information about volunteering through that website as well. >> all right. >> and the key for the volunteers is for this saturday and if you are able to do that, that is wonderful. >> thank you. >> that is at moscone north? >> yes. >> commissioner comments or questions? >> commissioner ortiz. >> just one comment, i really thank you for this program. you don't understand, like without the jobs, youth are sometimes wanting to shoot or don't have that structure, just last week, my nephew was shot and maybe if he had a job. you know he just got his work permit and was going to get a job. and just one life that you save. it makes a difference. >> thank you for that, i appreciate it. >> public comment? >> on item number five?

>> seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you very much. very important. thank you. >> commissioners, i just want to add in your binder, there is an additional document, in the program, and that i included in your binder, stapled that you can take home with you that has base basically what is covered and that you can take back to anyone who may be interested. >> and we are looking for employers, correct? >> yes. >> perfect. >> you will have item six and presentation and discussion by the sfmta on the parking policy, biking policy and out reach with small businesses. and members of the public, at the side table we do have speaker cards, but we do not require but we do ask that if you do want to speak during the public comment that you consider filling out a speaker card and you can leave it right at the front of the podium here and that would be appreciated and i believe that mr. president, do you have opening

remarks? >> i do. on behalf of the commission, would i like to welcome the members of the small business community, sfmta, the bicycle community and other members of the public for this important hearing and i would also like to thank sfmta director ed riskin and staff for attending and presenting tonight. and at our hearing and director, and the sfmta staff, have diligently met and discussed the hearing with the staff and i am confident that today's presentation will cover a breathe of topics, topics include parking programs and projects, bicycle programs, and projects, collaboration, with the community transportation authority and importantly the key topic that i would like us to consider is out reach and engagement between the small business and the sfmta. one of the key elements of the

small business commission and the office of small business mission statement is to foster and promote small business in the city and county of san francisco, and our role today is to promote the involvement of small businesses in the early planning processes this the process and programs. i believe that they are committed to working with the small business community and to improve engagement with small businesses and will provide us all with an opportunity to engage in a positive dialogue to discuss how to improve this engagement moving forward. having the further discussion on the lessons learned on the key projects that we will be discussing including the north east mission parking plan and the polk street improvement project. the role is not to collect the

sfmta in particular directions, on either of these projects, rather the commission will hear an overview of these projects but the focus on how the small business community was engaged early and the planning process and involved in the project plan and development and implementation. i ask that the small business community keep this discussion forward-thinking. we want to hear about the circumstances that have occurred in the past. but we need to focus on how the processes can be approved moving forward. >> i ask the department to be frank and honest and allow the commission to understand what lessons have been learned so that the best practices can be highlighted, recognized and duplicated. my goal tonight is not to end the discussion with tonight's hearing, but rather have this be the start of a continued dialogue, with both the sfmta and other city agencies and out reach and engagement to the small business community. issues that have been identified, are not unique to

the sfmta and we will have an opportunity to really make a difference moving forward with both agency and others. the economic impact of these programs and projects need to be key driver behind the projects and i hope to convey this to the city family today and in the future with that i would like to introduce ed riskin. >> i am grateful for the effort that you put in the small business, and we have a present that we are going to walk through and provide an intro

and have the subject matter walk through the particulars of parking and street scape projects. but i guess that i want that and to acknowledge that the sfmta fully appreciate how important small businesses are to san francisco, and it is part of and i would like to think that perhaps, the work that happened on divesidero was part of the attracter to the beautiful space that they moved in now. not just the role that the small businesses play in the economic and the economy, of this city but really in the vitality and the culture and the soul of the city for the people not just to live here but for the people who are choosing to work here as a result or visit here, it is really the small businesses are the back bone and we understand that. and we also understand that we

have strong leadership, i believe from the mayor and the president who i believe was a former commissioner here. and for the entire board of supervisors and i think that most of the policy bodies in the city directing our department and the rest of the city family to be supportive of small businesses and that is absolutely what we want to be doing. and i did not come to work in san francisco and to do something that would hurt that essential part of our economy and our city and we want to be a part of making the small business community stronger. and that is what we will endeavor to do, and i know that we will do differing opinions and how and we welcome that feedback. and i want to just talk a little bit >> we are going to talk about

polk in particular and the north east mission, and when we talk about the parking. and then, we are really eager to hear the feedback from the public and from the commission. so just a minute on the sfmta. and as you know we will put together to really be an integrated comprehensive transportation for the city. the voters took what used to be some pieces of muni of tax is and tackering and traffic and put it altogether under one roof and we could integrate and coordinate in a way to manage the transportation or the city. and it was what we are a unique agency in that regard and i think that there was a lot of foresight for the people and the voters of san francisco to put that together. i think that we are still going through the growing pains and really coming into our own as an agency. but i think that the direction is a good one for the city to enable us to comprehensively evaluate the transportation and

manage transportation for the city. and the sfmta board of directors last year, approved a strategic plan for the next six years for the agency and i wanted to briefly outline the goals of that plan. and the first goal was safety, above,. but the second goal was implementing the mandate that the board of supervisors code in 1973 when they created the transit first policy and i will talk a little bit more about that briefly and the third goal is a recognition of our role and responsibility and improving the environment and the economy of san francisco and that is why it is a close nexus of the interest of the small business commission, we absolutely see our role in supporting and helping the economy of san francisco.

and then the fourth goal is basically that we need to be stronger as an agency in order to deliver all of those other goals and i thank out rich and communication in your opening mr. president, is a key area that we need to improve upon. i think that you will see that the two projects that you referenced today, north east mission and polk those%backer not complete and looking backwards, i think that there are lessons learned and looking forward as you suggested, i do think that there are opportunity for us to find good solutions that are going to work for businesses and work for residents and work for visitors and i think that the lessons that we get out of that will help us all going forward. but we recognize that that is something that we can improve upon. i met recently with a small business network. and i indicated to them that one of the things that we are doing now is leadership in charge of our communication ss looking at our out reach

processes because they have not been consistent and in some cases they have not been adequate. and we are looking at really documenting and strengthening those and i am sure that we will get to those from the members of the public that would love to hear from the public from you and how we could better and sooner as you say, engage effectively with the small business community. so that is something that we look forward to and as one of our goals as an agency to be able to implement all of the other goals. >> just want to note that one of the contexts that were. >> i think that the rest of the team will work with the powerpoint. there is a lot of growth coming to san francisco and in the last 30 years we have added 145,000 people to the city and in the next 30 years, and we

may add that many more. and that many more jobs. and that many more according to the projections and part of the goal and part of why we need and why we think that the transportation is really important. and how to accommodate the growth of people and jobs and visitors and the way that allows us to preserve what we love about san francisco and the quality of life that we love, the air quality. and just kind of keep that in mind, already the second densist city in the country after new york. and we are going to have a lot more people coming here, and so how we manage that transportation will be important and that is underlying a lot of what we are trying to do as an agency. and more specifically, with regard to the transit first goal

that is sad with the growing population, we don't want all of those people to come to san francisco, and try to get around making every trip in their own private automobile, because if we do that, and our streets are going to be full of congestion and the air is going to be pull pollution and much of what we love about the city will be diminished. even not to just add the trips to san francisco as more people come, we would need to start shifting, more in accord with the transit first policy. my philosophy and our philosophy of how we do that is not by making it more difficult to drive, or park in san francisco. and not to punish people who are in automobiles, but to make the other forms of transportation more attractive, or at least to make them good options for people so that every time you are about to walk out your door, you have an

array of options that you know that there say muni bus or a train that will get you there or you can get a taxi or you can bike safely or walk safely to where you want to go. or if you decide, you can jump in your car and you can get to where you want to go too. so that is part of the mode that shifts on the slide is the what we have adapted to get up to 50 percent of the trips taken in san francisco to be taken in line with the other transportations mode and we recognize that a big part of our doing that would be to make the other modes for people and to make muni effective and to make taxis adequate and making walking and biking in the city safe and to promote car sharing. so this is really, what our charge is, this is our core part of our strategic plan and we think that this is an important part of what will make the economy strong, and be supportive of small businesses

and as we go forth, and implementing this plan, we want to do so in a way that does that. so i think that is where i am going to stop, i am happy to state here for questions at the end. and then i am going to turn it to jay premiss to walk through the parking and ren olds to talk about the bicycles and street projects and we will be hear to answer the questions and hear the public comment. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, i work on parking at the sfnti and i am going to do a brief overview of how we manage park and why. especially how it is important for economic vitality and competitiveness in san francisco. well, and i want to start by

showing a picture of exactly what we are trying to avoid in parking management in san francisco especially in the commercial areas. what you see, in san francisco, where every parking space is taken. which leaves drivers to circle and looking for a parking space or double parks. it waists their time and fuel. and also dangerous and we know that as you circle, we are distracted drivers that are much more likely to hit the pedestrians across the street or a cyclist or another car. stuck in the middle is me. this is part of the reason why muni is not as fast or reliable as it waits for a car to turn right or left or negotiates around a slowly parked car. what we do see is how crucial is for vitality and it is important to have open parking space and even this commercial district, and even if not,

every customer arrives by car we want to make sure that there is an open parking space, and access to the area and make it predictable. >> another reason why parking management is so important in san francisco, is that we are growing, and as ed pointed out, there is something with san franciscoans can agree on that it is hard to park here and that will only get worse in the future and that is why parking well is going to be even more important as we go forward. >> okay. another reason that we manage parking especially in commercial areas where people live is the clear relationship between paying for parking and commuting by car. and what you see here in case you can't see, it shows the number of people, the percentage of people who drive alone to work and nothing to do on the west and that is where the people have the free parking at work and then on the line is the percentage of

people who drive alone and will have to pay for parking, so 75 percent, this is based on a survey of 3600 drivers, 75 percent don't have to pay for parking pay alone and so clearly, managing parking and sometimes can be a pain, it is part of how we reduce congestion, and reduce greenhouse gas emission and improve quality. these are core and urgent goals for the city. >> and over the last few years, they have taken many steps to improve parking to make it easier and more convenient. and sometimes the change of managed parking for decades and crucial first step in this process was simply recognizing parking is a powerful tool, to achieve our goals and not just a way to balance our budgets. in the past, sometimes when we need it to raise the ref revenue we would raise the rates.

clearly the parking to the greater emphasis of achieving the goals. and the parking revenue is a important part of how we play for muni with 100 percent of revenues coming back and we do have that new focus on the managing parking as intelligently as possible. >> and so you can't manage what you can't measure, a first step and simply understanding how much parking we have, answering that question, how many publicly available parking spaces are there in san francisco that are critical for managing parking and i think that we are the only city who believe that the only city in the nation and possibly the world outside of hong kong that has done this, the field surveying that wuk park in as well as carefully counting every block on the street, how many spaces are there? >> and it is something that is helpful for the city in saving time and money for other projects. and we don't have to do that on a project to project basis, and

you can use that for many other things. making sure that the parking rules apply equitablely to everyone. we started by making sure that the city employees and city vehicles have to pay the meter when parked. before this changed, the city vehicles parked for free at meters with no time limit. and we also reserve on the free reserve spaces that some city and agency enjoyed for years. and mta we are one stepfather to ask all of our employees who part in our lots to pay when they drive to work. these as you might imagine were not popular steps in the city government but they were important for the acredibility and putting their own house in order before askinging san franciscoan to manage their parking. and another core part of our strategy, with the parking management was addressing the issues that happened when people can't quickly and easily find a space.

in other words, reducing the easy to find a parking space to reduce the amount of circling and double parking that we see, there are two main strategies and one is simply providing better information, and there is high, and low tech ways to do that, and you can see it on the street and trying to get the people, guide them to the available spaces in our city, garages and lots and as well as high-tech, and real time information, the first city in the world to have an app of real time information where the parking is available. and the whole idea is to get the people matched up and off the road as quickly as possible. >> we also have been testing the pricing via the park pile projects and in those areas, to cover the metered space and 14 of the garages we are obligated to find the lowest rate possible so that you experience as drivers that there are almost always a parking space available on every block that is the goal. and meter parking and for our

garages never to feel that there is always space for the next shopper who wants to come to the commercial areas and on the whole, we have been reducing rates and the garages we have lowered the average rate of the garages has gone down by 40 cents an hour. and on the street the average rates have gone down 20 cents an hour and some have gone up and some have gone down. and at the park meters you might not know that 22 percent of meters are a dollar an hour. or less. and 11 percent of meters are 25 cents a hour or less, this is the cheapest parking in california. and another piece of this is just returning the municipal parking garages to the core, original purpose they were build to support the vitality of our businesses in san francisco. the last thing that you will see is the garages full of come muters and raised prices. and lower rate and hourly rates

for the short term trips for shoppers. so, first, we made it easier to find a parking space and then very important to make it easier to pay and finally you don't have to carry around bags of quarters to pay for parking in san francisco. and studying in the park meters and the first and that accepts not just coins and smart cards but credit cards. this year, starting this fall we will be replacing the rest of the meters city wide and we are working on that as much as possible. even the older meters and last year we ruled out pay by phone and every meter in the city to get the credit card to the cell phone, smart phone or not so you can pay and the very good about this is that you get when it expires, if your meter is late and you are shopping, you can add a little time without having to go back.

and something that customers really love. so, by making it easier to pay at those meters, and in those park areas, we also tested the time limit to 4 hours and this combination means that we have been getting far fewer parking meter related citations and that is a great customer service and drivers and also good news for us as an organization and our parking control officers have plenty to do, rather than giving tickets to people who would have liked to have payed and couldn't. >> and what you see here is an illustration of how we changed the proportion of the revenue that we get and just like we want the people to pay the bus. when they ride the bus. you really want the people to pay, people pay one way or another, either at the meter or getting a ticket and we increased the proportion of people who pay but finally making it easy. another core strategy for parking is just improving the customer experience. and sometimes, parking in the

past in san francisco could feel complex, and anxiety ridden and difficult and hard to find. the experience that we are trying to create is something that the smart, easy, convenient and respectful. one example of that is the attention at the meters and these are the decals on the meters and we invested a lot of energy of having every touch point fueled smart and easy. and the electrical and clear. and our goal is to make that and to create that, that kind of experience every step along the way and the people to come to san francisco and park. if you seen the garage near sf, and that is the proto type and what can be done with a little power washing, and the new paints and new item and to create that different kind of an experience.

and over all, the focus on customer experience, the people in the region have choices about where they shop and there are plenty of great places in the bay to go, and over the years, it could be that we have trained people, not to come to san francisco. it is hard to find a parking space and you can't pay and i am anxious about coming back and finding a ticket and put the money that i had and hope for the best. and come back and actually get a ticket and never return to fillmore, for example, that is exactly what we want to avoid. so with this, with this one directional move and it is creating that, is when the people choose to drive, and the parking and the experience and helping to change that perception, you bring the people back to san francisco. so, that was the over all strategis for improving the parking and next we will walk through some specific projects and the parking management plans. normally the groups in the projects are thinking about them and we are working and reducing the parking demands, not everyone can drive, it is a

small, dense city. and when we are trying to reduce the number of cars that are just competing for that finite number of spaces so that when people choose to drive it is easy to find. we want to diminish demand. and another is car sharing, it is a fabulous tool that the research suggests that for every shared vehicle on the road, 10 private vehicles are taken off and that is great news especially in residential areas where it can be very difficult to find a parking space. and another issue, especially in the commercial areas is how we manage the accessible and disabled parking and we have been making steps, and we will be hearing about that later this month and more generally trying to make alternatives to driving more and more attractive so that people can leave the house and be sure between walking muni and bike sharing and taxis that they will be able to meet a lot of

their needs for more and more trips. >> other projects are related to managing parking where and when useful. san francisco is a city and we have been changing and evolving over the years and our parking management has not kept up in one way, some ways as recent example of that and when we installed the meters in the 40s and 50s. the vast majority of stores were closed. meters are tools on the street to try to create the open spaces. and so now, that it only made sense joining the ranks of most cities, and to operate those meters on sunday. all in the name of better parking management to achieve transportation goals and to treat open space to support vitality. >> and here, is the meter is the evening around the baseball stadium and the high number of

special events that we see throughout the year and incredible parking demand that we see at those times. and another part of this of course is managing where and parking where necessary. and one way that in the eastern neighborhoods is parts of the city that 20 or 30 years ago were very different and where they are make-up, and it has completely changed the face of those areas and the city. these areas have the highest parking we have ever measured, it is incredibly difficult to find a parking space and so to address those current issues as well as the ones that we see coming, and a lot that have is focused here. and i am working and in these areas. and so if we do not. we are concerned, not just by the transportation issues but the absence of parking management if left, it could hold back, and to pull up to

those areas. and so, these in many ways are just following through the implementing what was called for, the issue of this process over the last decade. for those process, further parking management proposals, and we want to touch on the process, and obviously cause a lot of concern, and so those initial parking proposals were developed in 2011, on the basis of pretty significant data collection sxout reach. but as we move to the approval process in may of 2011 to early 2012, we heard loud and clear from the community, several concerns. and the response to those, we paused the projects to slow down the process and make sure that we could engage with each neighborhood. separately. rather than all at once, and gathering more data and another round of extensive out reach which we have been doing and starting in mission bay and are now