Good afternoon everyone.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the July 13th, 2026 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I'm Supervisor Mirna Melgar, chair of this committee, joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Bilal Mahmud.

The committee clerk today is uh John Carroll, and I also want to give a special thanks and shout out to Kalina Mendoza from SFgov TV for staffing us during this meeting.

Mr.

Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

Please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices that you've brought with you into the chamber today.

If you have any documents to be included as part of any of today's files, you can submit them directly to me.

Public comment will be taken on each item on today's agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak along your right-hand side of this room.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways.

First, you may email your comments to me at J O H N period C A R R O L L at SFGOV.org.

Or you may send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall.

The clerk's office is room 244 and City Hall's address is one.

Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlit Place, San Francisco, California 94102.

If you submit public comment in writing, I will forward your comments to the members of this committee, and I will also include your comments as part of the official file on which you are commenting.

Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors Agenda of July 21st, 2026, unless otherwise stated.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um Mr.

Clerk, let's go to item number one, please.

Agenda item number one is an ordinance amending the planning code to increase the number of guest rooms for hotel uses permitted as a conditional use in RH2, residential house two family, RH3, residential house three family, RM1, residential mixed low density, RM2, residential mixed moderate density, RM3, residential mixed medium density, RM4, residential mixed high density, RTO1, residential transit oriented neighborhood, and RTOM residential transit oriented mission districts, from five or fewer rooms to ten or fewer rooms.

Specified that the planning commission shall consider the effects on an existing home's quality and viability as an independent dwelling unit where a conditional use application seeks to establish a hotel within a single family home, affirming the planning department's secret determination and making findings of consistency with the general plan and the eight priority policies of planning code section one and one point one and making findings of public necessity, convenience, and welfare pursuant to planning code section 302.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Melgar, uh Supervisor Chen and Supervisor Mahmood.

Um this is the same item from uh two weeks ago at the last line use and transportation meeting.

I was forwarded to this meeting because of the substantive amendments.

Um I can speak to it again if you would like.

Um it's uh our legislation to help out bed and breakfasts um in residential districts by increasing the uh cap on the number of rooms they can have from five to ten.

Um pending your questions, um that'll be it for my remarks.

Okay, I I did have one question, um, and that is do you did you consider when you were uh working with the planning department on this on putting uh controls over the total number of fees uh that could go in a within a residential area?

Or is that existing?

Uh there's no total cap on the number.

I believe from uh our view as well as the planning department's review when we were uh speaking them through the process um the sort of gate on having too many of these, and you know, for example, you know, maybe trying to take away housing, um, is the fact that these all have to be approved conditionally as conditional use authorizations.

Um so every single uh one of these, if if they want to have um, you know, anywhere from five and ten rooms will have to be approved as a conditional use authorization by the planning commission.

Okay, so if there was any neighborhood concern uh over this use, it would happen at the access number of of you know uh application that gets approved through the natural process.

Absolutely, they would get notified and would be able to speak to their concerns.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, I don't see anyone else on the roster with questions or comments, so let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Thank you, madam chair, land use and transportation.

We'll now hear public comment related to agenda item number one, hotel uses in RHRM and RTO districts.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lector.

And madam chair, it appears we have no speakers.

Okay.

Public comment at this item is now closed.

Uh colleagues, I'd like to make a motion that we send this item forward to the full board with a positive recommendation.

On a motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be recommended to the Board of Supervisors, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmood Mahmoud I.

Chair Malgar.

Aye.

Melgar I, Madam Chair, there are three ayes.

Okay.

That motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh, let's go to item number two, please.

Agenda item number two is an ordinance amending the public works code to waive banner and inspection fees for certain nonprofit organizations in all neighborhood commercial districts, neighborhood commercial transit districts, and residential transit oriented commercial districts.

It also affirms the planning department's secret determination.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Bajoy.

Thank you.

Hello again.

Um this ordinance is an expansion of a current uh banner fee waiver program that currently exists in uh neighborhood commercial transit districts in district five, um, as well as for some cultural districts in district six.

Uh we'd like to expand the ability for uh nonprofits, including, for example, um neighborhood merchants associations uh as well as uh uh including neighborhood commercial uh excuse me, including merchants associations to uh you know contribute to placemaking and uh you know building a sense of community uh in some of these neighborhood commercial districts, um and and we believe that it should be a program that's available citywide.

Uh we've spoken to public works about the fiscal impact of this legislation.

Um they're pretty unconcerned with it.

It's $375 for 20 uh banners, uh, that's the permit fee.

And uh historically they've processed very few of these, although that might increase slightly with the program being expanded citywide.

Um pending your questions.

Uh that is concludes my remarks.

Okay.

I don't have any questions, and I don't see anyone else on the roster.

Uh thank you so much uh for the legislation.

Let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Do we have any public comment for agenda item number two?

Banner fee waivers in the public works code.

It appears we have no speakers.

Okay.

Uh public comment is now closed.

Uh colleagues, um, I'd like to make a motion that we send this item out of committee to the full board with a positive recommendation.

On the motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be recommended to the board of supervisors, vice chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmood, Mahmoud I.

Chair Malgar.

Aye.

Malgar I, Madam Chair, there are three ayes.

Okay, that motion passes.

Let's go to item number three, please.

Agenda item number three is an ordinance amending the fire and public works codes to waive application review and processing fees for permits to abate violations related to the Department of Building Inspections internal quality control audit amnesty program.

It also affirms the planning department's secret determination.

Okay.

What's this about, Mr.

Pitjoy?

Um, so you may recall uh last year President Manelman passed legislation um to address the uh sort of corruption scandal within DBI.

Uh it's referred to as the uh DBI's internal quality control audit amnesty program, also known as just the audit amnesty program.

What our legislation did at the time was that it uh provided refunds and waived certain planning fees as well as building code fees for audit amnesty property owners who are working to bring their properties into compliance and and to refresh uh your memories if if you don't already remember.

Um the corruption scandal with the permit expirators, specifically Rodrigo Santos and Senior Building Inspector Bernie Curran.

They pleaded guilty to falsifying inspections, approving unpermitted work and concealing code violations.

So most of the property owners affected bought their properties long after that unpermitted work was completed.

So we're completely aware unaware of the violations and generally not responsible uh for the work that was done.

So what the legislation at the time did was it uh, as I mentioned, waive those planning and building code fees, but as we've worked with these property owners and the actual program of getting their fees back has progressed, we've realized that the original legislation missed some of the fees that are applicable in these situations, namely DPW as well as fire department fees.

So we've worked with the fire department and DPW and of course the city attorney's office to draft legislation that would uh add those DPW and fire fees back into the original program.

Um same sort of stipulations that apply to the building uh as well as planning fees just now also apply to DPW and fire.

So our hope is that this, you know, sort of increases the fairness uh of of the legislation that was originally passed and in you know some small way allows these people who are unjustly and targeted or victimized by the uh corruption scandal to get some of their money back.

Uh, pending your questions that concludes my remarks.

Thank you, Mr.

Rajoy.

So just to restate it for the public, this is round two of uh helping people uh who had interaction with staff of the various departments to uh not penalize them for fixing the mess that our staff created.

Correct.

Okay.

Um all right.

Let's go to public comment.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Do we have any public comment for agenda item number three?

If so, please come forward to the lecture at this time.

And Madam Chair, it appears we have no speakers.

Okay, public comment is now closed.

Um I would like to make a motion that we send this with a positive recommendation to the full board, please.

On the motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be recommended to the board of supervisors.

Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmood.

Mahmoud I, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Malgar I, Madam Chair, there are three eyes.

Okay, that motion passes.

Thank you.

Okay, I've been looking forward to this, and I see Supervisor Sauter here who has joined us from district three.

So please call our last item.

Agenda item number four is a hearing to discuss programs and initiatives to make the city's public transit systems more accessible, reliable, and safe for families.

Okay, Supervisor Sauter, thank you so much uh for calling this hearing.

It is of great interest to many of us.

Um the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Melgar, and uh thank you to all the colleagues and members of this committee for welcoming me to host a hearing that I called on the topic of making it more welcoming for families to use public transit in San Francisco.

This hearing request is part of the Stroller Act, my push to make life a little easier for young families in San Francisco.

Later this week we'll hear legislation before GAO to expand paid family leave in San Francisco, and we'll soon be introducing a bill to expand access to nursing facilities and diaper changing tables as well.

But today's focus is on how we can make it more accessible, enjoyable, and affordable to use our city and region's public transit when you have toddlers in tow or strollers in hand.

Our transit agencies have many challenges and unique populations to serve.

Focusing on families is less about prioritizing this group over any other, but rather recognizing that when we make it easier for families to move around the city, we also make it easier for everyone else as a result, be it tourists short on time or seniors with mobility challenges.

I'm really really looking forward to this hearing.

Uh it's been shaped by a number of conversations that I've had with partners, community members, uh, some as well by my own personal experiences uh with a 16-month-old daughter.

Um I'll ask that we move about the hearing today as follows.

We'll first hear presentations from SFMTA, then BART, then MTC.

After all three of those presentations are completed, we'll have questions from this body for the agencies, and then we will go to public comment.

Uh so madam chair, if it's okay with you, I'd ask that we first begin by hearing a presentation from SFMTA.

Okay, before we do that, if uh uh supervisor, just a couple of your colleagues have comments before we start going into it.

So, Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Margaret.

I also want to thank Supervisor Salter for calling this hearing.

Uh, mobility and transportation is very important, neat for San Francisco's working family.

It's the glue that holds together our day and enables us to connect to school, workplace, health care, recreations, and our local communities.

It is so critical for our youth, our families, seniors, people with disability, and our local workers.

It's also very important for how we get around our city.

And without it, our city comes to a stands to.

And I know that SFMTA and BART work hard to deliver public transportation for our writers.

But it's not just about efficiency and the operation, it's also about the experience of riders on public transit that matters, which is why making our transit system more accessible, reliable, and safe for our families so important.

And this is an issue that of great concerns across San Francisco, and I know that my constituents in Distro 11 feels the same.

And I really look forward to the presentation and our discussion today.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Supervisor Chen.

I will just add with my comments, thank you again, Supervisor Sauter.

This is really great and much needed.

So as a chair of the TA and also our representative on the MTC, these issues are ones that I know my colleagues, not just on this board, but across the region are very interested in, which is why when we negotiated SB63, we talked a lot about wayfinding, because right now our system is not great for people knowing how to access it, where to go, how to connect, make sure that the interaction between transportation agencies happen seamlessly, not just with payment, but actual physical access.

So, you know, I am interested in transportation.

I'm an urban planner because I believe that you know access to resources and opportunities in a city is one of the most effective ways to lift people out of poverty, to connect them to education, to jobs, to a good life.

So I am really eager to make sure that people can set roots and have families and get around and connect to all of those wonderful things that make our San Francisco region magical and successful.

So again, thank you for your thoughtfulness, uh Supervisor Sauter for connecting not just transportation but all the other things that uh surround a good life for a family with young children.

I really appreciate it, and I'll turn it over back to you.

Thank you.

Uh to my colleagues, and we'll first begin with presentation from SFMTA.

We have our director, Director Kirschbaum here with us this afternoon.

Good morning.

Uh thank you, supervisors.

I am grateful uh to have a chance to discuss the work that SFMTA and our regional partners are doing to make Muni uh and Bay Area Transit safe, accessible, and welcoming to families.

And I wanted to specifically thank Supervisor Sauter for providing this opportunity, especially because you're in it now, you know, and and uh the stroller phase is kind of the first key key insight, but um this is also a deeply personal topic to me as my little people have graduated from strollers to now being independent high school travelers.

So everything that we're doing to make the overall system safe, we're also doing to make my family safe and and your family safe, and it's it's work that we are very passionate about.

Next slide.

Um there isn't a single like family friendly program at at Muni, everything that we're doing, uh we're viewing through um a family lens, in part because when we make our system accessible to our most vulnerable users, we also make a better experience for everyone.

I'm gonna hit on some key topics today, including uh affordability, uh the school trips in particular, safety on Muni, and then some work that we're doing both for accessibility for our customers that have mobility impairments, as well as how that creates some synergies for our customers traveling with little people in strollers.

I am also joined by by BART and MTC and MTC in particular will also talk about the regional coordination we're doing on schedules and fairs and signage and paratransit because having the system be seamless regionally is something that we're all working hard towards, and while kind of a mid-process, I think we're making some really great, great strides.

So at the top of our family-friendly program on the next slide, is really the work we're doing to make Muni affordable, affordable for families and affordable for customers across a variety of groups.

Next slide.

And we also partner with some of our city services to provide free Muni for people experiencing homelessness through our Access Pass program.

We also provide discount programs for seniors and people with disabilities, and one of the programs that MTC will also cover is our Clipper Start program, which is really tackling an area that we have struggled with, which is to provide a 50% discount regionally for adults from low-income households.

So we are very excited to see that program continue to grow and expand because it not only applies to Muni but also all of our regional partners.

We estimated it's almost 30 million dollars per year.

And it is something that we have prioritized and will continue to prioritize in future budgets.

Fair enforcement is a big piece of that, but part of what makes fair enforcement successful is to make sure that the people that qualify for these programs are aware of them and are investing in them.

So we have been pushing very hard for the last several months, and we are gonna continue to partner with community groups throughout the city to get folks that qualify for the programs on them.

And sometimes that means actually sitting down and filling out the paperwork at different resource fairs, and sometimes it means making sure that trusted partners are aware of the programs and can help push the word out.

But we are really excited by the commitment we're getting across the city to help increase participation in these work.

The second thing I want to highlight is our partnerships with schools.

Making the school trip work by transit as well as what we call the four fun modes when we're talking to elementary schools, which is biking and walking and rolling and carpooling and taking transit, making that a great experience and choice for families is core to both our transit and our street safety work.

Not only does our free fare program support that, but we also provide transit ambassadors, particularly when routes go through multiple high schools as a de-escalation technique.

On our busiest routes, we provide school trippers so that when hundreds of kids exit the school, there's an empty bus for them to board.

We also provide crossing guards throughout the city as well as we have a youth transit transportation advisory board focused on high school students who are actively providing input.

We were many of us were schooled on Saturday by a beautiful speech from one of our transit youth board members talking about the importance of community service and the link between transportation and geography and giving back, which was great to see.

It's working, you know, 25% of our SFUSD students get to school by either transit or the yellow school bus.

That's 14,000 students a day, and 55% of SFUSD high school students take transit regularly.

A third area that we focus on when we think about family-friendly service is safety on Muni, especially as we think about young travelers navigating the system independently.

The Muni Transit ambassadors that ride with our high school students help to de-escalate some of the most intense conflicts that can happen on board.

We also have private security that supports our subway system, in addition to our partnership with the SF police department, and we are also you know always working with our operators and our staff to de-escalate and focus on the customer experience.

Our youngest riders, you know, are occasionally waddling up and down the aisles, but more often they are in strollers, and we have worked hard to have a thoughtful stroller policy.

We do not limit the number of strollers on our system, but we do give people using wheelchairs priority in the front of the vehicle and have created a designated stroller area in the mid-the middle of the vehicle with a special seat that flips up.

We require strollers to be collapsible, but we don't require them to be collapsed.

And the reason for that is that the strollers can get very, very big, and being collapsible is kind of an easy shorthand for if it's even going to fit on the vehicle at all.

We also allow strollers at all times of day, even in our busiest periods, and our light rail vehicles have pretty ample space that makes it easy to board and turn around a stroller.

And we have for both our customers who use wheelchairs and our customers who use strollers.

We have very low-tech ramps on all of our buses.

And the benefit of it being low tech is that it's very, very reliable.

We almost never have issues where a wheelchair lift is not working, and the operator can actually deploy the ramp manually if there is any mechanical challenges.

Now we're seeing the heaviest wheelchair ramp deployment at our busiest stops.

Make sure that they understand our policies and any helpful trip tips and tricks for traveling with a stroller.

And then kind of the last piece of our picture is the elevator and the escalator reliability because they become critical when you are traveling as a family.

This was not the case maybe five or ten years ago.

We also are routinely monitoring them.

We're also very proud to be partnering with BART to provide elevator attendance in our downtown stations that has helped not only with reliability but with smell and cleanliness and everything that goes along with that.

Uh can really really be a barrier.

So, you know, this work really goes beyond just the statistics, and we are always trying to campaign and and make these systems stronger.

I think a place where we have had challenges, um, has been with our new elevators and escalators in the central subway.

Uh that's something that we've tried to be really transparent with our customers about and really hold our contractors and our technical staff more accountable to not only fix problems as they occur, but to really try to get uh in front in front of issues, especially given how deep those stations go and how important elevator and escalator reliability is.

Um the last couple things I want to touch on is accessible seating and uh restrooms.

Uh we do prioritize seating both at our uh busy bus stops through our shelters, as well as on all of the Mini Metro platforms.

Uh the seating is designed with a lot of input from people with disabilities and really represent uh best practice.

Uh we do not at this time provide public restrooms within Muni Metro stations.

Um this approach really reflects a long-standing kind of operational and and maintenance constraints uh within within the agency.

Um, but uh we are definitely open to feedback.

Uh and finally, I just want to end with a kind of a signature station investment that the city is making because it does help with both uh stroller accessibility as well as accessibility for our customers using wheelchairs, and that is at the Holiday Plaza, where um we have really struggled to have both uh reliable escalators.

There's been an elevator that has been broken beyond repair uh for many, many years.

Uh the city's capital program provides um nine million dollars of funding to create uh kind of an elegant uh ramp solution uh that the public works uh department as well as uh the San Francisco Office on Disability and Accessibility are working uh to move forward, and the target uh construction for that is the kind of summer 2027 to spring of 2028.

Uh so with that I will um turn it over uh to our partners, and we look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Director Kirschbaum, and we now have BART, we have uh General Manager Bob Powers here.

Well, good afternoon uh committee members.

My name is Bob Powers, I'm the general manager of BART.

Um, and I would like to just point out just quickly, I'm joined here today by my head of external affairs, Rod Lee, and joining here me as well as one of our uh publicly elected officials as well.

Uh director, BART Director Janice Lee has joined us, join me here anyway today.

But anyway, look, I have a couple of things here.

I think I have like 10 or about 10 slides, so I'll go through that and however you want to, you know, the QA stuff, but I I wanted to start with a couple of broad comments, I think, as I listened to um SFMTA, and I wanted the committee to just make sure you're tracking on a couple of things.

I would I would say at no time in the history of public transit in the Bay Area have the operators been more coordinated than they are right now.

Um that's all 27 operators in the Bay Area.

So I just want to be on record as saying that.

Um the two pieces that you're your the two pieces of this or several pieces of this that you're talking about.

I heard a little bit about wayfinding and the opening remarks and accessibility.

Um I just wanted to make sure you're tracking um, you know, I I just happen to be the the GM of BART, but I also chair regional network management, right, for um for the region with all the operators and MTC is on that committee, and so that it's a very timely discussion.

And complementary to that, um, the head of SFMTA chairs the Clipper 2 committee.

Um many of the same folks around that committee with MTC, and we're pretty organized and we're pretty well coordinated um to have this discussion.

I just thought it was a nice time.

So thank you for having me here.

I I have a uh some several slides that I'm just gonna kind of go through and hit the highlights of.

Just a reminder, I guess on the first slide here is the BART system map.

We run about 131 miles, five counties um, five lines of service.

Downtown San Francisco certainly is home to our highest riders in the station, then Barcadero being the highest one of those.

And I would say that also that we connect to about 300.

So BART's the underpinning of public transit in the Bay Area.

Everything connects into BART one way or the other, and we connect into 300 transit routes, and about 90% of the region's transfers involve BART.

What's also missed here, which should be pointed out that was critical for the FIFA games here, that public transit in the Bay Area, meaning BART in this particular instant, we connect to two international world-class international airports.

That was very helpful with the FIFA ridership there.

All right, let's see the next slide.

So the June ridership surge.

June was our highest monthly ridership.

And it's really a culmination of a lot of different data streams that have intersected, and our ridership has generally been up about 10 to 12 percent compared to the last year.

Um we've worked very, very closely with Muni, with VTA, with the Bay Area Host Committee on bringing people in and out for the FIFA games, whether they were at the games themselves or the watch parties that were all over the Bay Area.

Um I serve on the host committee itself, and so um having public transit a voice at those host committee meetings as the prep work was going, and then you take that and you complement that to the Monday, 9 o'clock meeting that all the operators have every Monday at 9 o'clock, fairly religiously.

Um we were ready to deliver for the Bay Area there.

Um Pride Weekend gave us our highest ridership totals for Saturday and Sunday in more than six weeks, and then the major events when they come to town, you know, whether it's the Giants games, uh the basketball games, um, just a lot of folks taking public transit to those games.

Next slide is about just a long history of partnership with the city and county of San Francisco.

And um the coordination is there, uh, the coordination is routine.

Um, I you know, I text I I would say Julie, but I I guess I'm supposed to be a little bit more formal here, but the director of uh SFMTA on whatever's going on, we're in we're in routine contact with whatever it is.

She and I are plugged in together.

Um and obviously the goal is a welcoming environment at all the stations.

You know, and and you know, again, back to the opening remarks.

I'm gonna be on record, I'll say it right here in front of everybody.

BART is the most accessible public transit agency in the United States.

Um, and we have the data that supports that.

Um folks in the system um can see that um and um just a couple of other um items here um at Balboa Park Station.

We partnered with the city to deliver to 131 affordable homes at the Castle Upper Yard Project and uh capital projects throughout the city uh and county of San Francisco.

All right, the next slide.

They try to keep me on talking points here, but I just like to talk from the soul here.

Look, this is this is all about the new BART, this slide right here.

Pick any one of these charts, and you can tell that we are moving in the right direction for BART.

The first chart there is police presence.

Have folks seen police presence in the system.

This isn't just sworn officers.

This is this is ambassadors, this is crisis intervention specialists, progressive policing.

On Tuesdays, BART, we run 100 people in the system, managers, MRT, two people, 50 teams of two people in blue jackets running around the system to be a force multiplier.

Um the middle graph there is about fair evasion.

Um, we're done with fair, we're not done.

The the fair, the new fair gates are installed, four months ahead of schedule on budget.

It's saving us about, I don't know, 10 million a year on fare evasion.

But the real point of that is the quality of the ride has vastly improved for families, for daily commuters, for the general public in and around the BART system.

And then the last graph there is about station cleanliness, and you can read through that.

I would point your attention supervisors to the data set that's there across the across the bottom.

Escalators, elevators, fair gates.

You heard um Director Kirschbaum talk about accessibility.

Both of us measure this and from a safety perspective, from accessibilities.

We need to make sure that our systems are there for the folks that need it.

And the way to do that is data, right?

And so at BART, we track.

One of my one of my bosses sitting behind me, make sure that that's happened.

Just pick one of them.

Street escalators.

We're 95% on time.

We have the data.

If you ask me, give me the data, I'll give you the data.

We're 95% on time for street escalators.

The goal is 93.

Um and we've met that for 11 quarters.

So that's 33 months.

We've been meeting that.

And so we track all of that.

So I guess that's the point of that slide.

Go to the next one, please, Mark.

Okay, then uh let me just make sure I don't get in trouble when I get back to the office here.

So this is all about the new BART.

At the new BART, there's three pieces: safety and security, on time performance, and cleanliness.

And if you don't have all three of them, you know, my chance of having repeat riders or having folks take the system, you know, you know, comes down.

I have to have all three of them in the system.

So safety and security, there's a lot of different um elements that I can talk about there.

But certainly, if there's a light switch moment for BART right now, it's the new Fairgates.

It it it is, right?

And that's not a commentary on anything other than improving the quality of the ride in the BART system.

So that's the first folks.

We have elevator attendance at the eight elevators in the downtown.

I took it today.

I got off a little early at Civic.

I walk Civic Center.

I do it all the time.

I made sure that that escalator, that elevator was working, the fare gates were working there, and I walked the station, and then the restroom attendance at all four downtown stations.

I'll tell you one thing.

If you don't know this, too.

When we go to survey our riders, the importance of those last two, obviously, the first one speaks for itself, but to have the attendance in the elevators and have the restroom attendance, especially for folks on these long rides, to go into a restroom that's got an attendant that's clean, that you know somebody isn't gonna come barrel in right after you go.

You know, it's it's one of those attributes that really pays for itself over the course of time.

Um, all right.

The next slide again is a variation of of where we're going or where we are with BART.

BART crime, we're down more than 40% year to year on BART crime throughout the system.

Um, if you work for Chief Franklin, Chief of Police, Kevin Franklin, you are in the system.

You're not in a car.

You're not you are in the system, riding trains, walking platforms, um, engaging with our riders.

We have a whole progressive policing bureau, not um that really helps so that the sworn officers can really, you know, focus on some of the more challenging issues that arise in the BART system, and the progressive policing can help with some of the other challenges.

And then this whole um I I did want to say a few words about that last slide there, about the importance of lighting.

Certainly, it says lighting and and cameras, but um, you know, coupled with a presence in the system, probably nothing more effective than lighting, right?

Lighting, if you go from the the parking facility to the station to the concourse to the platform, and then the reverse on the way home, lighting is key, and lighting is an area, you know, that is um super cost effective.

Um we put LEGs, LEDs in throughout the system, lower maintenance cost, higher lighting lumineers that are out in the system.

So the next slide here is a continuation a little bit about that.

You know, clean and moderate.

We're only running, I think you know this.

Um we're only running fleet of the future now.

I might come back to that just in a second.

Um that's the first picture.

Tap and ride.

So um I know um our partner here with MTC is coming up here next, but we're working on um improving the customer experience and the and as folks come into the system.

Tap and ride is one of those elements that is up and running right now.

And again, our on time performance, we're pushing 90, I think it's higher than 94 percent right now.

It says 94 percent, um, but it's our highest numbers since 2014.

Um, I'm gonna drill down a little the next couple of slides on San Francisco here and the San Francisco station proof station improvements.

The first one is um uh it's really improving um the appearance and the customer facing amenities of the stations.

We replaced 27 aging escalators, and we're gonna do 14 more in downtown San Francisco.

This is primarily the Market Street Escalators Renovation Project that we've partnered with SFMTA on.

Um, and uh we've worked very pretty closely.

It's been a little challenging.

It could have been super challenging, but we got our arms wrapped around this thing and a good contractor out there, and we maintain the reliability of 96% of all the other escalators, so the ones that we've taken out that were not impacting the riders to that great of an extent.

The new canopies um have a lot of different benefits to them.

Um, but it's really protecting uh the street level escalators from the elements, they can be locked at night for our frontline employees, our labor partners, uh capital L there.

Um 20 have been completed so far, and each canopy includes um some real-time digital information that shows train arrival times and retractable gates and some LED lighting and security cameras.

Um, and then our elevator modernization program was initiated, and it's addressing the gold, the, you know, the continuing needs of the population that's out there.

It's going to be implemented in phases, um, starting at downtown San Francisco, embark itero, Powell, and Civic, and then we'll head south to 16th and 24th.

Where are we going here?

Mission Street Station.

So I did want to spend a little bit of time on the mission street stations here.

Um we continue to partner with the city of San Francisco on the mission street stations, um, having a presence out in the system just to improve the customer and the and the the experience that are out that can be had out there in the plazas out there.

So that's partnering with um the city and the county of San Francisco.

We've upgraded the LED lighting at all four of the station plazas out there.

We've continued to deploy BPD and SFPD.

We we coordinate and make sure that our deployments are not redundant, that they're complementary that's out there.

Um we have additional officers assigned to the in uh to the area out there.

Um the plazas, we've mirrored the city's initiatives on the city uh vending band to coordinate enforcement efforts that are out there and continue to look for opportunity to engage and activate those plazas.

Um we have an activation.

If you don't know, we have we activate those plazas in concert with the city once a month on a Saturday, and those have been going pretty well, extremely well, pretty well attended.

Um, you know, no dramas uh per se from uh from um social media perspective or anything like that from a press perspective, and we're looking at opportunities to expand that um from a Saturday, maybe more Saturdays into something during the and during the week out there.

Um and then uh I did want I think that kind of wraps this thing up.

I wanted to say one other thing.

The um our schedule, um, we're going into a schedule change in uh I guess in uh the beginning of August, and that schedule change has been uh coordinated with all the operators.

So we're all synced up together on our schedule changes.

Julie does it, I do it, set at AC Transit.

We're all synced up on there, but we um we have the data set on looking at our um our trains and the crowding level there.

We're gonna phase in some new trains and some additional cars, primarily inbound on the AM and outbound on the PM.

So let's say somebody was gonna get on at Balboa Park and come into the city in the morning.

We're gonna lengthen those trains and slot in a few trains and the same thing on the yellow line and the and the A line coming in in the morning and the reverse and the outbound to help with some of the we have heat maps on the on the crowdings there, and then that'll phase in that starts in one week from today on the 20th, and then that goes into permanent effect with some more changes on I think it's the 6th or 7th of August.

And so I think that kind of wraps up my slides, and happy to take any questions with at the appropriate time for here, and uh I'll turn it back over to the chair.

Thank you to GM Powers to our board director Janice Lee for being here as well for all your work.

Um, and our last presentation before we go to questions is uh from MTC from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

We have Rebecca Long and her team here to present.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Uh Chair Melgar, Supervisor Chen, uh Mahmood and Slaughter.

I'm Rebecca Long and the Director of Legislation and Public Affairs at MTC, and I'm joined by uh Gordon Hansen, who's the project manager for the regional mapping and wayfinding project.

So as an introduction, you know, it's kind of funny coming after this because we're really at the high level thinking about the the nine counties, and you've heard a lot about the work that's been going on from our leaders at SFMTA and BART, but um nonetheless, I do want to give you some context.

Next slide.

Um, so really since the pandemic, MTC has been partnering uh to a very large extent, as General Manager Powers mentioned on transit coordination.

It's always been a part of our responsibility, but we did see the pandemic and the dramatic loss in ridership as that you know crisis, you don't want to waste, to really emphasize how can we improve the rider experience, because not only did we want to bring back those riders who you know were working from home at some point getting them to ride, you know, for leisure, what have you, but new riders.

Um, because you know, having the investments that we have in our system, getting the value out of that really comes from people using the system, right?

And so um we developed this transit transformation action plan, which is all about creating this harmonized easy-to-use system, and you've heard a lot about different elements of that today.

I'm really gonna focus on fares and the mapping and wayfinding project.

Next slide.

Uh next slide.

So Clipper really is the backbone of course of regional fare integration.

Um, it's the the way that you pay, but what also matters is how much you pay, of course, and the ease of accessing discounts and things of that nature.

So, as you I think are well aware, we're in the process of transitioning to a next generation system, and with that, we're getting a lot of additional functionality to really bring uh much greater convenience and greater discounts.

So, right now you see at the bottom uh right there the tap and ride uh functionality is has come with next gen uh Clipper, and since December, we're now at 16% of trips region-wide that are using kind of the clipper payment, so they're not paying, you know, with cash or or other systems, which you know is very limited now on which operators even allow that.

16% of Clipper uh related trips are with your credit card or your just bank card.

Um, so that's, you know, definitely enhanced convenience for those who are newer to transit.

Uh we're turning over about 42 million in fares collected every month, and we have about four million active accounts in the last uh 30 days.

Next slide.

Um so one of the great uh new initiatives that came with Next Gen Clipper is this free and discounted transfer.

So if you're only riding Muni, you're not going to get the benefit of this.

But if you're a San Francisco rider who's going from Muni to say Goldengay Ferry or Muni to BART, Muni to Caltrain, that next trip you're gonna save up to $2.85 on and successive trips from there.

So as long as they're within two hours of the first trip.

So this is a pretty big savings for San Francisco riders who are using more than one system, and since December, riders have saved seven million dollars.

So that's money that's going back into people's pockets, you know, helping them deal with the expensive cost of living we have in the region.

One of the this initiative really came out of very robust study of how we can use fair policy to grow ridership.

And that study indicated it was pre-pandemic, but we still believe it, you know, it has a lot of value of increasing ridership overall by about 30,000 trips a day.

Next slide.

You've also heard about this today.

Uh the Clipper Start program is our means-based uh discount program for low-income residents to qualify.

There's certain sort of thresholds, of course, uh income.

So you have a household income of 200% or less.

You also you need to need to not be a youth, not be a senior, not already be qualifying for discounts available for people with disabilities.

Um, but it's a really significant discount.

It's about um it's 50% across the board now.

There were differences several years ago.

Of course, with any kind of uh effort to streamline and make things easier, having uh a uniform policy really helps with the communications and everything else.

Next slide.

The Clipper Youth Program is you know, sort of different in terms of its value in San Francisco because Muni, of course, has free transit uh for 18 and under, which is fantastic.

But for other systems that don't have that, we do have Clipper Youth.

The discount varies by operator with BART, it's 50% off, and you can see some other use cases in the presentation.

Caltrain is just a dollar one way, two dollars per day.

Um, and one of the real great amenities that has come about with NextGen Clipper is you can now apply for a Clipper youth card online.

So that was definitely a hassle before.

You can do that online now.

And then the other piece, next slide, is uh the key change from the original Clipper system to NextGen is it's an account-based system now.

It used to be literally a card-based system.

All the values on the card, lose the card, lose the money.

Um, now it's an account-based system, and with that you can manage your kids' clipper youth card, you can manage your parents' senior card.

Everything is all on one account, so you can check value instantly, add it instantly.

So that's another real perk.

And um, you know, we definitely think encouraging more and more San Francisco families to sign up for a Clipper youth card is um is a great idea because it just unlocks affordable transit outside of the city to other parts of the region, and and also just on BART within the city.

Next slide.

Okay, and now uh we're gonna pivot to the mapping and wayfinding project.

As I mentioned, um Gordon is the project manager, so if you have uh real technical questions as we go, um he'll be in a better position to answer than me.

Um but basically, you know, this is really about the user experience as well.

Um the purpose of this slide is to look, you know, really unappealing, uninviting, and that's the experience that many riders have right now because we have so many different colors, iconography, um, the the you have to essentially learn 27 different languages of how to read the maps to ride the system today.

And so we know that you know, with any kind of branding, having a harmonious system is going to make it more inviting.

So that is really the model here is that you learn one system and you can navigate all two dozen uh transit agencies in the Bay Area.

Next slide.

So the system includes standardized colors, symbols, and and one, you know, this was a very robust effort in partnership with operators to figure this out, and there were debates about you know to what extent this system is going to be used on just regional hubs versus a smaller bus system, and where we landed is it really is intended to be, you know, across the board.

And so there will be signs for people arriving by car, bike, foot, signs at rail stations, signs at bus stops.

And the idea is again standardized symbols and colors to help riders find transit in busy environments and navigate their journey more easily.

Next slide.

So this is the foundation of the system, which is a regional network identity, consistent design language across the region, and it features golden yellow, sky blue, and dark blue chosen to stand out in busy environments and reflect the region's natural beauty.

You'll see there are standard modal icons for bus, train, and ferry, really simplifying finding transit.

The only exception to these are cable cars and historic street cars, which have their own icons.

And agency logos remain, but the modal icons take priority.

Next slide.

So we've been doing some prototypes to really test out, you know, and get feedback from riders on what works.

And we have we've used three different prototype installations to evaluate these new designs at scale.

Santa Rosa Transit Mall and Smart Station in the North Bay, El Cerrito del Norte BART, and then a smaller test case at Powell Street with temporary materials.

Next slide.

So the new sign family includes large signs like this vehicular beacon seen here at El Cerrito del Norte as you're traveling down San Pablo Avenue, helping drivers spot facilities at a glance.

Inside the transit centers, bus bays use alpha numeric codes that are also shown on the facility maps.

And we're working with an accessibility working group to ensure new wayfinding works for all.

We're testing tactile and braille signs at bus stops and developing further accessibility pilots to understand what additional accessible elements could work at scale.

Next slide.

Taking transit can be overwhelming.

For folks at BART, for example, Millbrae or Berriesa, as in the you know, destination of the train might not automatically mean Oakland and San Francisco, especially if they're running late and rushing down an escalator.

So it's critical riders have the information they need to catch the right train.

At El Cerrito del Norte, we worked with BART staff who are already laser focused on this to provide clear descriptive destination information at stairs and elevators, including a line diagram, which I'm sure many of you have seen traveling on rail systems across the world to provide clear descriptive destination information before riders make a time sensitive choice.

Note that the right information isn't always the most information.

Too much detail can also confuse people.

So a lot of this work is about finding the right degree of simple messaging.

Next slide.

The Powell, what we call a mini prototype because the materials weren't as permanent as the other prototypes, allowed us to see how a regionally harmonized system would work at the region's most complex station.

We focused on the Halidae Plaza entrance, including directional signs from street level to the BART and Muni Fairgates, plus some on-street bus stops, including one share with AC Transit.

Powell has multiple different trains operated by different agencies, as you know.

The new signs prioritize the services themselves, such as the BART red line, the MUNIK, consistent with the regional network identity approach.

Based on transit staff feedback, we also included an airline or excuse me, an airplane symbol on the BART signs to simplify directions for visitors going to the airport.

This prototype allowed us to work closely with SFMTA staff on bus stop sign needs, and those lessons are reflected in the new regional transit bus stop design.

Next slide.

So although the prototypes were just two and a half, two and a half stations, we can begin to see the promise of a unified wayfinding system.

The signs and maps reference each other, there's consistency across agencies, and they all seem to be part of a coordinated whole.

Next slide.

Helping people see where transit can take them across the whole nine county Bay Area.

It shows public transit as one connected network instead of using different colors for each agency, which is what we've we've done historically.

It uses shared colors across the region yellow for buses, dark blue for rail, and white for ferries.

It highlights the services and connections that matter most for regional travel, and it was designed to be both useful and fun with clear language, Spanish and traditional Chinese translations and symbols for major landmarks as well as parks that are accessible by transit.

And next slide, and this is my last slide.

Just to note, you know, we've conducted extensive public engagement to learn from the prototypes, especially in El Cerrito and Santa Rosa.

This is included on-site rider testing, focus groups, outreach to Chinese and Spanish speakers and riders with disabilities and surveys before and after installation.

And what we've heard is that nearly 90% of those who responded said the new maps and signs made it easy or very easy to navigate, the test locations, and this was an improvement of up to 32%.

The next phase is these pilot projects, which are shown here on the map.

They will bring regional wayfinding improvements to nine major transit hubs across eight counties, including Powell in San Francisco San Francisco.

We're currently working with the transit agents agencies to determine the sign locations and the implementation plans.

And we're partnering with agencies to deliver improvements more broadly and quickly.

Recent efforts include installing the new regional map throughout the BART system and supporting wayfinding improvements at the Castro station with SFMTA and SF Public Works, which they initiated that outreach.

So that concludes my presentation.

Thank you again for your interest in these programs.

And together with my colleague, we're happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

And that concludes the three presentations that we asked for this afternoon.

So at this time, I'd like to invite colleagues to join me in asking questions of the three agencies.

And as we uh gather our questions and thoughts, maybe I'll begin if we if we might have SFMTA come back up and join us, please.

And thank you for your presentation.

It was uh very helpful to have specific feedback on all the questions we asked and to see your progress.

And I think there is just tremendous progress.

I think if we were having this hearing five or ten years ago, it would look a lot different, and we'd probably be asking you for more, but in reality, right now we're really reflecting on all the progress that has been made.

Um, you know, and I've heard from from others before me on this board about uh all of the work that has been done, you know, with the all door boarding, which certainly helps everyone.

Uh, the new vehicles that are really that have the designated areas.

Um I think the welcoming policies, so again, just first uh reflecting on that progress.

Um, I do want to ask about um the you know the the the weekend and evening schedules is something that is just kind of I'm curious about in general the the discrepancy.

I mean, personally, I see a I feel a big discrepancy in weekend and evening schedules compared to kind of core weekday schedules, and I understand that the staffing necessitates that, but I think you know that's something I'd like to understand more.

I'd also like to understand more about your approach to uh safety and transit around routes to school, not necessarily just around the schools themselves, but about how you adjust your schedules for uh busy uh SFUSD routes, for example.

So maybe I'll just start with those two questions if you will.

Absolutely.

We carry um uh well over 500,000 customers on any given weekday.

Uh we carry maybe uh 60 to 70% of that on the weekends.

Uh, but because our ridership is fully recovered on the weekends, it has been an area where we have made investments.

So there are uh many routes where we are running more frequent service now, for example, on the weekends than we were uh before COVID, and and that's because we are seeing such high use to uh for recreational trips and and other weekend activities.

Um we uh run the light rail system, our kind of midday uh routes run about every 10 minutes during the weekday, and they run about every uh 12 minutes on the weekends, but we have been experimenting with shorter trains uh on some of the weekends to again reflect uh that lower demand.

So we do have um less service on the weekends, but we are trying um whenever possible to still hit good policy frequencies.

Um every um 15 to 20 minutes on routes that are not heavily used and then 10 minutes or better on our rapid and frequent network.

Um for school routes, we we are doing a uh let me start by saying school trips are really hard.

Um it's really hard when we pay an operator for eight hours to make sure that we have enough service for that like 20 to 40 minutes that kids are trying to get to school in the morning and trying to get home in the afternoon.

Um it's been especially challenging since SFUSD changed the school times, which they did to reflect best practices that for middle school and high school students, the early start times are hard.

But it also means that some tricks that we used to play where we would be able to run our school service before we had to start doing a lot of the heavy work for the commute, now overlap.

So we handle it in a couple of ways.

One is we make very surgical um schedule changes to reflect the school trip.

So for example, on the 48 line, our shuttle that we use to help get our staff to um their job sites takes a break and does two extra trips to get um the student rush in the morning.

Uh we also all of our routes that end up pulling out of our um divisions and heading to the 30 Stockton, for example, do an extra trip on the 49, which help get the students that are going to Galileo.

So we we try whenever possible to put extra trips and extra service right at that time where kids are are trying to get to school.

And then on the way home, we recognize that when a hundred kids get out of school and and need to hop on a route, it's not good for the students if they're getting on a route that's already full of regular customers, and it's not good for the regular customers, also.

So we are not allowed to have dedicated like school trips because um we receive federal funds and and they are our service needs to be available to the larger public, but we can start routes empty at the schools, and then they fill up with students and then they make all of the regular stops.

And so that's a way of making sure that we have enough service for uh kids leaving schools, but also that other customers on the line aren't experiencing intensive pass-ups right around the school time.

Um we also um we do try uh to work with the school district and understand um security and tensions that may be happening between schools, um, and that might also uh drive our decision to start, for example, two empty buses at two different schools, so we don't necessarily have that tension.

But routes like the 29 Sunset, you know, which serve maybe 30 schools and universities, you know, are really um uh heavy lifters in our in our school system.

Uh we also have uh transit ambassadors that work with school principals and school sites to also understand what's going on with kids and try to de-escalate uh as much as possible.

We try to hire people uh from the communities uh that our students come from, and that also gives them a tremendous amount of credibility when they're riding the vehicles because you know, they they might know your parents, they might know your aunties, and it just it helps kind of bring bring everything down.

Um, but schools but security is something that we do hear from students.

Um students very much have the expectation that the operators are the authority figure on the bus.

Um, and yet they also have the responsibility to focus on the road and and and focus on safety.

So the ambassadors can can kind of provide an extra um an extra set of eyes and support.

Thank you.

Uh and I know that some of my colleagues have questions as well here.

Um, thank you, Spider Soder.

Um, uh Director Carm, you mentioned uh Holiday Plaza uh in your presentation uh and some of the challenges there.

I know uh it's right next to where I live and we see the escalator um continue to fail, as well as the elevator.

Um what are the concrete changes you are looking to make to make those installations work?

Uh what is causing them to fail?

Actually, I'm curious as well.

And then also how do we ensure more safety uh in that block as well?

Uh the the design project is to put in a permanent accessible ramp that would uh provide redundancy and support uh to the escalators.

Uh they are um some of our most challenging escalators in part because they don't have the weather protection that uh uh Director Powers was um referring to and just even even getting parts has been a huge challenge, more so than in other places in the system.

I also uh my understanding of the project from public works is that they're also incorporating placemaking and site lines into that project as well to try to really create a more of a universal design approach at that location.

So you're saying the solution is to provide that redundancy of that other installation, but we're gonna continue to live with the existing escalator that was gonna keep failing?

Well, we are we're doing everything we can to try to to fix them and keep them in a state of good repair.

But yes, the the ramp would also provide an all alternative access.

Isn't it cheaper just to replace the escalator?

Is it just trying to understand that you know you're gonna constantly be fixing it?

Why not just replace the whole thing?

Is that more expensive than constant maintenance?

Uh my understanding is that replacing the elevator was cost prohibitive.

Um, but in terms of the escalators, no, we will continue to try to make the most sustainable investment we can in them.

Okay, thanks.

Supervisor China.

Thank you, Supervisor Salter.

Um, thank you again for the presentation, Director Crispon.

Um is there a commitment to continue to fully fund the subsidy programs that serve free muni for our youth, low-income riders, and seniors?

Uh yes, in our uh recently adopted two-year budget, the SFMTA board uh did make the commitment to continue to sustain our uh free and discounted programs.

And and that was in part because of very, very strong advocacy from uh youth voices and the youth uh councils in the city.

Thank you.

And my second question is I hear a lot from my constituents that they'll the navigation at Balboa Park at Balboa Bart stations is a persistent complaint about really the spalling open air interchange connecting BART with Munis, JKM, Light Rail, and then also many bus routes um on uh at Balboa stations.

The station at this moment I think is really lacking seamless intuitive transit directions and the and the riders' frequencies uh come think that locating the correct outdoor muni bus stop or lie rail platform, it's really confusing.

Are there any plans to address this kind of navigation issues?

We we did recently um within the last couple of years, make an investment in wayfinding because it is such a dense transit hub the way you're describing, and because um depending on how you exit the amount of kind of connecting transit that you have access to uh really changes.

Um it might be time to get some community feedback on how that wayfinding is and is not um working because there, as I said, there was that um investment made, and if we're we're missing the mark, we should uh iterate.

Looking forward to that collaborations, and also it's Balboa station, uh, the walking path that connects to different outdoor transit bays, have uneven sidewalks and present a physical conflict zones where pedestrians must Dutch moving buses and street cars.

Are they also plan to address this accessibility issues?

Uh along Geneva.

It's San Jose, Geneva.

It's it's all an ocean.

Yeah, especially the K Rail and Oceanside, yes.

Um it is not something that we have in easy fix for.

Um, and uh, but I'd be happy to look at it with you.

Um can I ask one more related to about board part, but that it's with the BAR, not with SFMTA?

Can I also have the BART to answer some of my questions?

So I am a frequent writer, so I thank you I love all their um new uh clipper features and where you can just tap with your credit card.

But uh for especially now addressing accessibility at Balboa Bar Station, yeah, there's only one elevator, yeah.

And when it's out, again it's really hard for seniors, families with children, and people with disability to navigate a station.

In addition, the elevator does not go up to Geneva site of the station.

Only the San Jose side, which makes it very hard for people with disability or who uses strollers to navigate to Geneva Avenue Transit Connections.

Are there any plans to address this issues at the Boboa Bar stations?

Uh let me first start uh on the response.

What I'll do is maybe I'll find time with Julie.

We'll go out and walk Balboa Park together as the head of SFTA and the other and the head of BART and see where the opportunities are.

But to your specific questions there, the um look, I'll pull the data on the existing elevator that's at Balboa Park, and hopefully, I mean it should be at the 95% availability, which is a pretty good mark to keep.

As to a second elevator there, given our financial situation right now, um it's probably not in our capital portfolio.

But that being said, we'll go back and see if there's opportunities.

You know, at least I'm a big proponent of if there's the need there and we can get a little bit of grant money, get a design started on something, and then you and me and you know the others who help chase the money, help get Janice to help director lead to help chase the money, but get a design going.

That's always a good strategy to have.

So when that when those funds actually are available, there's something, you know, there's uh something there that we could put the money towards.

But um right now we don't have any plans for that second elevator uh supervisor.

Looking forward for that tour.

Can I just add that?

I'm sorry, this is a protocol, but you know, I as you know, that's also my station.

The problem, I mean, it's a bad design for sure, but it could be made so much more respectful of the public if there was just signage.

So on the side that you're talking about, the side where Capuso is, there is a ramp, like an accessibility ramp from the sidewalk to stairs.

And nothing tells you this disability ramp is gonna take you to a place where you cannot go.

So I think that that's a really big problem.

You could just put a sign there and says don't go here if you're in a wheelchair or have the stroller, cross the street.

And if the elevator's out, you actually have to go all the way around down to San Jose Avenue and up the hill on Ocean Avenue.

It's like a really difficult walk because again, there's stairs on the other side.

So, you know, we don't have the money to do anything around, but we could at least put a sign up.

I have often, and let me just finish.

I have often been, because you know, I'd ride my bike also, and so that sometimes I take that elevator on uh Geneva to go down uh to the platform.

You know, when it's out, just put a sign up and say this elevator's out.

I mean you you do that in other places, but for some reason at the Balboa station, it's never there.

So anyway.

Supervisor, uh if it's a matter of a sign, I'm telling you right now, I'll get out there, I'll get somebody out there and put up a sign, I'll pull the data, but um certainly we have the skill set to improve the wayfinding out there.

So absolutely.

I I'm committing to that right now.

And then I think I just want to also add a little bit more to accessibility.

It's if we have an elevator, then it's also crossing the street on Geneva on Geneva and that like BART, it's it's right out of like two, four uh uh no two um highway entrance.

So it's very unsafe as well for anyone, you know, with mobility with a stroller, just crossing, crossing uh from one side of the station to another side of the station.

Just to keep that in mind, too, having another elevator, it's will be a big help.

Okay, and Director Kirschbaum and I will walk the site at some point and we'll we'll we'll make it better.

Thank you.

So I had I did have questions for Director Kirschbaum.

No, I have questions for you too, uh Mr.

Powers, but they'll come later.

Um, so you know, I have a couple of like personal anecdotes.

So a couple uh months ago, I had a campaign fundraiser at my house for that regional transit measure, and a bunch of people came from San Mateo County and they took BART, and then they couldn't find the K.

So I just wanted to underscore what uh supervisor was saying, you know, that having to I mean, intuitively, you would just walk across and take the K right there.

And I see that we have built a bunch of stuff to actually more like keep people out than actually facilitate them coming in.

But yeah, you have to go out and go all walk all the way around outside and it's windy and it's cold, it's very inhospitable.

So I would say let's study up on it a little bit more.

But the story I was gonna tell you is that um when my oldest daughter Carmen uh was taking uh the bus.

She had memorized, you know, that um thing that that comes out, you know, and the loudspeaker about making um space available in the front for disabled people in Chinese and Tagalog and Spanish, because that's how they say it.

She had like memorized that all.

But it occurs to me that we don't have that for strollers, and I have never seen anyone give any kind of attitude for someone in a wheelchair coming in and um, you know, lifting up the bench and strapping themselves in.

But I have often seen attitude towards people with stroller, like quite a bit, you know, uh when moms come get on the munee, you know, with a stroller, even the small foldable ones, you know, and they like it's a crowded bus or a crowded train and they make their way in.

There's really no obvious place to like strap a stroller.

So that usually, you know, they'll sit in the front with, and I I've seen people give attitude all the time.

So I, you know, I was wondering like in terms of because you said um, you know, that there was policy, um, you know, and that we you tell people uh where is that policy?

How is it disseminated?

Would it be helpful to have signs or you know, just make it more friendly because you know, if it's validated officially, this is where you're supposed to be.

I think people feel a little more confident, you know.

Uh, and I've also I I mean I've seen it so many times, you know, that I I just feel like to I thank you, Supervisor Sauter for like putting in a name and having hearing about it, but I think we could be helpful to people and feel welcome.

Thank you.

Yeah, we can uh incorporate that feedback into the kind of uh stroller education that that we want to be doing.

And what I'm hearing is that it's almost more important to let the other folks on the on the bus know what the expectations are and where the stroller space is, so that they are um uh yielding though that that space to the folks that need it.

Yes, and you know, like you know best where strollers should go, where where you want them to go.

If there's a a space on the bus that's more, we we have a special seat in the uh right at the the middle door on our 60 foot buses and the back door on our 40 foot buses that flips up specifically so you can tuck a stroller um into it, and that is where we want to educate both our families and and others on the bus to know that's the best place to um park a stroller.

Yeah, that'd be great.

It'd be great to have like signs or just stickers or somewhere, you know, where people would know that that's how it is.

Um, and the other thing I was gonna ask you is um, you know, there is a like a rogue bench project.

I've seen many of those, you know, uh particularly on Mission Street and some in my district too.

Um, and you know, I'm all about that.

I think it's great, you know.

But I don't know that the city family is uh, and so I was wondering how how you feel about that and if there's any um room for partnership and making it legit.

I I think I'm taking um my lead on that from Carla Short, our public works director, but I know she is um kind of working through both uh how we kind of embrace that positive investment, but also make sure that we have maintenance and safety and everything that goes along with that.

So we'd I'd be happy to follow up.

But yeah, it's uh yeah, because when you have a little one and somebody in a stroller and they're crying, and you know what I mean, you're carrying a diaper back, that's heavy.

I mean, it's like having a welcoming place while you're waiting for the bus is always a good thing.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Chair.

I think we'll have Bart back up to continue some questions with Bart.

Um, and I think one thing that this is universal to all the agencies here today, but you know, something I have noticed uh is the jurisdiction around our stations, it can be quite confusing and kind of I don't know how we solve this or who takes the lead, but I do think there needs to be more clarity and ownership of our stations.

Um to Supervisor Mutt Mood's question on holiday plaza.

You know, I walked that station a number of months ago with uh with BART and with folks from you know MTA, Union Square Lines, so on and so forth.

And it was it felt like almost every single turn, every little nook and cranny.

Um it was, you know, oh, this is their jurisdiction, this is ours.

That that changes over here, and you can see with that how a big station like that becomes uh a bit disjointed.

And you see how that contributes to some of the problems we're seeing at that station in particular.

Uh, you know, as you go under the underpasses, you go to the west side of that station, you see the conditions really degrade.

And um, you know, the the work for the ramp elevator is is really important, but also just the general presence and public space, particularly on that west side.

I think we need uh a lot more coordination from the different agencies on that station.

Um I do want to first uh start by just referencing um beyond the presentation that you provided, there's a really helpful memo that you provided with details, uh four to five pages answers to our questions, and you know, you go in really good detail about some of the upcoming elevator repairs and um some of the accessibility um accessibility efforts of the agency.

Um so that's a good read for anyone interested in learning more.

I also want to first uh begin by commending your elevator attendant program.

Um it's something you know that I uh have really um when I know that I'm going to an elevator with an attendant, I I kind of have a little bit more comfort.

Um the staff there, the attendants there have been fantastic, they've been helpful, uh warm and hospitable.

So thank you for that.

I do think between that and uh even the the new gates that have been put in, it's a really good sign of when we make investments in the stations, good things happen.

Um we're seeing uh everything from rider satisfaction up to vandalism down.

You presented that well in your uh in your presentation.

Um, and so I guess I would just say like, where can we go further with that?

Where can we go further with those uh station investments?

You know, is it is it the bringing some of the restrooms back that are still offline?

Is it uh more of the benches?

Um, you know, those are the the things I start to wonder.

Um I do so uh to get to one one question in particular.

Uh I know in the response you you reference most BART stations do have elevators uh, with exception in San Francisco, no uh restrooms at civic center, no restrooms at 16th, no restrooms at 24th.

Uh are those I know that's extremely costly and challenging.

Are there any plans actually percolating for those stations, or is that something that is just many years away and it's not top of mind right now?

You know, I I think it's a little bit of both, uh supervisor.

Let me go back to your first point because I I have a slightly, you know, and maybe it's just the we're talking past not past each other, but you know, at Powell Street or any big station like that, yeah, there's gonna be different jurisdictions.

Um, and maybe Julie and I or Director Kirschbaum and I need to tighten that up a little bit.

It's either you know, SFMTA or BART.

But at the end of the day, Supervisor, it's the right the riders really are not interested in whether it's SFMTA or BART.

They want good customer service, they want a seamless experience through there.

And so I I when you were saying that to me, I'm like, well, I really don't want a bunch of people saying this little thing is director Kirschbaum's this little thing.

I mean, there needs to be some joint ownership and with the goal to improve the rider experience, not me to point the finger at at director Kirschbaum or her to point, oh, it's Bart's, you'll let powers deal with it.

Um, but anyway, that when you were saying that, I'm like, uh, we could do better than whose responsibility it is anyway.

Um, but uh as far as the uh we always look for opportunities at Bart.

Every decision I make right now is about improving the customer experience, and that's what you're talking about, improving the customer experience, whether it's elevator attendance.

You know, today at 1 30, there were 200 people that had taken the elevator at civic.

How do I know that?

Because I asked the elevator attendant when I came here.

How many people she it was a lady who was she pulled it up on her iPad?

We have a what was it, 193 or 197 people that took use that elevator um this morning.

And I'm like, well, see, we have that data, and it's really however people liking it?

They like it at three o'clock, it's gonna get a lot more busy.

And and so we are looking for those opportunities to improve the customer experience.

And you're right, we have a couple of stations where there are restrooms, but they're closed, and we're looking at and director director Lee behind me is one of the champions at BARP on getting grant funding and um reopening.

We're reopening the underground restrooms there, and you know, when we do that, we try to look for opportunities to have restroom attendance there, perhaps partner with labor SCIU with um attendance there moving forward, and so we look for those opportunities.

And there is, you know, at Civic, there is the top side, there is the dedicated um uh pit stop that's up there.

Um that's uh um, you know, something for the riders, the public transit riders, but we look for opportunities, but you're right, expensive to to upgrade a restroom to all the the requirements, and just a very kind of in the weeds feedback.

Um, you know, the uh I think for for all agencies, and I know MTC will play a big role in this, but I think beyond just the wayfinding outside the stations, there's a really big opportunity inside elevators.

Uh, every single elevator I've ever been on, it it the buttons, the labels are different, and it sounds really silly, but like once you're in there and you see the three and you see a C and a P and a Q, it's like totally what any of these mean because they're not standardized across any of the stations.

Uh and you later on, you know, some stations have little labels where it's translated into another language.

Chinatown Rose Pack does a good job of that with the Muni station, but every single elevator is uh the buttons are different, and uh it just seems like such a small thing that if we go out and we could fix and almost I'm almost tempted to have a label maker and a printer, but um that's just one of those things that like we have to fix something like that.

And um, and then yesterday uh as I was making my way to uh Supervisor Melgar's district to West Portal, um the elevator at fourth and and uh market was out, which is you know it usually is not out, so that's it happens every once in a while, but the sign that was on there didn't direct me to where the nearest elevator was, you know, just a small thing.

If an elevator is out, yeah, you know, where's the next closest elevator, right?

Let's put that on there.

Um so uh just a few specific bits of feedback, but I want to invite my colleagues for any more questions.

Appreciate those comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

So I will start.

I have to start with a difficult one, which is at the plazas at 16th and 24th.

Yeah.

Which are not my district, but I'm the you know, uh first Latina member on the board of supervisor.

I spend a lot of time in the mission uh with my kids because we have a lot of cultural activities at the 24th Street Station is the entrance to the Calle 24 cultural district, it's really important for sort of the commercial corridor, and as you know, it is a hot mess and has been for a while.

Um, and uh I've seen the pop-ups, you know, both that 16th and 24th, and they are successful.

Yeah, once a month.

And the rest of the days, it's a hot mess.

And so I um we have tried uh with um police with the tower that was there for a while, with barriers.

Nothing has worked.

And I'm wondering what is the problem with a permanent collaboration.

So I, you know, I have family.

I'm you know, diaspora person.

I I I my family is from El Salvador.

We left during the war, so I have family all over the world, which has given me the opportunity to look at a lot of transit systems around the world.

And um, in most places in big cities, uh, there are commercial activities on the ground floor, inside the stations, but also outside the stations, like you know, little booths where you can buy magazines, where you can buy bulb out, where you can buy whatever, uh, which seems like could be easily done at the BART plazas, you know, with minimal investment.

Um, how come we haven't done that?

What what's the reluctance to do that kind of planning together?

Well, I don't I don't um I I would agree with you up to the word reluctance, um, so I'm gonna push back ever so gently on that word.

Um, I think there is an appetite for that right now.

Discussions are going on right now with OEWD and DP SFDPW.

Um, and uh looking for opportunities to increase that cadence.

I you're right, it's once a month and on Sun Saturdays, and I was with the lady that runs OED not too long ago, and they're complete success.

And so there's, you know, some draft language going around to that energizes that process a little bit and um increases the number of those activizations.

But there's you know, that's on one side, supervisor.

On the other side, we have to be make sure that we're not um that we're you use the term hot mess, right?

Um your first, you know.

There's there are challenges out there.

So as we activate these, we also have to look at um, you know, the public safety element of it, the OM, the operation and maintenance costs of that, the picking it up and all of that.

And so there are discussions going on right now.

There's there's draft, not an MOU, but draft language going back and forth um between the city of San Francisco and BART about opportunities there.

So I would just say it's not reluctance.

Uh and I think there's some energy right now to to move that forward.

Is it gonna be every day?

Probably not.

Um, that's specifically what I'm asking.

So I don't uh, you know, forgive me for being skeptical.

I don't think just increasing uh the frequency of the pop-ups, having them, you know, twice a month or even four times a month is gonna fix it.

Because I I've seen it, you know, like I've I've actually been there on the day the mayor, Mayor Lurie has been out there, you know, trying to get people to move on.

And 20 minutes later, it was full again.

So I think unless we do something permanent and physical, um, I think this issue is gonna keep recurring.

And it is an issue uh for the commercial corridor, it's an issue for BART, because people are feel it as a safety thing.

It's an issue for Muni too, because at both plazas there are um, you know, Muni stops for some of the highest ridership lines that we have the 14 and the 20 and the 49.

Right.

Um, and people can't get through.

You know, they cannot, if you have a stroller or you're in a wheelchair, physically it's impossible to get through.

Not to mention that it doesn't feel safe if you're with your kids.

And so uh, you know, so I'm asking you, you know, so if if if the it's an MOU with OEWD to increase the pop-ups, that's one thing, you know, sure.

But is there uh openness to uh working together to create a more permanent physical solution to try to, you know, meet more than one goal?

So I think that we can have a goal to address the you know, sort of um lack of safety or the illegal activity, and also provide economic opportunities for small entrepreneurs and you know uh amenities for the public.

I think we can do all at the same time.

I'm not gonna disagree with you, and I would point you I'm with you.

I'm uh you we're talking the same, you know, we we can get there, but that solution that you're articulating has got to be comprehensive, right?

What you know, permanent what whatever it is, it's gotta come with the safety and security, it's gotta come with the OM, it's gotta come with the lighting, it's got you know, it's gotta all it's gotta be a comprehensive solution set.

It's just not you know, um, and I think that's where the discussions are right now.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so I had um a question about the escalator at uh Civic Center, that's your district.

But it's been, you know, they fix one side and now we're fixing the other say side.

It's been three years.

So I'm wondering they take, yeah, for sure.

That's part of the escalator program that we've been, you know, very transparent on with the with the city of San Francisco, and um they do take a long time.

You were asking they do.

So my question is actually about the other escalators, because uh, you know, I would think that while there's this transition until that escalator is fixed, um, we can perhaps look at the the patterns, you know, folks are going up the escalator in the morning usually and then down the escalator in the evening, but there doesn't seem to be that coordination with the escalators.

The other escalators are our working in terms of you know, there seems to be going in the same direction all day long, no matter what.

Uh let me look at that.

That's not the case.

I mean, I'm not gonna disagree with you on that, but we have the skill set, they're bi-directional escalators.

I mean, we do it all the time.

So, you know, AMP, you know, I need one going up and one going down, but you know, AM coming inbound, they should be going down in the same thing on the outbound.

We have the skill set um to flip those, and so it just takes a while.

You got to shut it at the top, you gotta go switch it, and then you got to pull the stanchion off.

But we do that all the time.

So let me look at that.

Okay.

So I had just one comment and then one compliment.

Okay, I'll take the comments.

So the the comment is that you know um San Francisco's a very diverse place, and neighborhoods are very different.

You know, the the stations downtown get used in a very different way than the stations, you know, out um in the neighborhood.

So Glenn Park and Balboa Park, and then you know, Daily City, even though it's not in San Francisco, it does serve San Francisco, um, you know, they are um much more used by families and the you know, population that uh supervisor Sauter is wanting to address today, uh, a lot more kids, a lot more seniors, a lot of people with strollers.

So I'm wondering if we could think about you know, sort of those issues around wayfinding, signage, payment, you know, in those stations, and just like the directions of where people should go and how they go, because I think that they are used by families and people with kids and strollers a lot more uh in that respect.

And then um what I was gonna say uh in terms of uh compliment is that I've said this to uh director Lee.

Uh aside from Lighty, which I think you're right, um, absolutely very important.

It's sound.

So I noticed when um at the Civic Center Plaza, all of a sudden, the you know, uh the the sound system, there was uh classical music being played, and it made a huge difference in how it felt and like how people behaved in the station.

And I was gonna say thank you.

It's been a great change, and I would encourage that more.

Appreciate the comments and thank you for the uh, you know.

We'll we'll go out there, Julie and I, or Director Kirschmaum Goya.

We'll we'll do both stations out on the in the south here.

Um, thank you again for the presentation.

Wanted to um bring it back to the issue of families and the transit component as well.

Um baby changing stations, uh, not a problem I have to deal with right now.

My colleague does, uh, but not yet.

Um you noted in one of your original posts that there's few baby changing stations exist due to vandalism.

Um and uh I wanted to understand better how many changing tables exist system wide right now.

Um and are you evaluating more vandalism resistant designs or how are you gonna address this?

I I don't have that data.

How many we have system wide, have no idea.

Um, but that doesn't mean I won't get back to you, so I just want to make sure that you know I'm not I'm not gonna make up a number.

So let me find out what the numbers.

I'll get Rod to send you a note on that on that.

But I think on the vandalism piece, there's a couple, you know, there's a couple of things that we should look at there.

And it's not just on the baby changing stations, uh supervisor, but when we have a restroom that's attended, it's a whole different ball game, right?

I mean, folks aren't going in there and it's not bad behavior, and it's you know, this it it stays cleaner longer and the maintenance is far less than when it's not attended.

And so those underground stations that we've opened up with restroom attendance, they've really resonated with our riders system-wide.

Not it's not um relegated to just um the city of San Francisco.

Many people come in, you know, from the surrounding area and coming in for an event or something like that, and they use those restrooms.

So when we go to look at improving, you know, the quality of that amenity for our riders, we're looking at um opportunities to increase the restroom attendance that are there.

Um, you know, making sure that when we reopen them that they're in the line of sight of the station agent and that the station agent can open those restrooms and keep an eye on that and that they're cleaned on a periodic basis.

And so um we try to look at all of that um to try to improve the amenities for the riders, and I will definitely get back to you on the number of the uh the baby changing stations throughout the system.

So just to be clear understanding what the solution is, you're saying you're going to what?

How do you improve it?

I think those here's the solution.

You know, where we do have those that are being vandalized, right?

We'll look at that data, when they're being vandalized, how often they're being vandalized, and maybe there's some data there.

There's some, you know, maybe they should be um, you know, we should have an extra presence in the system if it's, you know, on a f maybe they're being vandalized Friday, Saturday, Sunday night or something like that when ridership low, and you know, and so maybe I should have folks or the station agents, you know, take an extra special like, hey, what's going on there?

That's one thing too.

Um, you know, if there's opportunities to put baby changing stations in, let's look at those opportunities and let's look at some design supervisor that's you know, from a maintenance perspective, from a vandalism perspective, that's relatively, you know, immune to vandalism and low maintenance, right?

Um, and uh, you know, and then obviously a you know the best solution if we in a perfect world, I'd have elevator or restroom attendance there, right?

I mean, that's which I don't, I'm in a fiscal cliff right now, but you know and I know the best solution set there is to have a restroom attendant.

Okay.

Then a last question, um, again on the context uh of families with fares are charged usually per person.

Um have you that can be expensive for families if they're per person.

Um have you considered um maybe providing family discount programs?

Um, the airport.

So um I didn't mean to cut you off there.

It's a it's uh, you know, the whole again, we're talking about uh, you know, improving the customer experience, and whether it's a family program or somebody coming in and they just want a three-day pass powers.

Just give me a three-day pass.

I don't want I I want to ride transit wherever I want to ride, I just want to I don't want to use market.

And so all of those fair programs that you're talking about.

Um Ms.

Long, Rebecca Long from MTC is working.

We have thought through a lot of those, and as Clipper 2 comes online and matures, those fair programs that you're talking about and many, many others will start manifesting themselves.

Um and when C2 gets, you know, um low drama and it's up and running and it's you know it's reliable and stable, we're gonna start looking at those um fare programs that are there.

You just mentioned one at the airport.

There's many, many others, cumulator fares, right?

If you're taking, you know, why can't why don't we have that, right?

Well, the first thing let's get C2 up and running because that enables those products, and then we can go from there.

And so we we're thinking about that as a region right now for sure.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, uh, General Manager Powers.

And I think we'll have MTC up to round things out.

All right.

Um thank you for the presentation again.

And um first want to um on the on the clipper work, um, you know, I I was really happy to learn about the Clipper Youth Program, about the transfer pilot, and frankly, those are things I I knew very little about.

Um, so I would just um ask and encourage and uh you know that you keep getting that word out.

I think, especially in the climate right now where we've had some challenging headlines about uh a bumpy clipper rollout.

If we can um as we solve that, if we could also focus on some of the good things that this expanded Clipper program gets us, and that transfer pilot, um, you know, to have to really emphasize the the savings seven million dollar savings for transit riders for Bay Area residents um in this climate is really really important, and I think it'll bit build a lot of goodwill.

So I would just continue uh asking you to continue to get that word out.

Um I know a lot of your presentation was on wayfinding.

I think you're hearing from all of us up here today that inside the stations, around the stations, elevators, so on and so forth, we're all really passionate about improving wayfinding in our respective districts and and across the Bay Area.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the scope of this wayfinding project?

Is this truly kind of a test, or is there a plan to have this 100% converted at all the stations within two years?

I mean, where does this where does this go from here?

Yeah, I'll start and then maybe uh I'll invite my colleague Gordon to come up.

The the plan very much is to implement it region wide, right?

But that is gonna be, you know, a significant expense.

So there it is very much a phased effort.

And so this next two years is on the pilots, which were in I think eight of the nine counties, where you're doing sort of full deployment at those locations.

And then, you know, with each step of the way, right, we're learning more, and then we'll be ready to, you know, basically secure a lot of additional funding.

Um, of course, agencies, Muni, BART, others have wayfinding budgets already, but this is gonna be a pretty significant expense.

Um, and so identifying the funding, you know, to really deploy it everywhere will be the next phase.

I understand we are soon to um have a contractor under contract um to begin the deployment of the pilots.

Um we don't have that you know signed yet, but the plan is to implement those pilots in the next two years and then begin the full launch after that.

And how far does this go?

I mean, is this is this just the major rail stations, or are we talking about you know, on every single uh bus stop in you know, how far does this go?

Yeah, yeah, thank you so much.

Uh, by the way, I'm I'm Gordon Hanson, project manager for mapping and wide finding.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak.

So um a couple of things to say.

Yeah, what's the scope?

The scope is every transit location in the Bay Area.

So, what does that mean?

It means over 200 hub stations, including BART, MUNI hubs, Caltrain, VTA, et cetera, and over 21,000 bus stops, including Muni bus stops.

But the question, of course, that uh Rebecca is is getting at, and that I think that is really important to consider is the time frame in which it takes to do that.

Um, that is a massive undertaking, funding aside.

It's a lot of coordination and it's a lot of planning, mobilizing of resources and capacities across 27 agencies who have very different and differing capacities and service areas.

So I think what I want to what I want to pull something together that I heard from some of your questions to the other uh transit operators and and the directors.

Um and that was really a question around um, I think Super Professor you brought some questions up about um Balboa Park and specific wayfinding questions.

Um, the purpose of our project right now is to the primary goal is to produce a set of regional wayfinding standards.

So at the end of the day, it's for a document, right?

But it's more than that.

It's a set of uh specifications for designs of specific sign types and critically implementation guidance for the variety of agencies to be able to deploy at the variety of locations.

So questions uh there are obviously things that can be done in the short term, such as providing a new sign that says this is an accessible ramp, or this is this elevator's out of service, there's room for improvement, that we can work with the agency partners here to help develop.

Um, but at the end of the day, our goal is to provide that implementation guidance that says, here is a type of facility, here is how you can phase and here's how you can design a better set of wayfinding to meet the needs of that particular facility, including um better signage within the elevators.

So I think you'll be happy to note that we have this at El Cerrito del Norte now, our prototype, and are actively planning for this at Powell and Milbray and our other pilot locations to have tactile signs within the elevators that say P equals platform, red line to Milbrae, yellow line to Antioch, et cetera, right?

Um, and that is low hanging fruit implementing across the region is not low-hanging fruit, but getting the design right is is critical in the short term.

And that's what we'll be doing at Powell and other locations.

So it's a very long answer to your question.

That's very helpful.

Thank you.

Uh any of my other colleagues have questions for MDC?

Yes, Chair Melgar.

Thank you.

I do have uh some follow-up questions for you, Mr.

Hansen.

Just the on that point.

Okay.

So I feel like, you know, the question, I mean, I'm super excited about wayfinding.

Um, you know, we're gonna provide a set of standards, but we're also, you know, if the regional sales tax measure goes through, part of that is supposed to be to fund those things.

And so there's also like the added, you know, if you do this, you know, we're gonna have money available for the transit operators, hopefully, right?

Uh, and with that, I just I'm still not convinced from your presentation or for the answers to the questions that the design principles that you're using address this population specifically.

So, you know, there is uh, you know, principle of universal design that if you design something accessible to people who are disabled, then you make it accessible to everyone else.

And you know, that's the principle of adding curb ramps that work for strollers or whatever.

But it does occur to me that it's like a little bit different, right?

So if you're in a um wheelchair, part of the issue is physically being able to get in.

But if you're uh a dad or a mom with a stroller, it's like you it's like a separate person that you're pushing around who is usually crying or you know, like on trying to deal with their environment that's vulnerable that you're you know, and who also, you know, maybe on some operators has to pay a separate fare.

You know, so there's like and then you have to decide, you know, what is the the easiest way to go, you know, that provides the least amount of you know uh input or you know, whatever, all these things, right?

So I what the question is is the design principles that you are thinking about implementing gonna respond to this population specifically?

I mean, I like the colors, I like, you know, the clarity.

I'm not sure that that's exactly it.

You know, I mean, if you're a single person and you're trying to get to a party and you're looking at the colors and where to transfer, it's a different thing than if you're a parent with somebody on the stroller who has to take the elevator, has to deal with, you know, the diaper bag, but you know, and and also figure out where to go.

So my so as you are designing these things, do you have like a focus group of parents?

Do you have, you know, like the those principles that you're implementing at every station?

Are you looking at the concentration of you know, families of young children around the stations that you are looking to put are in their schools within what like all of those things?

I'm wondering if that's what you're talking about.

Yeah, no, thank you.

Thank you so much.

I hear the I hear the passion and the deep interest.

Um I think do we have a focus group specifically for families?

We do not.

We have an accessibility working group that helps to get at some of these issues around, you know, universal design.

Um we have done extensive uh outreach to a variety of different communities, including um again, outreach specifically to uh Spanish and Chinese speakers.

I'm not getting at exactly what you're asking.

I realize that.

Um, what I want, what I heard a lot of in what you were saying is the notion of cognitive load, right?

And the idea that people who are pushing around children or have children and children are melting down.

Well, the children have very little cognitive load at that moment, right?

Um, or very high.

Um, but parents just don't have the patience or capacity.

Um there are other folks who don't have as much capacity, right?

There are folks with um intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Um there are people who are focused on can I take the stairs today, right?

Um, and we do have representation from uh on our accessibility working group.

Um we have uh someone who uh themselves has discle dyslexia and their child is uh severely developmentally disabled.

Um she participates regularly in our um approximately quarterly accessibility working group meetings.

Um it's a project team level, it's not a brown act meeting, but it it actually gets the inputs of people with a variety of disabilities straight to the table with the project team.

In fact, as I'm sitting here listening to our presentation today, I'm working on a set of uh questions for their input at our meeting on Wednesday, and they have the ability to provide feedback on specific policy and design choices that we make.

All of that said, cognitive load reducing that for anyone, whether it's parents or others, um, is a major focus for us.

We want to make sure that we're providing the right amount of information for every decision point.

So for each of our pilot sites, we are doing an extensive analysis that says where are the key decision points, what are those options, and how do we simplify that message as much as possible?

Bright colors is one way to do it, but it's not the only way.

One way to do it is to reduce the amount of text on the sign, right?

Reducing the amount of text is reducing the amount of translation.

Not just translation for different languages, but translation for folks who have difficulty understanding uh language in different forms.

Um so we use symbols as much as possible.

We have a specific symbol that indicates where there's an accessible ramp, for example.

Um and we've used that on maps uh that we've already deployed.

Um so I think we'll continue to engage with uh members of the community of a variety of different backgrounds, abilities, and family situations.

Um Powell was one of our primary pilot locations, and we do expect to do an evaluation effort as we look to implement.

Um I think that I think you raise a really good point that as we look to uh engage folks uh that we should make sure that we're engaging with uh families um as well to uh provide us that feedback.

Yeah, thank you so much.

That's all I needed is let's involve parents also in uh the design uh, you know, pilots.

Um the um question I had for you, Ms.

Long, is does Clipper 2 act allow for like a you know, an encounter card to be used for like four people if you're taking a trip on BART or the ferry or so, yeah.

It works.

You eventually it's like, will it allow that one right?

Yeah, great question.

Um, and I did talk to the team about this.

It is going to be something, I think we're calling it a flash pass.

Um it is gonna be something that a number of operators, primarily those who have the same fare, like a bus operators will do, um, just because I think that the notion is it's much easier to figure that out if your trip is not distance-based, like your fare is not distance-based.

So it will be possible again on Muni and other bus systems eventually.

Right now, my understanding is there isn't a roadmap for how to do it on BART or Caltrain or these distance-based fair programs.

Yeah, I was interested specifically on Muni because you know, San Francisco's number one, you know, uh industry is tourism and hospitality.

We do get an awful lot of families who come from other places and you know are not gonna, you know, purchase the monthly path or whatever, you know, but they certainly want to have the three day or whatever.

Um, and so it would be really great.

But is that then up to the operator?

You know, it's gonna be something as as uh Director Powers talked about, right?

The regional network management council and the committee are heavily involved in all of the decisions, plus the Clipper Executive Board as we launch new functionality through Clipper.

So there will be, as you said, once we get through some of the hiccups with the launch, I think we'll be talking about what's next.

But it's not possible right now.

Not right now.

How did Caltrain do it for the World Cup?

Um good question.

They did it.

I don't know the answer to that.

They might have used a different app, um, token transit is something that I know uh VTA used a lot.

So okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Ashley, I have it on a question.

I was um it's related to youth clipper.

So if uh visitors do not have a clipper and they just they you know adults you can use just credit card to pay, and how is how is youth and uh being recognized as a you've passed, like how do they currently if an adult on all a youth is holding an adult's credit card to pay for a fair?

Okay, yeah, so I mean within San Francisco on Muni, my understanding is anyone who is clearly, you know, under 18 can just walk on through, right?

Um so they'll they're still free, whether they're a visitor or a resident.

Um, the contact list that the tap and ride is a single adult fare, basically.

So if you are um if you're just a visitor, you're over 18, um, and you're not getting a clipper card and you're just using your credit card, you're gonna pay the standard adult fare.

Okay, so if any family is visiting and is riding BART, then they have to buy separate fare because we adult can or we're not or the the youth is encouraged to pay what adult fairs or adult single fare.

Correct.

Right now for tourists, um, unless they want to, you know, open a clipper youth account, right?

If they were here for quite a while, um, then they would have to pay adult fare on BART.

And then there's no on-site clipper car purchase for youth.

Because I don't remember, I like bubble up our station, it's just so difficult with my very own lifted experiences to purchase a clipper car.

So, so that means for any family with children under age 18 and they're riding BART with in San Francisco, then they would either need to go to a station to purchase a clipper car, or they will need to pay an adult fare.

I'm gonna let uh director powers respond to the BART station question.

No, that's correct.

Supervisor, you're correct.

There's no we we don't have that functionality yet, but I would also, I mean, I think it's under four is riding free on BART if you're um uh a toddler in that.

But you're absolutely you're right.

There's no that functionality doesn't quite exist yet with tap and ride um and the the youth clipper card.

Um, you gotta, if you're gonna be here a long time, um, as Rebecca Long says, um, but um as C2 matures, we're looking at all of those functionalities.

And and the same thing is true also, and I'm not to break in the is the the senior discount, right?

The senior discount isn't available on tap and ride, right?

You you know, somebody takes BART and they're tap and ride and they're they don't get that senior.

So that as soon as we mature that system and we start rolling out these new functionalities, those elements will be there.

I did want to mention one thing that is available on tap and ride that um is not necessarily intuitive is the transfer discount does work on tap and ride.

So if you're a tourist and you're you know riding on Muni and riding on BART, you are gonna get that $2.85 discount.

Yeah, I and a San Francisco is trying to welcome more tourism back to our city.

I think this is definitely something that we can work together to improve.

And I think other places that I have uh visit and and they definitely have more options for tourism.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, well, thank you so much.

I think with that, uh Chair Melgar, I'd like to ask if we could go to public comment.

Land use and transportation will now hear public comment related to agenda item number four.

If you have public comment for this item, please line up to speak along that western wall that I'm indicating with my left hand.

And you can come forward to the lecturn if you're the first person.

Is my time starting?

I'll start it now.

Okay, thanks.

Good afternoon, Chair Melgar and committee members.

My name is Chrissa Cavoris, and I'm the director of communications for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

I'm also a proud SFUSD parent, and my main commute with my eight and four-year-old is a trustee cargo e-bike.

Thank you, Supervisor Souter for calling a hearing on this important issue.

At SF Bike, we know that a transit friendly city is a family-friendly city, and that is why we are vocally supporting the transportation measures in November.

For parents to continue to choose San Francisco as the best place to raise their kids, public transportation needs to serve families from birth through young adulthood, including relying on biking and rolling as first and last mile connections.

My eight-year-old will start biking to school independently in fourth grade.

They're very excited, and they already said they want to attend SOTA for high school to make independent multimodal trips like that possible.

Bikes need to be included in all Muni modes, including trains.

Already our safe routes to school travel tallies tell us that 55% of high schoolers are using Muni to get to school, and if they can take their bikes on every Muni line, we will see that number increase.

Family cargo bike ridership is skyrocketing.

And now we need better bike infrastructure to support that growth and connect to transit hubs and wayfinding that makes it clear how to get to and around and through the stations.

The city should focus their resources on building more protected bike infrastructure and better wayfinding along that existing bike network around all our regional transit hubs.

And the agencies should increase um bike lockers for cargo bikes which allows families to trip chain.

Finally bike share is public transit.

Bay wheels based on ridership would be our fourth largest transit agency in San Francisco.

So we need to expand bike share stations to close to schools so that parents like me can um use a baby's before and after pickup and drop off and we need to increase funding for bike share for all and expand outreach efforts for that program so that parents and caregivers know that they can include it in their transit options.

Thank you so much by expanding first and last mile transit for bikes you make it possible for families like me.

Let's have the next speaker please afternoon chair Melgarn committee my name is Christine I'm speaking here today on behalf of John He, Chair of Chinatown Transportation Research and Improvement Committee.

The statement below is how public transit is a vital part of supporting Chinatown seniors, youth and tourism furthermore Chinatown trip is very concerned in ensuring the dependable operation of elevators and escalators for seniors, families and others with mobility issues last week we hope that SFMTA can continue to increase the number of ambassadors to assist passengers in language at transit stations and bus stops thank you.

Thank you for your comments to the next speaker please hi good afternoon I need somebody translation for me please thank you.

So Mamma Vivanal Tenderloin Todo is la seguridad enfrentamos las familias mammas con carriolas perros amo butros arriba del autobusing that usan or la seguridad vomitando sabemos que some perros de service norma is del tenderlo so my name is Norma I'm a mom and I live in the tenderloin and I'm very happy to hear that you are taking up this issue.

My main issue is about security, especially for moms with strollers I am a person who loves dogs but I have observed a very big uptick of dogs inside buses.

It feels unsafe uh aside from the hygienic issues that sometimes these dogs are not very well taken care of there is lots of fear of their behavior sometimes we fear uh that dogs would be biting or they would be um behaving in ways that are not safe and so I want to know what uh Muni is doing about this issue.

And thank you.

I'm a resident of the tender line.

Thank you for the comments.

Thank you so much for the interpretation.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

And if we have anyone else after this speaker who has public comment for agenda item number four, please I don't have to speak along that western wall.

Hi, thank you, supervisors.

Uh my name is Brian Kwan.

I'm a resident of the outer Richmond and a father of a very rambunctious two-year-old whose favorite or second favorite word is bus after no.

I wanted to actually appreciate this hearing and all the transit operators that have actually made it very welcoming for my son.

Uh he's he really loves calling out the bus numbers as we see them pass by on the street.

And I I want to agree as a longtime transit user, I'm used to just following the crowds.

Uh and now that I have a stroller, I do have to actually think about what's the route that I need to now take with my stroller.

Do I need to find the elevator and where that's at?

And it's something I didn't have to think about until I became a parent.

Um the other little item that I've kind of noticed now that I have to bring my son around on a stroller at times, is there are still quite a few boarding island idea boarding islands missing where it does become a little difficult to get the stroller on and off of some of the buses.

Um those are kind of where I appreciate that we are starting to have these conversations around how families can better use these systems and what are the kind of perspectives that they have that normal transit riders may or may not have.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have anyone else who has public comment for agenda item number four?

Madam Chair.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, thank you to all of those who made public comment, and thank you to our um the different transit agencies that took time this afternoon to walk through this.

And you know, I think what you heard is that the core elements that matter to all transit riders matter, of course, to families too, safety, reliability, and speed, but there are some small factors which actually make a big difference for families.

Elevator and escalator access and reliability, wayfinding and signage, restroom availability, ease of understanding fares, and schedules and routes.

And it is my hope that the uh the agencies will consider all of us as partners.

I think you have a set of colleagues here who use and love public transit, want to be champions for public transit, and want to make sure it's more accessible for more in San Francisco, including uh our young families.

Um so I I think and I sense from our conversation today that there will be a willingness to work uh with one another.

And I love, you know, we're already digging into the details of particular stations, and and uh, you know, I think that is exactly the point of today's hearing is to get those commitments and to move forward to improving uh reliability, reproving improving the rider experience.

Um and again, I want to thank uh the members of this committee for uh giving me a few hours this afternoon to dig into this topic.

Thank you for your partnership and all of your great questions today.

Uh thank you, Supervisor Sauter.

Uh uh Mr.

Clerk reminded me that I failed to close public comment, so I'll do that now.

Public comment is now closed.

Uh Supervisor Sauter, what would you like us to do?

Do you want to file this hearing or continue it to the call?

I'd love if we could continue this to the call of the chair so we can continue conversation as needed in the future.

Okay, sounds good.

Uh so I would like to make a motion that we continue this item to the call of the chair.

On the motion to continue this hearing to the call of the chair.

Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I.

Member Machmwood.

Machmood I, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I.

Madam Chair, there are three ayes.

Thank you.

Um, do we have any other items on our agenda today, Mr.

Clerk?

There is no further business.

Okay, we're adjourned.