>> good afternoon. are you ready to go? i am the transportation director for san francisco. we have a little feedback.

a little high? back off a little bit? thank you all for coming out today. we're here to talk about the intersection of two things in san francisco at a very important. one is partnering and the other -- one is parking in the other is technology. parking is important in san francisco. there is a lot of competition for the public rights of way. parking is something that people in san francisco care about. it is something that we at the sfmta have to manage to make it work, to enable transit to flow in keeping with the city transit first policy. parking is important. to manage it, we create rules and regulations.

a lot of people may not like them, but it is what we need to do to make parking and transit work. the purpose of the rules and regulations are not to get people caught up in them, but to make transit work and make transportation work in san francisco. that leads us to technology. technology is important because it helps us to be able to do things more efficiently and effectively. most san franciscans like and have technology. we are bringing technology to where people are. most people have cell phones come smartphones. we are adopting our systems to work with what people have in their day-to-day lives. i am joined by a great group of people behind me. they will talk about an exciting

initiative we are launching today that will be one of the most significant things to hit parking in san francisco in generations. i am honored to have a man for whom this technology is not very important. that is our majoyor ed lee. the reason it is not important is because someone else has to worry about parking, it is because of something i learned about him a couple of months ago. it did not come out in the campaign or media. it turns out that ed lee has parking karma. he does not need it. but for the rest of us who do not have parking karma, we're here to talk about something that is really exciting for san francisco. without further ado, our mayor, ed lee. [applause] >> i never thought we would give the parking meters so much

attention in this city. i want to thank ed for his leadership at sfmta, the leadership of the board, supervisors got leaner -- scott wiener. this is a great launch for the pay by phone program we are announcing today. earlier this year, i have the privilege of announcing sf park. there was a great deal of interest. we rolled that out to the delight of many people who started using that application to lessen the congestion when they were looking for parking. we are starting today in our castor district to want the pay

by phone program that will allow you to use your smartphone and be able to pay a parking meter. then you have an electronic reminders sent to your cell phone while you are eating or shopping to remind you that the parking meter needs to be replenished so you do not suffer the consequences of a ticket. it is not to say we are decreasing revenue for muni, but ed and the board have decided these are conveniences' the public need to have to allow the traffic congestion to be lessened and make its smarter the way we do things. i get to announce with our

partner here today with the pay by phone application and suggest to the rest of the conference of mayors that we are an even cooler city. we are one of the first in the country to do this. we think it will work and will be very exciting. who would not want to have this at their fingers and prevent a parking ticket? we can also use technology and blended the right way. i am excited we're doing this. these are the updated meters we have been able to install on 18th and 19th. we will begin right here. we will roll it out to areas across the city including glen park, the sunset-richmond, downtown, and all the sf park

areas we have been announcing. we have to change out the old leaders quickly. we have to get the smart meter technology available. the application will be available today on these streets. you will be able to see it in action. it is exciting. it is one of the things i promised that we will be able to introduce the use of technology and make it easy and family for everybody. for our shoppers to come here during the holidays for the castro area, they will be able to see it and experiment with it right away. the pay by phone launch is here. it is a great and cool thing to use. we will be able to use its soon all over the city. thank you to our partners in the technology world for our pay by phone technology, to our board, and our supervisor for allowing

us to introduce it right here. we will see a lot of shopping and convenience, a lot of applications where there are no tickets. that can be prevented by doing this. thank you very much. [applause] >> the mayor mentioned the castro. part of managing parking is making it work for neighborhoods and commercial districts to keep the turnover moving, to make it convenient. if you are sitting in a restaurant or shopping, you do not have to run out. it is important to neighborhood businesses and residents. this neighborhood is lucky to be represented by supervisor wiener who has been a strong advocate for smart transportation policy. he also is one of our representatives on the metropolitan transportation commission. he is doing great things for san

francisco in terms of transportation. we're happy and grateful to him for hosting us today. supervisors go scott wiener. [applause] >> not for tall people. thank you. one of our goals in having smart parking policies is to make it as easy as possible for people to pay for the street parking. i think we have seen that when we make it easy for people to pay, the number of parking tickets goes down and revenue goes up. that is how it should be. people paying for parking and not being penalized and coming away with a terrible feeling. we're lucky in this area. this is one of the areas to get

credit card meters first. we're thrilled that the castro is the first neighborhood to get paid by phone. we are really doing innovative work that will be a model for other cities and counties in the area and across the country. i am thrilled that we're doing this. thank you very much. [applause] >> the voters in 1999 created the mta and established a board to create policies such as this. to put policies in place like sf park better groundbreaking, we now have new york city following our lead in terms of some of the technology we're doing. it is ground-breaking and bold step for the m -- stuff for the mta. that leadership is exemplified by the chairman of the board,

mr. tom nolan. >> thank you and good morning. the board has been looking for ways to be as creative as possible in using technology to assist our customers. we think the flexibility and convenience are really important. they are putting these stickers on their. it does not cost the mta anything for this program. that is really exciting for us. so many things cost money. as an occasional driver, and one feature on this is that when parking is about to expire, there is a five-minute notice. we send a text message. i think people will really appreciate that. this is another step forward by the sf mta. we look forward to seeing the results very soon, starting here. there will be 30,000 in san francisco eventually. now the largest city to do this

anywhere in the world. thank you. [applause] bu>> with leadership like a scene from the three gentlemen behind me, they have set a clear course and strong direction for us. there are a number of folks within the mta that will execute. i want to acknowledge a few of the folks at the mta that have gotten us to this point were driving the program forward. jay is the project manager for sf park. he has been a great leader setting the model. steven lee, lisa foster. george reynolds and the neter -- meters shop putting it todd monology -- putting the

technology on the street. i went to acknowledge all the great staff behind the effort. it is city staff partnering with the private sector. the mayor has been strong in pushing technology and partnership with the private sector. we have a great private-sector partner here who has done the work elsewhere in the country and the world. we're pleased to have them on board with us to put into place what will be the biggest planet worldwide in san francisco. here is the man behind the technology to pay by phone. >> we're very excited to be working with san francisco in implementing this proven and popular technology. despite the convenience and reminder text messages that unproven popular, the joy of the

system is that can be used on any phone and any network. we are breaking new ground. san francisco will be the first city in the u.s. to implement nfc-enabled parking. it will be the largest rollout anywhere in the world. that is very exciting. the pay by phone tag is embedded with a tag. any enabled phone can be swiped to activate the parking session. there are not that many phones on the market at the moment with the chips, but san francisco will be ahead of the curve in terms of the significant rollout throughout 2012. we will be able to benefit from

the technology and network effect of having these smart tags all over the city. while it is ground-breaking technology we are introducing, i would emphasize the service is available on any mobile phone. all you need to do is dial the toll-free number or download the app on to the smartphone. whatever method you use, the benefits are available. you can get reminder texts. you have the convenience of not carrying coins to pay for parking. you can top off time remotely. you can get e-mail receipts for your parking. it is exciting technology. thank you very much. we are excited to be helping san francisco making parking as good as it can get. thank you. [applause] >> i am going to try to show you

how it works in a second. i want to reemphasize the point that the mayor and supervisor wiener made. we regulate parking to make transportation work. we want compliance and not to catch people. we want people to obey the rules so we do not have to give them a ticket. despite people's thoughts to the contrary, i do not want people to think of mta as the people that gave and the parking ticket. i want them to think of us as the people that help them to get where they need to go. that is where this technology epitomizes that philosophy of the mta to make transportation work in san francisco. in this case, it is a fun and high-tech way. now i am going to try to show

you how it works. my first generation iphone is not as sophisticated as the new ones. you can do this with a regular cell phone. if you have a newer one, you just tap. you will have to trust me because you cannot see this. it launched the app already downloaded by tapping. it tells me where i am part, what time of day it is. then it prompts me for a duration in minutes. i will put in 200 minutes because it is not my credit card. [laughter]

i just put in five minutes. it will cost me 17 cents. this is to confirm and charge. i click the button and i am good to go. i will get a confirmation e-mail if i have set it up that way. it will go directly to my credit card that i have set up. it is completely secure for the credit card system, for those concerned about security and safety. i will give a text message of the reminding me the meter is about to expire. if i want to extend it, i can do it just as easily. that is all there is to it. you can be processed by calling the 800 number. it is simple technology that helps people to be compliant and helps to make sentences the transportation work. i think we have an ipad with a close-up of the app.

thank you for coming out today. there is a 45 cent fee. this does not go to the mta. is a transaction between whoever is using it and pay by phone. that is the cost for providing the service. initially, you get a couple of them free to try it out and see how it works. if you compare 45 cents to the time it would take you to run and fish for coins, i think it is 45 cents well spent. it is 45 cents as opposed to the cost of a parking ticket. that is an even better cost calculation. >> [unintelligible] >> it is a per transaction fee. as we deploy more in the city, it is possible the fee will go down in time. compared to the cost of a parking ticket, it is a pretty good deal.

>> [unintelligible] >> each time you transact, there is authorization against your credit card. there is a fee each time you transact. we're looking at ways to reduce that in the future. starting out, that fee will be there. in the 45 cent fee, it goes to paying the credit card processing fee. the balance is covering our costs. that is where our revenue comes from. >> [unintelligible] >> it depends on what credit card you are using. it varies depending on corporate credit cards and charges. the fee can range from 25 cents

to 35 cents. you will not see it on the meter. you do not need to worry about the fact the meeting does not get updated. when they come around with the hand-held, they can tell it has been paid for. >> will it make it more confusing for them? if they're looking at expired meters? >> on the application when they do a look up, they can enter 1 location number. it will bring up all of the locations on the street. they can just walk down the street and see the locations with the information. >> [unintelligible] >> the parking contro