. the first regards curb access for taxicabs within bicycle lanes. we recommend that curb access within the bicycle lanes be allowed for vehicles in order to load and unload disabled and mobility-impaired passengers. there are times when the only way that a taxi can load a disabled or mobility-impaired passenger -- keeping in mind that some of those people have disabilities which are not visible disabilities -- is by pulling into a bike lane and loading them from the curb. we encourage the agency to continue exploring ways to safely separate modes of transit. we understand this is not an easy question. we understand that the agency has to balance a lot of interests with this. we are always reminded there's

only so much right of way in the city. we also urge that the agency develop procedures to prevent abuse of this policy. this is something we think should be done specifically for mobility impaired and disabled taxi passengers, not necessarily for everybody. how you draw the line between the two groups -- that is a little trickier, and we think that is something the agency should look at and have a discussion about. we also recommend -- you are considering a proposal to issue -- to exercise the agency's no authority to issue bonds, and we recommend that the sfmta proceed with the plan that was presented by staff at our september 1 meeting, to exercise the agency's authority to issue bonds, retire existing debt, and

use the remainder to rebuild, replace, and repair existing agency capital assets. that state of good repair stuff is very important. we are certainly cautious about this. we do not want to see the entire operating budget consumed with bond servicing, but we think this is a reasonable proposal. we recommend such an approach to bond debt not be used for the purpose of funding construction or acquisition of assets related to subway. we think that project needs to find its funding from some source other than this, and we do not want this to become a backstop for that. we also request that the final list of projects that would be funded by this first trod of bonds in presented to the cac for review before the agency commits to that list. i want to extend our thanks to

sonali bose for spending a lot of time with the finance and administration committee and with the cac answering our questions on this and staying quite late the night we considered this. it is always a pleasure for us as well. there are a couple of items on your agenda which we did not have new recommendations for, but i wanted to call the board's attention to previous recommendations on or work that we're doing. item 11 before you today regards the service standards report. we will be in the very near future taking a look at our service standards and asking those important questions of whether we are measuring the right things. are we measuring the things that really matter?

are we capturing outcomes -- the outcomes we want? so we will be looking at that as well as reviewing the outcome of the specific service standards report for the end of the year. on item 13 on all-door boarding. while we do not have a new recommendation on this, it has been a longstanding and repeated recommendation of the cac that the agency seriously look at all-or boarding, and there are all kinds of advantages to this. not the least of which is speeding boarding and greeting presence on the bus system that is not there now. so that everyone will get accustomed to having checked for their fares by and that haposite evasion.

there are all kinds of ways we win by doing this. i was pleased by my reading of the presentation you are about to hear the discussion is one of rolling out this all at once. one of the concerns we have had with implementation is if we do it in part of the system and we have the old system in part of the system, that creates a lot of passenger condition. right now we have passenger confusion stemming from having one system on metro and one system owneon buses prohibiting- door boarding. we differentiate between rail and bus modes. for a lot of people, they don't. it is all muni. it is very confusing to people.

we hope that if we go forward with the all-door boarding, we do this in a system wide rollout so that everybody in san francisco can understand what is going on, what is expected. we do not have on this land there is all-or boarding but on this one you're not supposed to go in the back door. that is not a good strategy. those are the recommendations. we have last uncertainly least. i want to note to the board that i was elected to a 10th term as chair. and my colleague has been reelected as vice chair. you are stuck with us and with him for another year. thank you very much. that concludes my report. if you have questions i would be

happy to answer them. >> congratulations on your successful reelection campaign. >> there was a sign and a song and everything. we have not implemented that yet. we are working on the software. >> thanks for your always thoughtful comments to the commissioner. -- to the commission. >> i am glad to hear you are looking into our service standards and how we're measuring that and responding to earlier questions. because we're going to discuss this later and you may be gone, i do not know if you will stick around. i wanted to let you know that there were some who were looking at dress -- director risk. right now we're measuring a sampling. should we be looking at specified heavily used roads all the time and should we be

measuring how long the ride is as opposed to meeting as scheduled thing? those are too few things we focused on. if we are going to look at how we measure this, we will need heavy input from you. that is something we want to revisit sooner rather than later. that is direction to the cac. my other comment is a question. i have heard ed's name pronounced for different ways. how would you like this to pronounce your last name? >> "riskin", no "e" in there. >> he was clearly "riskin" things. >> just first of all, thank you to director heinicke. i was hoping to get it from

context. on the question of service standards, i wanted to respond to the chair. there are a couple of recommendations we have made that touch on what you're talking about. one of the recommendations we made is we focus on when lines run every 10 minutes or less, that we focus on headway in herons -- adherence. if your bus comes every half- hour on the 12 in the 42, it is after the hour, you care a lot about schedule adherence. i don't look at the timetables, i look at the next bus to see how soon it is coming. and -- >> have you drawn the line at 10

minutes? >> that is a recommendation the cac made a number of years ago and we will be looking at that again. as part of this. >> i am sorry, but could you refresh us, have been specific recommendations regarding service standards and how we might want to change calculating them? >> we have made a number of recommendations on that front. i do not want to try to recall them from memory. i am likely to get stuff wrong and people will get mad at me and there will not be an 11th term. >> fair enough. >> we can for that to you. >> we have what we need. given that you are discussing it, i am happy. >> we have a committee meeting coming up on that as well. >> thank you.

>> thank you. >> you have a member of the public that wishes to address the board on members that were addressed. -- items that were addressed. not on today's calendar. >> could afternoon. -- good afternoon. mark gruber with united taxicab workers. i wanted to comment on the cac's recommendation to allow cameras into access into bike lanes to drop off patrons who maybe disabled. if you try to make a distinction between disabled passengers and ones who need access to the bike lanes and other passengers, you

are getting into an ambiguous area. it is going to be difficult for drivers to know when they can or cannot use that lane. it will be difficult for enforcement. i would only suggest that perhaps a study be done to determine how many drops there are by taxis on a given street. let's take market street between eighth street and ninth street. on a given day. is it 10, is a 100, visit 1000? i know isit is not 1000. these numbers do not indicate there will not be a significant problem. the best and simplest thing would to be to allow taxis to drop off their passengers which would also be a safety factor for those passengers. thank you. >> thank you.

>> if i could have a moment, i would like to take it. mark gruber has talked at length about that. there is no discrimination. whether it is black, white, handicap, not handicapped. we brought people off and if they want to be safely dropped off, the cab driver will parpull over to the curb and recommend they go to the bright side of the camp facing forward. safety paramounts black, white, crippled, non-kabul. there should be no distinction. they should do it in a safe manner and that would be by the curb. unfortunately, the customer thinks we can stop where they want. the cabdriver has control over

the vehicle and should put it not necessarily where the customer wants it. that may be a conflict of the role. in order to pull over safely, and as close to that person's destination, sometimes they say, "i want out here right now." that could be the interest of customer service. we're talking about standards, the reason i started my survey, there was no baseline to judge from. that was before an unprecedented number of cabs work at it in 1988, 1999, and 2000. during that time my study started in 1998. that was before the calves were added, by the way. before 9/11, before the last recession. you can see the standards. you can see the baseline and you can see what someone from london thinks of san francisco

campus and what someone from the sun set for -- thinks of san francisco cabs. there was no standard. there was no baseline. another reason was dispatched. >> next speaker, please. >> there is no more for a citizens' advisory council report. we will move on to public. >> i missed the topic but i wanted to reinforce what was being said. what is the definition of a taxi? we take people from a specific destination to another destination. i have had some discussions with joyce coolahahoulihan. i thought they could drop someone off. to drop them off in front of their definition, that is the

definition of taxi. we were not going to drop in front of the destination. so the thing is in supporting web taxis do, it would be important that you give the drivers leeway. not to sit there. i hope we can get this issue resolved as soon as possible. thank you. >> moving on to public comment. these are matters that are considered to me within the jurisdiction of the board of directors but not on today's agenda. >> good afternoon. congratulations on your new position. i took time for my shift today to stop here and i simply want to voice my support for the idea

of the taxi industry. i think it would be better served if we had our own division within the mta. i would also like to support chris hiashi being the director of the division. i personally saw last week town cars that were illegally trying to pursue taxi fares being ticketed by two officers, which was pleasing to see. i would like to see more of that on a friday and saturday night. i think chris spearheaded that idea. the idea of the taxi industry having its own di i think would streamline the process, would make it easier for all of you to get information,

especially you, director. you could get it directly from and she would -- she has to go through channels and speak to someone before she speaks to you. maybe that would make it easier. it would be a better process for all. thank you. >> thank you. >> our next speakers. >> good afternoon again. i want to welcome you as director of muni. i have confidence you will take the action on these items. we have to get them out of the city. portland has done a, europe has done a, there's no reason why we cannot. traffic cops, we need them. the drivers need them.

we don't have move back signs and i keep shoultinshutting it o the rear. europe this kyrgyz karzai and cities. get rid of friday night critical mass. speak to the drivers and the activists. it will help you. market street should have no cars on van ness to the embarcadero. merchants cannot complain because there's no parking there. get that done, that is so important. it is frustrating every day i ride. every -- meters are out of order. we have to take care of this. there is no discipline and no supervision. that is what is needed to get this many back on track, so to speak. again, best of luck and i hope i

can help you on many more things. please call me. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i came with both the problem maybe you can address and also a suggestion you definitely can address. it seems a lot of the municipal lobbyists scrap -- screwed up. there is a bill that would make it more restrictive to use red light cameras. it is too late to get it on the policy and government's agenda. i am always suggesting of any of you think you know anybody who has the governor's ear to veto it. it will require more signage. it will be more costly. the only arguments are red light cameras are used to raise revenue. nobody accepts -- except san

francisco has done a study of collisions for severity. this may be whatever any of you can do, please do so. the suggestion, this is something i can walk with -- came up with. trying to put a simple cardboard signs inside city garages and where there is employee parking lot reminding them, do not drive using a hand-held cell phone. i saw in many operator in uniform in his vehicle leaving one of the barnes talking on his cell phone. this is something you can do but also for the city rush -- brajagarages. you can talk to the province that have parking lot. rec and park for their garages. they have so many tourists, they

may not know about it. you can help everybody's safety. >> good afternoon. welcome. i have been driving a taxi for 27 years. i have my medallion. i have no axe to grind. all i care about is the health of the industry. this cannot necessarily be said for many of the people from whom you will hear. the cabinetry is rife with forces that have many hidden agendas with greed being the primary unifying factor. the industry is labyrinthian. it requires enormous resources and dedication. cab driving is one of the

riskiest of all occupations. this deserves far more recognition than it receives. why are we not our own division? why is not the director in the most effective position possible? why is her decision making hampered by increasingly bureaucratic motions? she is the most efficient and knowledgeable director we have had an anyone who says otherwise has motives they should be questioned. i have begged this issue many times and i am hoping that someone will hear. thank you. >> thank you. >> our next speakers. >> that afternoon. thanks to the medallion sales pilot program, a retired cabbie. the weather tends tog e get warm in september and october.

taxi drivers are your friends. i'm here to support the return of taxi services back to a full division. the way i see it, her mojo has been making taxi changes work. the results have been remarkably positive. i am worried about undermining a fair and democratic approach. it has been beyond her tenure. and hilly -- ed healy had a blog busting limos and investigating limos. i feel taxi services needs to be

a division to counter the power plays in our industry. i thank you for what you are doing for the city will love. >> thank you. >> our next speakers. >> good afternoon. thank you for the cost of living increase. let me express the next hope is recommended in tears, not in a and there will be no more politicization. many problems, balance and functionality would be resolved if the taxi division would be restored to the blanket enjoyed. finance and kept driving are organizations of two different functions. it is thought of as explicative

and unfair. right now would be an opportune moment to make the change. there have to be some immediate effects and many of the most thoughtful people in the industry feel this structural change would be most beneficial. please promote the director and her division back to tk. please invest in open taxi access and make san francisco the first city in the world was transparent have ability. it is accept -- no increase has made the geographic extremes in more appealing. your predecessor removed open access from the table. if the council has recommended it to be reconsidered. please make this google maps of the cab industry and reality.

>> thank you. >> good afternoon. firstly, i wish to welcome mr. rieskin as manager. this is an agency -- he said he would fix muni by 2012. the mta board fixed him. that record shows -- joins the record under the heels -- wheels. now is the time to repair the damage that has been done. these thoughts come to mind. mta strike a balance between the needs of passengers, motorists,

bicyclists, and pedestrians. there is no legal reason to preclude pedestrian -- the pedestrian sasafety advisor in committee. in light of the recent tragic deaths, pedestrians must be able to cross the intersection without being run over by many coaches and bicyclists. there is also a strong and irrational prejudice against unnecessary use of automobiles that lawyers realistic thinking. parking has increased and not decreased as a problem. this problem must be addressed. more parking meters will not solve it. taxi drivers should not be punished for the services they provide. the transit effectiveness project, the product of twisted thinking omust be drastically revised if not undone. for the inconvenience in potential harm to the most fiscally fragile writer --

rider. please stop paying -- playing mta baseball. advocates are not public enemies. >> good afternoon. i am charles rathbone on behalf of luxor cab. you approve new permits. we focused on the number and type of permits. on closer examination, we believe there was a significant problem which nobody addressed at the meeting. nobody commented on it. the resolution requires that the new taxis must be low emissions vehicles. that is perfectly consistent