we will have the snow day for all of the kids. we will also be able to have some pictures taken with the mayor for anyone who wants to come in and donate a can of food to the food bank. that will be another day when we register our joint effort to bring the message of unity to the city. we will need everybody to step up. this season of giving is in my opinion one of the very good opportunities for everyone in the city -- i do not care whether you are a corporate citizen or resident of whatever economic level, if you can step up to help somebody else, this is where the passion of the city exists.

this is where the soul of the city is. i want to thank all the folks here and every institution. i plan to work closely with all of them to make sure that we touch each other as we go together to help all of our citizens in the city. thank you very much on this announcement for our season of giving. thank you, everybody. [applause] the meeting of the municipal transportation authority. please call the roll.

secretary: [reading roll] mr. chairman, you have a quorum. item three, devices during the meeting. please be advised that sound producing electronic devices are prohibited at the meeting. anyone responsible for one going off may be asked to leave the room. and cell phones that are set on vibrate to cause interference, so we request that they be -- to approve the minutes of the october 18, 2011 regular meeting. president nolan: approved. next item.

secretary boomer: some items have been removed from the agenda by staff, and please be advised there will be no closed session today. and item six, the introduction of new or unfinished business by board members. president nolan: i want to thank you for honoring director beach. it was really so well done and just such a wonderful turnout, a warm, loving tribute to a fine member of this community and of this board, so thank you to all who participated in this. director lee had some beautiful cakes, and we appreciate that, too. director brinkman?

director brinkman: we had an item dealing with signals. i think my intent was misunderstood, and what i would like us to take another look at is sort of best practices, what we can do other than traffic signals. i know we have an incredibly talented staff at mta, and i know they are well-traveled. i have actually been to some of their brown bag presentations, so i think they probably have a lot of ideas that they have picked up around the world, and we talk about the need to move to a system especially with our aboveground buses and streetcars, so i think figuring out intersection control is going to be such a big part of that, so i kind of would like another look at that. and then my second thing is actually around bicycles and specifically cyclists, which i

know we have a lot of discussion about on this board, and i would like the mta to work with sfgtv and with city hall to come up with a program where we -- to work with sfpd and with city hall to come up with the program. especially those were riding around at night in with your buns -- and with earbuds. we are getting an incredible backlash. i used to buy all of the time, and it is getting really out of hand. i want us to do it, it is possible, as kind of a joint thing with the mta, the board of supervisors, in city hall. i do not want the sfpd out there as the bad guys. i saw something recently about

cycling in the city of copenhagen, which we all hold up as a role model that we want to be like. the article said it to 25 years to get where they are, and we have tenures of may be good bicycle encouragement under our belt, so we have a way to go. in copenhagen, they are not tolerant of scofflaw cyclists. someone got a tip of running around without lights, and i do not know how much it was, but i think that is what we need to do. we have enough cyclists. we have to remind them that with the rights, responsibilities. we need to make its of the cyclists feel safe and give them a good set of rules. again, i do not want the s&p to simply be the bad guys on this. i just want this to be something where we are talking about safety and where we are talking

about cycling, it is an accepted form. we need to hold ourselves, we need to hold ourselves accountable. president nolan: i will ask them to look at that, especially working with the other agencies. vice chairman? >> -- vice chair lee: the reason i am asking, we are only allowing a three-hour window for regular parking, so we have all whole lot of metered parking, and we cannot use it. so i would like to get a survey on the meters in school zones and what are the restrictions. president nolan: director oka?

director oka: this morning, over the radio, i heard about a very disturbing incident involving a cabdriver running a red light with a bicyclist. do we have any information on that? president nolan: are you familiar with what director oka is talking about? >> i am. beyond what has been in the media or pushed around, we have not seen anything else. the information that we understand at this point is that there was a turning at the red light. a cyclist not wearing a helmet was struck, and that is really all we know at this point. i would be happy to provide information as we get it. president nolan: thank you.

director heinicke? director heinicke: thank you for the park. they call upon me to carry on a legacy. i hope he knows that i am already doing that, and we have already received a report on that, so in case others are interested, my understanding of the status of that is that in the long segment of the twin peaks tunnel, to be determined that the current speed is the optimal speed, but in the year -- occurs, there is currently a slow order awaiting rail improvements which in happen in the next month and is anticipated and has already been presented to us by mr. haley.

then the speed would return to what it was before the issue -- the order was issued. if i have the status wrong, please let me know later, but i think that is where it is. i wanted to reiterate that. president nolan: thank you. mrs. stuart? >> they will return to the board with an update on that item with regard to the rieker curve. director -- with regard to the eureka curve. director nolan: next item. secretary boomer: the report.

>> thank you to the agency for supporting that. we have just completed a big year a bicycle education. we have reached thousands of children's, tourists, everybody, with the message of safe bicycling. we will be going out to hand out minds. daylight savings time is about to change, and that is a very popular time to be caught, so we will be out getting lights on bikes. to ratchet this up to in the higher accountability, and i think we are all very much in agreement that there needs to be more accountability for everyone on the streets, and that does not include those who ride bicycles, and it has been an idea among bicycle riders for a long time but also with the bicycle plan that the agency adopted a couple years ago. the city grand jury elevated the idea, as well, and the bicycle coalition has always been very strong on this.

we have been very frustrated getting through this with the superior court. but we are very eager to work with the mta on bringing forward a workable, practical, sort of a driver school. what do we call for motorists? that is the idea, but that we would be encouraging the police to cite bad behavior by everybody, but we would have an option that if you are riding a bike, you would be able to go and take a credentialed bicycle education course, and everybody wins on that. it is a very productive way to deal with that. i look forward to working with the agency on that, and thank you, director, for bringing that up. let's do it. secretary boomer: item number seven, the directors' report. >> a brief report.

starting off with special recognition awards, we have just two awards, one individual and one team, let me just ask ms. linda when -- ms. linda willis to step forward under the direction of ms. johnson and annette williams. linda is in the services division, and she is being honored for the successful transition that she led for the regional transit connection customers on to the clipper system. we transferred this in 2010, and linda was heading up the rtc office at that time. a very difficult transition for many for whom the electronic media was a very foreign concept. she required a lot of specialized outreach and customer service and development

of materials in multiple languages, kind of a difficult transition for this population that had fears of new technology and other concerns. she had to work on the technical side with the clipper and their staff to work through issues and was dealing with people who need, because of their varying disabilities, maybe need more or specialized attention than others would. we now have as a result 7000 disabled clipper card customers that are using their discount fast passes every month. for her service here and for her 20 years with the agency, we would like to generally honor her for that. thank you. congratulations, and i would ask ms. johnson in she wants to say

a few words. >> good afternoon, mr. chairman, members of the board. i would be remiss if i did not call up my colleague to help give this award to ms. willis. it is a great honor considering all of the work that has been done to ensure the smooth transition with clipper, and as he indicated, this was a very challenging process and yet one that proved to be quite successful duf ms. willis and hr staff to insure that this group could transfer to the new technology. i would like to read the words today, is a deep appreciation and recognition of your dedication to improving the quality of life for the employees of the municipal transportation agency and the residents of san francisco. the san francisco transportation authority,

november 1. i would like to say thank you for your dedication for the past 20 years. you are quite an asset to the agency. thank you. ayes -- [applause] >> thank you. i think this is the greatest thing since the fast pass, and this helps out a lot. i tell people if they do not know anything about it or if they want to know the best thing about it, if they lose it and they register and, you can call us and get your money back on the card when you receive a new one, and the fast pass, so that is great, especially for the people that i work with you are homeless or disabled. they get robbed, or they lose

them. i think when we get the kinks out, it is going to be great. it is already great. president nolan: thank you for the astounding work for this population. [applause] >> the next people, this group of folks, who also like to work in the background, i guess with the exception of one, saying it is the best thing since the clipper comic it is sf park, a

concept that has very rapidly gone from a concept which is unimaginable a very short time ago to something that because of the work of these folks, we have been successfully able to pull down a significant amount of federal funding and implement and get up and running in an incredibly short period of time, getting an up and running including parking space sensors drop the city, 5900 smart meters, just the logistics of that alone, just the operational part of that. it is incredible, and without taking into account the incredible thinking and foresight and planning and outreach that has gone on behind it, so i am happy under her leadership to present these people, all from one shop, and

these others from the other shop. the sign shop, all of these within the street division, in the one guy who does not mind being out front sometimes, paul rose from communications and also james from enforcement, so i want to congratulate you on a really outstanding effort that the rest of the world is looking to us to see how it goes. congratulations. [applause] >> if you do not mind, i would like to say a few words. this started four years ago, and it took, as he said, a lot of work. the agency got behind this project -- it would not have

been successful without every division working together, so this is a great example of how we can be collaborative and supporting agency wide collaborative. given their incredible hard work and talent, i am very proud of this team. thank you. and steve wanted to mention a couple of comments, too. quickscat afternoon. steve, manager of sf park. director, others, as you can see, this is really an sf mta effort with regard to the various things, and with your permission, i would like to mention some additional names that i believe these contractors in turns are definitely a part of the team and are no less deserving of recognition. tony, lauren, alex, lisa, jamey,

joseph, hank, cindy, randy, sunjay, sai, sorry, guys, lisa, michael, adam, eric, kevin, and steve. some of these folks are in the room today sorry. surry. definitely everyone played a part in the. with that everyone's contribution, i do not think we would be standing here today. >> thank you.

president nolan: it has gotten so much attention, international attention, so thank you. director brinkman: i attended an event, and congratulations to all of you. it is an amazing program. i thought i knew a lot going in, and i learned a lot and the two days, and it was fascinating to see the others there, as he said, waiting to learn from us and to see what goes on in san francisco, so i want to say thank you. you have a fabulous team. i look forward to supporting the rollout of sf park, because i think if it is a game changer. parking is an incredibly

emotional topic, but the way you present it took the emotion out of it and really made it a dated driven process an idea. that was fascinating, and it will be really interesting to see where it goes. president nolan: director vice chair lee? vice chair lee: you pull up, and you say, "wait a minute. it takes a credit card." that is amazing. director: i throw around the term parking a lot. we need to look at how we are doing parking, and part of the reasons i can do that is because i know we have got all of you to back us up, and whatever is going to, will come out better than we already have.

we get packets and some of the materials that we had to look for every meeting and read through and read up on. there is a lot of stuff that comes our way, but one of the things that have been falling out of the chair was the incredible data that you guys generate, and the smart way you're able to implement these adjustments and everything else. thank you so much. you are already being an inspiration to push harder on what the resources present, but i also know for a fact that some of the city's i am working with are creating models. keep up the great work, and once again, thanks so much. president nolan: thank you all, very much. >> it was great in new york to acknowledge and admit that they were going to be falling,

basically, being, what we're doing here in san francisco and starting a pilot in new york. i think we feel sometimes a bit of a rivalry with new york city, and the folks to have more parking and everything than anyone quietly say they were going to follow the lead of san francisco, it was a good moment. sir just a few brief things to update you on. we did have some in our original schedule that we reported to you that we were looking for some work this weekend, some issues with fabrication. that work is going to be pushed off probably until early in the next year. we will do all of the phone noticing. it will not impact our overall schedule. we are still on schedule. i want to acknowledge that the

week that was done a few weeks ago on the whole went well. it went well as planned. the diversion and the information all generally went pretty well. we did subsequent to that have an issue where we had a two car and train that had a switch move as the train was passing over it. it said some wheels onto a different track. we have been working with mr. haley and his crew in particular around the clock with very minimal service disruptions since that night to make sure that the system is safe, and we have actually gotten some improvements in the conditions out there as a result of this, and we will continue to work in conjunction with the project to make sure that gets the attention that it needs, a very critical intersection in our system. the balboa park station, the pedestrian and bicycle and

prevents is moving forward. that work should be done, as i reported to you, it should be done more or less this week. anyone who has been down there can see it was pretty significant work. we're putting in a crosswalk, but that work is generally progressing well. also, in terms of service enhancements, the transit folks have been focusing on one of our busiest lines this month, 14 and 14 l, so we are doing what was reported previously, at least in committee, talking to drivers, other stakeholders to identify possible improvements. one of the kind of most exciting things to come out of that will be extending the 14 l.

mr. haley will be bringing a report to the policy and government committee. they wanted you to know after focusing on the 28 and 29, we are moving up to the 14, with one and exciting announcement, a connection to bart. the jfk by claims have gone through a lot of work between us, recreation and parks, dpw, and they have gone up through the recreation and parks commission. and the impact they might have

on people in the disability community. we are working through those issues with those folks, with a large internal staff meeting this meeting. we will be meeting with some of the folks later this week. there has been a lot of email and traffic flying around. we what you want to know that we are working diligently to address and resolve any outstanding issues and concerns we have, just a point of information, when the voters passed proposition back in 2007, one of the requirements was that me -- we will meet regularly, and we had the first meeting, where we sat down with the union leadership to talk through some of the intent