miscellaneous items. in early april and i think we may have talked about this briefly the sfmta in conjunction with improve sf, an initiative of the mayor's office hold a competition to ask san franciscans to come up with a new logo for the mta, reflecting mobility for the 21st century. we had artists who submitted proposals and went through an online voting process and then a jury of peer process that ended up selecting paul miller as the winner and he is a graphic artist from method design. it was a four-color design of parallel lines that symbolize many of the interconnected multimodal paths of travel. that was the thinking behind the design. we have since -- he has been very generouswith his time and again this is something again that cost nothing to muni or for the mta which had we done

this on our own would have cost probably quite a bit of money. the consultants who do this kind of work can charge well for it, but he is not only entered the contest for free, but since worked with us to refine it and we are now ready to soft-launch the new logo. we're just going to phase it in, because we don't want to incur any expense. we're not going to throw out old letterhead or old signage. but we are ready to start bringing this logo into the vernacular of the sfmta. we're going to get it up on the screen. that is the logo that won the competition, which again we have worked on since then with our graphic staff. and this is the branding that will be applied to future replacement vehicles and to our existing fleet when we're doing any kind of normal change-out.

we'll also be introducing things like business cards, letterhead presentations. it does not replace some of the existing things such as what is known as the worm. the familiar muni logo or the older muni logo, which is known at the oshaughnessey logo, but this is for the overall mta. so glad that once again for zero cost initiative, to help us communicate better with the public. next something john haley made reference to. the activities of the america's cup a few weeks ago and it was a time that we did a defendant run of many of the initiatives of people plan, many of the elements of people plan that were really developed for the big events next year. but we were able to test out a

trial of the eline which ran to fisherman's wharf. we had the limits buses, the 40, the 43, the 47. we had a short run of the 22. we had 25pcos is deployed. we had pretty significant coordination with bart and golden gate transit, presidio shuttle, the ferris and other regional transit provers, other city agencies, police, fire, dpw, the coast guard, really as the development of the plan was the execution on this trial week was really a great collaboration among the city family and the broader regional family, including federal government agencies. we had valet bike parking, a lot of different transportation

elements coming together to test out for the america's cup. i would say by and large, the service went very well. there were a lot of people and a lot of traffic down towards the marina green, but very little in the way of complaints or concerns. we did a debrief the day after the last event where we identified a number of small issues, things that we can improve upon and adjust for the next time, but by and large, i think a very successful effort. a lost work by a lot of people in the agency and outside of the agency to make that happen and to try to make the experience for people coming to see the cup, as well as everyone else who is going to be in the city when it was happening, as good as possible. so we will continue to improve upon that the next event of the america's cup world series is from october 2 through october 7th,

which coincides with fleet week. it's going to be an extremely busy weekend, but we're well-served by what we learned from the trial. so happy to report on that. and director heinicke will be happy to hear the next report. something he raised at the last meeting and many prior, including prior to my time here and this has to do with the speed of the trains in the twin peaks [tk-upbl/]. tunnel. and you will recall that a while back, i don't know how long ago back, sometime a year or two ago, because of the condition of the rail in the tunnel for safety purposes, we lowered the speed of the trains to 15 miles per hour, so anybody coming in from forest hill or out from castro, noticed that the nice quick clip in the tunnel slowed to what seemed to be a crawl as you approached or departed from castro station. so we spent

the time using our own rail crews to replace 5,000' of real between castro and forest hills. we completed that work this summer. and it was done without any interruption of service. we did it all in the overnight hours. so it took a while. but it was done without interruption and for a pretty modest cost. we subsequently had a licensed surveyor evaluate to the insurer that the new rail installed was in conformance with the design. we had our safety folks out there and a number of other folks evaluating and it looks like the work was done well and we have since starting on that same weekend of the america's cup, started raising the speed limit in the tunnel. so we're now -- the trains are now 25 miles per hour as they go through the curve. we will continue to evaluate. we'll be taking readings on the

rail, evaluating the movement on the vehicles for the next four to six weeks and then evaluate if we can raise it eastern further. a pretty significant step to improve the safety and reliability of the system, as well as just the perception of those of us that ride through that tunnel. and we did again without service disruption or capital outlay. so hats off to mr. haly and his team. a great effort andcopt have come fast enough for many of us, but the trains are now moving at a faster speed, which i'm sure folks have noticed. along the lines of rail improvements, we do have our next church line shutdown scheduled for march 13-17th. it should be one of the last of

the shuts down that will more or less substantially complete the work around church and debost, as folks have gone through the church and debost area will note that a large part of that work is done. many of the rider amenities, such as the better boarding areas on both sides of the sunset tunnel are in place and being, i would say, fairly well-received. so we're pleased with that. and something that we're piggy-backing on, the church and debost improvements is introducing a pilot that came out of the transit effectiveness project, which as you know is focused on making muni service more reliable and efficient. and what we are pursuing at the moment is a piloting of the transit-only lane on church

street from 16th to the portal at debost. so we would take the rail right-of-way which is currently open to mixed traffic, and make it transit-om, both for the j and for the 22. we will be not only testing the transit-only concept in terms of the travel time, but also testing some different timeframes, testing colorization of the right-of-way to help delineate it. also, help to delineate the many different modes that operate in that area. it's very heavily used by bike and pedestrians. so we are working with the community. that was a big part of developing the overall church and debost project into what it became. we'll continue to work with them and we'll be soliciting feedback and performancing evaluation as it goes along. it's perhaps one of our first pilots of the tep, a good -- kind of a good segway from the

church and pebost rail project which was also about rail reliability primarily to further improve service through that area. so pleased to see that moving forward. and that concludes my report. >> thank you, director reiskin. members of board, comments? >> i had the pleasure of attending community meetings for the tep pilot project and i just wanted to say that the staff did a really good job presenting the pilot program to the community that was there and substance keptly i just heard a lot of really great things from people who use that corridor, transit riders, bikes, pedestrians. i think people are really looking for the record to seeing how this works and this is really an example of the fact that we're moving forward with our mission statement, which is great transportation for a great city and i think this is going to be a really interesting project. we have so many transit lanes that need that kind of passive enforcement. so many times the drivers

honestly have no idea they are in a transit lane. so i think this is going to be a really good first and since malcolm didn't chime in, i rode in the opportunity and my husband watching the speedometer sure enough 25 miles per hour. >> my understanding is that the rail replacement is done and figure the highest speed we can go in the eureka curve and if, not a when, if we ever raise the speed of rail work in the tunnel. for now, the current plan is to keep the tunnel speed at 30 miles and not go back to the pre-accident speed of 50 miles, is that correct? >> thank you. members of public? >> yes, mr. chairman.

[ reading speakers' names ] >> one concern i have is about fleet week. two years ago i had to wait so long from the muni green to get home and frankly, i would have hitched a ride with the blue angels, if i had a chance. it would have been a lot faster. this has to be taken into account. you will have a lot of people waiting for couchs and they are going to be jammed and it took an hour to get the bus out of there. if you can enlist the blue angels, that is great. >> thank you, next speaker. >> peter witt, the last person who turned in a speaker card for this section of the agenda. >> okay. good afternoon, mr. witt. >> good afternoon, mr.

president. >> is this about the item that mr. reiskin discussed? >> two thing has there have concerned me about the report, and one is special recognition award. now i'm not up here for a special recognition award. i'm here for the greater good of san francisco, as well as california and the bay area. and what i'm concerned mainly about we have a creative concepts or concerns -- creative something or other -- and then at a zero cost. well, my friends, this is a little creative -- what is it called? if you could correct me?

concerns? thousand customers surveyed every year for the last 15 years. this is what it looks like. this is the first -- i did 500 the first year in 1998. creative concerns. whatever you want to call it. creativity. these are free. i submit them. you can put it on the screen. submit them -- i splited did for the san francisco taxi commission until they were absolved or dissolved or mergered. and mr. [hao*-efrpg/] knows all and heinicke knows all about that. the report you cannot find online anymore. it's deleted but mr. heinicke said in '07 he was willing to pay extra for services in the sunset, where he lives. he knew that dispatch issue couldn't be addressed then in '07. it hadn't been addressed since

'07, since 1998. >> thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> that is the last person who submitted a card for this section of your agenda. >> then no. 8. >> item 8, citizen its' advisory council report and i do not see mr. murphy here. no. 9, public comment. >> members of the board, probably most people here this afternoon for the taxi item and i was wondering if we could move to that and come back to the public comment afterwards. >> agreed. >> all right. so que with call that. >> moving to item 11, authorizing the director to issue 150 to 200 tetchry full-time medallions for a limited period of time to be leased to certain color [skhrao-epl/]s based sleeps based on objective criteria. >> i think the issue is

somewhat straightforward. we quite a while again it seems engaged a consultant to undertake best practices study in a public convenience and necessity study to in part answer of question of what is the right amount of taxi cabs in san francisco? that process has been ongoing. it looks at this point like we're probably december/january timeframe by the time we get those results. but in the meantime, the demands on the taxi industry have been strong, if not increasing. the kind of other factors at play, such as some of the many non-taxi means of transportation that have been proliferating, that have kind of come into the picture since we started this process and given the special events and demand that seems pretty clear

that we're unable to meet with the current level of taxi service. what we bring this proposal forward, it had been my desire for the last year to not do something in advance of the public convenience and necessity study and i thought and still feel that the data will serve us best in helping to inform a decision that will ultimately make -- however i think it's pretty clear and i did speak to the consultant who is doing that discussedy. i think it's pretty clear that the shortage of supply that people perceive will be validated in that study. the magnitude of that, i think, is an open question and i look forward to seeing the study. but i felt given these kind of external factors, that it was important to not wait another four or five months, but to bring something forward now. so what we are proposing for

your consideration is the issuance of up to 200 permits. these could be temporary permits. they would be direct leased, two color schemes to the taxi companies. one of the reasons to do that is that would be revocable if the demand profile changes or some other factors change or depending on what kinds out in the public needs and necessity study we can make adjustments in the future. in order for these to be kind of viable economically, that they would need to be three-year permits, but at the end of those three years, we would be able to not renew them or do something different at that point in time. we are proposing to make them available to the color schemes, based on dispatch performance. basically looking at the ratio

of service calls, radio calls that they take as opposed to just street hails as being a measure of how effectively they are meeting that radio service demand, when people pick up the phone and call or go through an app, to hail a taxi, which is one of the biggest challenges that we have outside of the airport and the downtown. it's very difficult for people to get them. we want these permits to incentivize those companies affiliating with dispatch services that service that lesser met need the best. so we would be proposing to allocate on that basis with some kind of adjustment for some normalization for size of the variation of sizes of the taxi companies that we have. so that is the proposal that is before you. we did post this about a month ago, the transportation code requires that we post notice of

any consideration of something like this with 30 days in advance, which we did. i imagine there will be quite a bit of public comment, but that is the basis proposal for your consideration. >> thank you, mr. reiskin. members of the board? anything else before we do that? okay. >> brent johnson. followed by tim santos and john biterros. >> is mr. johnson here? >> brett johnson. here he comes. >> good afternoon, mr. johnson. >> good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. my name is brett johnson and i have been a taxi driver in san francisco for 17 years. i have been working full-time in that capacity.

i am concerned about the medallion situation right now. i have been on the list for 16 years. it took a year of driving before the old timers talked me into going down and [phr-ufrpg/]ing down my money and putting my name on the list and it's what i have had to look forward to and my years of driver is one day getting a medallion and changing my lifestyle a little bit. not greatly, but being able to adjust myself to my now 11-year-old son, my wife and the highlight that we like to become accustomed to is greater. there is no room for advancement in cab driving other than the opportunity to one day get a medallion. i'm here today because at the last meeting which i was not able to attend, the pre-k medallions are now going to be sold as part of the pilot program being made official and all the medallions being held by the city are going to be sold, which in effect is

pulling the carpet from under me and my fellow drivers who have been working as cab drivers for 17 years plus. i am wondering about these medallions that now will go to the companies. i personally have been working at luxor cab and have no problems with luxor cab and think it's the best company to work for as a leased driver like myself. they have done me right. and i am happy to see them have an opportunity to get some of these medallions as well. but i'm here today to talk about the driver. in some of the minutes that were read just now, it sounds like the companis and the dispatch systems are being talked about as if they are the ones picking the people up and they are not. the dispatch service doesn't pick up people. the cab driver picks up people. last week i picked up a psychotic patient from the hospital who freaked out when i wouldn't let her smoke in the taxi. i'm lucky i worked as a psych

tech in a houston hospital and i have dealt with that. >> thank you >> is that my time? >> yes, it is. >> i just wanted you to see a real cab driver and i represent hundreds of others. thank you so much. tim santos. john bisteros. >> good afternoon, mr. is on thas. >> hi, thank you for having me my name is tim santos with the company taxi magic. we are the no. 1 electronic hailing system for taxis in the united states. we work with about 100 plus fleets in about 100 plus cities in the country. working with hundreds of thousands of drivers and millions of consumers all over the country, in san francisco, we work with luxor cab since 2008. for more than four years, our year over year ride brother and growth and this is about data continues to double, but each year our demand has vastly exceeded our supply and what we

have realized is that here in san francisco, technology like ours can't solve all of the problems. accordingly san francisco has the highest no-show and cancellations. san francisco is widely known as the most difficult city to get a taxi. as demand for taxis in san francisco has exceeded supply, you are seeing new, unregulated tanki transportation and tech companies enter the market, who are preying opinion the well-known fact it's impossible to get a taxi in san francisco. these taxi replacement companis have introduced hundreds of new vehicles into the city, with very little regulation, while the taxi companis have waited patiently. it's time for san francisco to help the taxi fleets, like

luxor, meet the demand with more cabs on the road as san francisco as a taxi-friendy city. so please add more cabs to san francisco. >> last year over 3.65 million visitors came to san francisco and they contributed $525 million to the budget. over a third of those visitors came here to attend meetings in our hotels, business meetings in our hotels or conventions. one of the biggest complaints we received time and time again from meeting planners and convention planners and these are the folks that bring the people to san francisco and make those decisions are that

there is not enough taxi service in the city. in fact, i have received a recent letter from one of our biggest convention planners asking what is the city doing about this? by adding 150 to 200 new medallions, you will be taking a great step forward in trying to meet the demand of this traveling segment that brings so much to the economic vitality of the city. so with that, san francisco travel association encourages your support of the matter before you now. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> barry toronto, jim gillespie, phillip ward. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon chairman nolan. i am disappointed you are only giving us two minutes considering this proposal hasn't been properly vetted by the taxi industry. i don't know when this appeared in a town hall meeting to give

you a proper recommendation on this. also the issue as you in effect will become the medallion holder you are basically making cab drivers employees of anings that is regulating the industry as well. there is somewhat of a conflict of interest there. as some of you are lawyers and have legal background should be concerned about that. if you get sued, due to improper workers' compensation, who is providing the workers' compensation? it should be the medallion holder, which is you. you are the medallion holder, not the company. you are leasing it to somebody else to run the medallion. also, in the $3 million, $4 million you will get per year, there is nothing included about how many employees you will add to monitor the program. you have to make sure you have a couple of employees to mount

vernon monitor the program. also you need to alert the public about how many medallions are going where. it's not very well explained in and i think at the end of the 3-year period these drivers could lose their jobs. who is going to play for the unemployment insurance? the concern is that it would be better to actually put out 40 to 50 new medallions. you know there is an ebb and flow in the business. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker? >> jim gill [kwr-eups/]ie,

gillespie. phillipward. >> jim gillespie with yellow cab. i'm here to support the staff report and for about reason. there is a large unmet demand as all of you know for taxi cabs. even though yellow cab, luxor cab and desoto cab service 90% of all the calls that come in for taxi service, we also pick up 95% of the paratransit. there is another 30% of calls that come in that are never answered. and people finally hang up, because they can't get through. and it all gets back to this shortage of taxis and this demand. the gas and gate model we support for several reasons. obviously we have better control. so