challenges around public transportation and a traditional taxicab and we're not looking at it -- this bucket or that bucket. if it doesn't fall into one of our currently existing classifications, that means it must be something wrong with it. i'm not saying you have this attitude. i just want to make sure that the agency doesn't develop this attitude. we need to be encouraging innovation in this area. and i've also noticed that an unfortunate dynamic -- this isn't true of all taxi drivers in san francisco, but some who view any other transit options -- and i won't name specific companies -- that's competition, so we have to kill it and then resist adding any new taxicabs, provide adequate service. so, that's really my larger point that we embrace these new kinds of innovative approaches to transit [inaudible]. >> absolutely. and to the extent that the innovations are advancing the city's policy goals and doing a

way that's safe, we absolutely want to embrace them. there may be some innovations that don't meet those criteria that we may want to try to steer in a different direction or bring them into a framework that is safe in meeting the other policy goals. there's a lot happening out there, both in the car-sharing realm and in the taxi-like service realm and we're not doing a knee jerk, not within our current understanding of a frame. therefore, it's no good. >> and then the last thing i wanted to ask is about the on-streetcar sharing. -- on-street car sharing. there is i robust on street car sharing service throughout the city which is important to car sharing. i think [speaker not understood], you mentioned this in a very polite way, that

they're just taking one on-street spot and converting it to a car sharing spot can turn into just a neighborhood brawl. when we had to find one spot in glenn park in my district to use for car sharing, it was very, very challenging. just to find one spot. and we know that to have a truly robust on street car sharing program [speaker not understood]. do you have any political support to get that higher number of on street [speaker not understood]? >> that's a a good question. i think that the more data that we have where we can demonstrate clearly the benefits and demonstrate the reduction of vehicle, reduction of demand for existing constrained parking out there that car sharing has the potential to bring, that's probably our best argument. you give us this one space in your neighborhood and you're

going to have fewer cars on your street. it actually can be a solution to a parking problem. so, kind of flipping the understanding of it's not just taking a car space or parking space away, but it's potentially freeing up parking because people aren't going to need to have their cars in that area. that's where we need to go. but as you know and as i've said, taking away a parking space is always going to be a challenge. so, the better we're able to articulate those benefits and clearly demonstrate this based on this pilot, the better success i think we'll have. >> thank you. >> so, just a couple more if you want me to kind of finish here. that does segue nicely into the fact that on street is not the only solution. i know supervisor wiener made reference to the legislation that he's offering to try to take advantage of development that could bring more off-street spaces.

in addition to the mta's off-street program, is working with car sharing industry for nearly a decade. we have a number of spaces in our garages. we're trying to be supportive, you see some of the different types of car-share models across the spectrum. and are really seeking to increase the capacity we have in our off-street facilities to support car-sharing. so, it's not an either or. it's got to be on street, it's got to be off-street. we see our off-street facilities as being part of the solution. and where this may work well is some of the areas like 17th and valencia where because of the intensity of commercial use, while it was a high-use car-share space, we had a lot of enforcement problems with it. but we have parking garages, mta parking garages nearby, so, that might be a neighborhood just as an example where more

off-street space might get people close enough to where they want to be without having to deal with some of the enforcement challenges. so, looking forward, and this gets a little bit to the question, what we want to do is advance a larger, much larger scale on-street pilot taking lessons learned on outreach, on enforcement, on signage, on placement. opening it up, we did this just with one operator when i opened it up to multiple operators and try to get to more of the city. and particularly, to really figure out how an areas that don't have the service already where we don't have that critical mass, how we can maybe get to more of a critical mass. and it may require more than just a single island of car-share vehicle out in the neighborhood otherwise that is under served.

so, we want to advance this pilot to see where we can make a difference on outreach and to see what we can do to get the utilization and the number of unique users based on the experience we had dealing with parking enforcement challenges. one of the sites we had a bunch of construction work that really limited the utility of it. so, we want to advance the on-street pilot. on off-street, we've been working with the industry for awhile, but we haven't really formalized the processes for obtaining the spaces. so, we want to do that. * and we want to continue to see how we can continue some of these models, not just for car sharing. we recently partnered with scooter rental, electric skooters and providing them some spaces and charging spaces in our garages to make that kind of vehicle sharing work as well. so, that timeline for all of

that work is really working in the next few months to finalize a policy proposal for on-street based on the pilot and to bring that out to the various stakeholders, including the board of supervisors to issue those requirements for on-streetcar sharing starting late winter, early spring * and at that point start the outreach for the on-street spaces and really get it up and running next spring, late spring, early summer. so, those are kind of our next steps primarily on the on-street, expansion of the on-street. we'll continue to look at these newer models and seek ways to get data from them, to get information about them, to talk to the other cities where they started to explore

possibilities of pilots -- piloting them here, to see what can work and to see to the extent we have conflicts such as with existing parking policies, how we might resolve those. >> go ahead. >> i was just going to say that's pretty much what i had. as i mentioned before, knowing the director of environment is here and car sharing organizations are here as well, we're happy to answer questions. >> i have a couple questions. going back to that [speaker not understood] that you have up on the implementation of the timeline -- excuse me -- i was wondering if there are any specifics that you could also queue us on what is exactly legislative changes could possibly be. it might be too early for you to expand on this particular question. my second question is looking at one-way car sharing in implementation. >> yes. so, on the first question, i don't think we know yet if we

would need legislative changes. as we finish the evaluation of the on-street, if there are things we need to tweak from the approvals the mta and the board of supervisors already granted in divisions 1 and 2 of the transportation code, we'll bring those forward. those changes authorize not just a pilot, but authorize a change in law for an ongoing program. so, it may be that we don't need anything else legislatively to happen. but if we do, we would bring that early 2013 if we finalize our revised policies. and then as i mention with regard to the one-way car sharing, i've met with one of the companies. and like i said, we're eager to get data and information to be able to validate the benefits that they accrue the way they do for both transportation and the environment as do traditional car-share model. they've provided some information in the other cities they're operating in, what permit schemes they're using to

address the other issue of how to resolve conflict with existing parking management policies. so, we're eager to learn more about how they might complement the existing car sharing and overall transit first policy and explore ways that we may be able to pilot, pilot them here. we already have one of them that's operating in san francisco and we're talking to the other that's interested in the possible on-street model as well. >> so, now that you've completed the presentation, i wanted to talk a little bit more, less in generalities and more specifics. which cities are you talking to, when you talk about sharing, collecting data from some of the other programs that are happening across the u.s.? can you give me some specifics, ways you're going to be extrapolating the data? >> well, so, the one-way on street model, as i understand, operational in washington, d.c.

and san diego, portland, i think vancouver and a couple of other cities. so, we've begun to get some information, want to talk directly to the folks in those cities to understand what their experience is. there is' also a report that was done from a program in hanover, germany that evaluated things such as -- i think, i haven't seen the report, but impact on emissions and where -- whether this was reducing trips or not. and, so, we're eager to evaluate what the experience in hanover was as well. * >> and in this evaluation process, when did it begin, you said in 2003 -- in 2013? >> no. so, we've already asked the company for the information and they've sent some is and we've begun our outreach to the other cities. for we're not waiting for this on-street next round of the

on-street pilot to launch before we start that evaluation. we're doing that now. >> okay. so, can you give me some indication as to how -- is this a dedicated staff person or several staff persons that are going to be -- going to be studying this data or culling through it, developing different model structures? i'm trying to get a sense as to how deeply committed mta, department of environment is to conducting studying this particular -- >> so, our motivation is finding ways to get people out of their cars. so, we have that motivation. we don't have teams of people ready to drop onto evaluating a new innovation that somebody is pitching to san francisco. we have started reaching out to the other cities.

i can't tell you how many fte or how many hours a week we're going to be spending on t but we're very eager to see any model that's going to help get people out of their cars to work on the streets of san francisco. every innovation that walks through the door isn't necessarily going to achieve that and we want to do some due diligence, especially if we're talking about giving people exclusive or proprietary use of the public right-of-way. we want to do our due diligence to make sure that we can justify doing so. >> one of your other slides, i think it was number 5, sfta car share policy, i also wanted to find out who else you're collaborating with to find spots, again, specifically if you can talk to district 10. >> to find additional on-street? >> to find -- yes. >> spots? >> yes. >> so, maybe i'll let alex speak to the process. so, for the next pilot we're going to go from 12 to maybe

100. >> okay. >> and we'll be working through the community processes laid out in the timeline slide in terms of whom -- we'll see if alex can be more specific, alex from the mta is managing this pilot for us. >> thank you, alex. >> the question is about how -- what the process of identifying spaces? >> yes. >> okay. this is somewhat preliminary as we're still developing the policy. we'll certainly conduct outreach with you and ultimately present this to the mta board. but the car-sharing operators know their market street best. they're the ones who best can analyze where exactly areas where [speaker not understood] to be the main driving force that we'll need to work with them to ensure, it's a good push and pull of a geographic distribution of the spaces and expansion to new market street.

so, we're working with your offices and input groups. certainly we plan to coordinate that with other mta policy initiatives. the director mentioned this is something we can author in combination with other policies. >> so, oftentimes department heads may feel like they're under attack when we call for a hearing. and i just want to put my cards on the table. i met with each and every one of the department heads that are present today. it is not my intention to penalize. i'm generally interested in this -- in the subject matter representing southeastern part of san francisco that had trouble getting taxis. * genuinely there have been challenges that we are working through with mta and bus lines. so, as you can see, i'm advocating because i need everyone, all of san francisco to be concerned. although car sharing, the businesses may know their particular market, i believe nobody knows san francisco

better than you and i [speaker not understood] every single day. [speaker not understood] we have an intimate knowledge of what's happening. i'm really here to publicly affirm my support. i like rifkin and possibly others in this chamber don't have a car and rely on public transportation, rely on car share. just in multiple different ways of trying to get around to serve people. and what the position has allowed me to be in a unique position is to really be able to experience and be a user of what -- the user of public transportation and the various car sharing models that are out there. one thing i do want to say to you, alex, is you continue to source out other potential sites that we've got a couple of sites that are here in the city and the southeastern part of the city. two city campus sites, the southeast campus and we have the campus [speaker not understood] both dedicated parking spot. i'm sure we can have a discussion around that.

also want to bring your attention puc is a $3 billion wastewater project happening in the southeastern part of the city. pu crushtion is going to be moving a considerable part of the staff in the 3rd street evans corridor area. * the housing authority, i've spoken to henry alvarez, he's on board and committed to providing spaces, one of which is up on [speaker not understood] in the process of the rebuild process [speaker not understood]. which also includes all of the public housing sites [speaker not understood] most closest to being complete. so, what ayectionv really here today to talk about car sharing, the to challenge thought leaders in how they're going to be [speaker not understood]. i'm not beating you up. i'm not trying to embarrass anyone, but this is a serious conversation because it's having an impact on everyday people's livelihood. i'm overly concerned about language access. one-third of my district doesn't even speak english.

so, making sure we're dedicating the resources and more importantly the time to communicate with people who have traditionally not been discussed and who have not been in the conversation because they're not in transit-rich or focus areas or not necessarily doing their business in the financial district or in some of the more transit-rich parts, parts of the city. director? >> yes. i appreciate the fact you're having this hearing. i don't feel at all attacked or beat up. i know what that he feels like. this isn't it. [laughter] >> we absolutely see car-sharing and a significant increase in car-sharing as part of the way we're going to really start to move the needle on the city's transit first policy. muni is at the core of that, improved taxi service, better and safer cycling. car sharing has a potential to

be a big part of the solution. so, we're fully on board with trying to advance this. what i was endeavoring to show here in the presentation is we see on-street parking as perhaps a big part of the solution to the expansion of car sharing. i think the suggestions you were making in your district were largely off-street spaces. that would be perhaps above and beyond what we would do in this pilot. we're really looking at on-street. we'd be happy to facilitate conversations between city college and puc and other large housing authority, other large landowners with the car share companies to the extent we could help see more car sharing in those areas. i think putting one on-street space as an island, i think is going to always be a challenge in terms of getting that critical massive usage to get the utilization to where it makes sense to have it there. i think we need to help seed that demand and perhaps using

some of these spaces, city college, hunters view, the sewer plant, those could be great ways to do it. so, we're happy to work with the car share companies and those land owners to try to get more car sharing outside of the on-street. in any case, we want to pursue the on-street as well for the reasons that we discussed. they're visible. they're everywhere. they're perhaps more sustainable because they don't go away the way parking lots do. so, i think parallel strategy of both on-street and off-street legislation supervisor wiener has introduced, all of those are pathways to get more car-sharing in san francisco. >> thank you. director [speaker not understood], would you like to say anything? >> good afternoon, supervisors. [speaker not understood], the director of the san francisco department of the environment. just wanted to thank supervisor cohen also for calling the hearing today on this very important topic.

just had a couple of additional items to add to director rifkin's presentation, which really focused on department of the environment's role in supporting transit first policy in particular car sharing. as you may know, about 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions do come from cars and trucks in san francisco. so, in order for us to reach our very ambitious greenhouse emission reduction goals, our next one being 25% below 1990 lettersv at the end of 2017, we are a partner to the mta and other city agencies and the board of supervisors in trying to find alternative transportation options for our residents. so, a couple of the rules that the department of the environment plays in this particular sphere, we have a transportation demand management team that focuses mostly on outreach and education and implementing our community benefits [speaker not understood]. so, particularly for city and county employees, on the car sharing side there are discounted memberships both with zip car as well as the city car share.

and we help to promote these partnerships through brochures that we distribute to city employees on our website as well as the departmental presentation throughout the year. and i do have copies of those brochures if you'd like to see what's contained in them. and then as it relates to other city employees, our outreach is targeted to the private sector, particularly to encourage them to offer smart commute options for their employees and that could include everything from pre-tax commuter benefits, the emergency ride home program, van pool and car pooling options to and from work. and just recently we will be including car sharing. that hasn't been something we've promoted to private companies as an option to promote to their employees. but that's something that we'll be adding to our outreach materials in the future. that is really our focus, is -- director rifkin mentioned the demand in helping to feed that demand and really the role the department of environment has played and will continue to play is to raise awareness

about all of the alternative transit options to help people get out of their fossil fuel [speaker not understood] cars. specifically i want to mention we're agnostic as it comes to the type of model, the particular company. we really want to support options that work to, again, help us promote car sharing in general and ultimate transportation options to meet our [speaker not understood] reduction emission goals. i have materials we passed out to city employees and business and happy to answer any questions that you have. >> may i ask a question? thank you. i actually just have one question. since the launch of bmw's recent one way car sharing program, could you talk to us a little about the benefits we're getting out of the program where they're working the downtown area? >> so, the bmw car sharing program, the reason that we got behind raising awareness about the launch of that program in

san francisco is it's unique in that it added 50 plug-in electric vehicles to the suite. so, that was an unusual development for a car sharing company. because they're a private company, we aren't tracking the success and don't actually have any control over that program. really from our perspective the compelling component was those 50 electric vehicle plug-ins are added to our space and are available to you. >> in terms of value, the the city gets urban bragging rights, we have the electric car? >> the intrinsic value, additional options for peep to access the vehicle if they don't want to buy one themselves. it's the addition of adding to the fleet and the options. >> can you talk to me about the geographic location and where this is happening? [speaker not understood]. >> [speaker not understood] our transportation program manager has any information on the locations of those.

>> bob hayden with the department of the environment. i do not know personally individually the locations of their garages. i understand that they have made arrangements with a number of commercial garages around the city. i may actually have some mta staff may know the locations of those garages. i don't know the actual location, so, i can't -- we could provide that. >> thank you. so, i'm a little uncomfortable, i think, you talk about in terms of the intrinsic value san francisco is getting is 50 electric vehicles that are in a condensed part of san francisco. i'm told they're in the financial district, which by many studies is already very resource rich in terms of other actionses to pull people out of their cars [speaker not

understood]. there are other car sharing opportunities from companies that are also -- pods that are in the local area. so, we've attached our name to this, to a private company and i just don't see the real benefit that we're getting. the reason why our program likes to go down to the financial market is because it will be high utilization. correct me if i'm wrong. but if you're already in the financial district and you're already talking to a group of users that are educated as well as have the resource to participate in this, it's almost a recipe for success. if we really want to challenge ourselves, we should do something a little outside of the box and begin to look at models that have not been explored, like outlying neighborhoods such as visitacion valley where there

are currently no pods. so, i just wanted to put that on your mind. and also give voice to that. i don't know if you have representative from bmw here today, but i would also hope they would be encouraging and able to share their data so we can continue to [speaker not understood] cull thoughtful data as well as create policies that will be most beneficial for all of san francisco, not just a tiny segment that can afford it. >> may i just comment on that? so, as i'm sure you know, this is a new innovative field. so, there are companies, many different companies that have quite a few different models that you heard from, director [speaker not understood] today. one company we recently helped to announce was coming to san francisco is a company called scoot, where they have plug-in electric skooters that people are able to rent. and, again, there's going to be many more of these companies that are coming to san francisco that want to provide

transit options. i think in the future we're going to have to figure out how to, as you suggest, incentivize ensuring that these companies are encouraged to get to all neighborhoods and ensure that they're serving all residents of san francisco because they are private entities. they are going i think where they can succeed most, which from a financial perspective makes sense. what i'm here to comment on as environment department head. we need to find a way of incentivize companies to participate in car sharing throughout the city. >> i also need to say before we as a city jump on and sign onto their bandwagon, make sure we're getting something out of it. so, you know, john what scoots' model s. i haven't talked to them about their outreach plan or anything like that and encourage them to come and speak to me about what they're thinking so that we can begin to develop a relationship there. but just not to pick on scoots, but you universally, the city,

you guys are making these alliances with these companies and i'm not -- i'm uncomfortable with them. i don't think that they're entirely, again, like i said, serving the entire san francisco. as department head, it is our responsibility as city employees, not just department heads, to make sure we're providing something that is going to be good for all of san francisco, not again, a certain segment. thank you. >> yeah, i just wanted to thank mr. rifkin and ms. nuter officially for sharing the important environmental and city goals that car-sharing meets. i did want to ask a question, and maybe some of the people that come to testify in public comment might answer these questions. but i know in the richmond district there is a critical mass of seniors that don't have their own cars and i'm wondering, are there specific populations that you're targeting in addition to the non-english speaking or the immigrant community populations that supervisor cohen has raised.