sure we do that. You mentioned adding buses to the lines. Where are we on that addition of buses . So we operate on a twoyear budget cycle. And so within that twoyear budget cycle, weve got another year left on the existing one. And thats why were starting the process of thinking about our next twoyear budget cycle. We have to match operator availability with the number of vehicles to make sure we can add that service and actually have it be filled, or actually having somebody driving the bus, versus just having it in the schedule. Within the next six months, were planning to have this before the end of this budget cycle before the end of next july, adding those buses in. We should see new buses, additional buses, by when . Im hoping within february, but if not february, definitely by june. Thank you. And then are there do we have maps that detail increased service in the southeast sector of San Francisco . So specifically kansas state point shipyard. Yes, we do, and we can bring that to our meeting with you. And im looking at the equity lines, and i believe one of them is the 29. Can i see some disaggregate data that is telling me how service is performing particularly in the southeast sector . Yes, sir. Ill bring the data. And just as a sidebar, which is not necessarily specific to the presentation, but specific to equity, because i was looking at a flier that s. F. M. T. A. Sent out, 720,000 available through that process in the bay view, which we know wont Fund Infrastructure projects. But what i noticed was there was an exclusion of Public Housing sites in terms of being a place where they could go and vote, with the exception of the boys and girls club on tiska. So as we talk about equity, but were not providing options for people to vote in their communities, and the irony of that is the bus service is so bad in these areas, we expect them to be able to get to other places so they can vote, but theyre trapped and isolated. So i want to make sure we prioritize providing opportunities for them to be able to participate as we talk about equity because that piece is important. We need the voice of our Public Housing residents. You definitely admit in the presentation that these are areas where they heavily rely on bus service, but when they have to have bus service two, they have to have a voice to be able to talk about the needs in the community. The last thing, you mentioned during the budget cycle working to address improvements on the 8 bay shore. Is that the same timeline in terms of having more Rapid Service and additional buses that you just described . No, sir. So were starting the budget process. Right now it is going to take nine months or something to come up with our final operating budget for the next cycle. These ones the 29 and the 44 that are currently under way, those are in our existing budget. So i was saying the timeline for implementing those is the next year. But the 8 bay shore is just one example, but we have a bunch of other service that needs to go into the next round of the budget act. And that starts next july. And s. F. M. T. A. Hasnt been given any additional money during offcycle . No, sir, no that im aware of. Thank you. Chairman i appreciate this presentation, and the deep dive into the 25 as well, and Treasure Island. What would it take to have Treasure Island included as an equity strategy neighborhood . I realize it is unique in some ways, but it does feel like there are some tracking and processes and data that Treasure Island may be missing out on because it is not included . So i think that thats were basically treating it as an equity strategy neighborhood, as far as how were approaching the prioritization of the projects and where we can put our resources. I think it can be possible to add that to the equity strategy neighborhood list. Typically, you know, were doing the equity strategy neighborhoods are served by a number of lines, and really Treasure Island just has the one. And theyve got the larger city family looking at the entire planning process out there, and so thats why it was left off originally. I think thats something that we were good with adding to the overall project. Thank you. I appreciate that. I think it meets the requirements in terms of the demographics and the need. And then another thing on the 25 i really appreciate the increasing of the evening service. Has that started . When will that start . Yes. It had started in june, midjune. So its only been about a month. Okay. Great. In terms of really tracking to make sure that in the from what i understand, even when we have the brief time with the terminal, that there were still some challenges around delays and crowding and unpredictability, and that sort of thing. What sort of things are being done to address that or track that or really improve on that . And maybe a somewhat related thing, i do hear sometimes from Treasure Island folks that the g. P. S. Tracking thing will be off, and it will say when it is coming, and its not really coming. Yeah. And theyll end up being out there obviously if one doesnt come, that could mean an hour wait for folks. As far as the next bus, were we were leading Edge Technology when the next bus first went in, and unfortunately it has been quite a while since that went in. M. T. A. Is working on a new next bus, and hopefully with much better predictions and things like that. As far as the Trans Bay Center opening, youre right, it definitely still had problems when it opened. We think that was mostly due to that it takes a while for everybody to kind of gel. Were sharing a lot of space with other agencies on that second floor. We think we actually got a lot of the operational kinks worked out, making sure Everybody Knows what days were going to, and who gets priority, and those kind of operational improvements i think happened in that short timeframe. Once again, it is going to take a couple of weeks before everybody gets smooth again. At that point, then were planning to look at what does were anticipating a sizable jump in ontime performance. And im talking 5 to 10 improvement, which will be rather significant. If that doesnt happen, then well have to look a