role and none of them have p had refresher training. so we want to refresh their information about the regulationy situation speaker we want to give them traffic safety information that we have the benefit of such as a where are the most dangerous intersections and the corridors we're trying to enhance the safety. we also have a need that more taxi drivers know how to secure wheelchairs. religious are all things we would like to train the existing drivers on, on a semi regular basis. in anticipation of some of the fears i think we're going to be sending everyone back to the taxi schools or smou somehow

make this burden st. some pr we don't want this to add any cost to the driver self-interest we want to communicate with our taxi cab folks >> i want to make sure. this wouldn't add a cost to the drivers? i understand they have to complete the tainting annually >> i don't anticipate that. we would enter so what a contract and make that available to drivers >> thank you. >> we have members of the public. >> (calling names) >> okay. >> hi good afternoon barring toronto fell directors again.

i'm in support of the driver class the - driver certification. it's long overdue and i'm not going to say anything else. but the issue of driver training i have also felt there should be so refresh course particularly for new drivers and maybe have something six months to a year later for a requirement to check on their knowledge. concerning the long term drivers or drivers who have been in the business a while i am concerned they should be trained every year and i think the justification for asking for this clause it is important but there's not a lot of questions

that have been asked her. i think it's important to get the issues clarified. there's a lot of people on online who are saying we already pay $150. and i think it comes down to money. it's not like she sent out some type of policy here so we know what that's going to be about. you may be reword it they may offer some online or personal training pr i think those who can afford the technology they can over this some kind of personal training. it's a good idea to get the information out but not to make it, too or arbitrary but someone can make it difficult and

expensive for drivers >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> (calling names). >> i'm here speaking in support of this item very stronl when we're trying to distinct the services one of the things is professional drivers. and despite the prop gaped there are thirty million fairs give in a year and the level of service overall is excellent. so despite what you hear the fact of the drivers their ambassadors and the drivers do the bulk of the driving and the fact is many taxi drivers are heroes they pick up the disabled and people in cheers because we

have not taken care of those services but the fact is taxi drivers are professional. the more we can distinguish f that the better. we have no standards of training. we have private companies that train drivers and we need a much higher level of services. we need more accident control and make sure that drivers are communicated with so the equipment in the vehicle it's for their interests from cameras to a credit cards and that has to do with the communication. let's make sure our standards are very high and make sure we put this into effect. there are lots of people not going through the professional route and taking their personal cars and picking up people. when that happens incriminate

comes afterwards and things are happening >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> (calling names). >> good afternoon. my name is it david i run one of the private schools cap college. i come here to talk about the draft notice i received from the sfmta. i agree there should be changes in taxi training, however, it would be helpful to be me if the sfmta would identify the body of knowledge. give me this body of knowledge and the sfmta would test on that information. or rather sacrificing i should do one hour of this and that.

i did receive from them all students who registration for drives training work must complete it in thirty days it would be better if it were 90 days. a lot of people have families issues and in addition i think they have one half hour of instruction for the airport i would say it's 20 percent of the average taxi drivers business that could be better if it reflected the type of work that the taxi drive had to do. one thing that surprised me i saw one of the my ask the came in and i was surprised to see her here and i was surprised she

enjoyed the course and i found out that this individual was actually an investigator for the sfmta. so take care of. and gentlemen on the panel. thank you >> (laughter) (calling names). >> good afternoon directors. this item can came on the agenda without preparation or our knowledge. what you want them to do? just you keep slapping on them that is one item is called the metal badge and the picture card in the car. so those 3 items what else you want more to do. people are leaving in bundles in this industry. the ma intelligence are sitting in the cab company and the

affiliates or having hard times. the medallions are going to be less work out money. it's getting serious and you're putting more training. what do you san francisco want to know from me. which hill or which mountain is one way or two-way what else do you want to know. how can i stop in the city i know every light in san francisco. send her to elementary city hall and get the training. believe me this is a big issue she has created for us. give us a chance and push it to the next meeting and we will bring the driver to talk to you

directly. poison this meeting. a lot of drivers are totally uninformed. postpone this meeting. that's a nonsense and totally a jerk. rules rules rules. you lost your mind >> okay. next speaker. >> (calling names) >> mr. lawrence. >> commissioners for the record my name is a mr. lawrence. i thank you for letting me speak for the second time today. very briefly when you expand the rules for no particular reason you expand the bureaucracy.

you expand the bureaucracy before you know it it starts off as an online course with no fees before you know it's a fee and a fine and suspend the driver's license. an online course for training drivers is totally work outless. the only training course is driving in san francisco. that's it. there's no other course. second it that why train the taxi drivers when two-thirds are acting as taxis have 40 no training at all. they don't fall under our i am umbrella.

ask the gentleman he's not even insuring folks for online training. as you expand your father bureaucracy here to make drivers do more and more. pretty sure we're going to have to jump through a hoop every time we come to speak to show you we're humble. you don't need another added rule. as even though i'm a director of taxi services our commissioner was not an lawyer a they needed an accountant on administrator analysis >> and mr. lee is the last person. >> good afternoon i take the neutral on this issue and maybe 10 years of drivership will be

exemplification. every 3 months they have to sit in a classroom. talking anything about the history my science. they're like a student. this is a way that inspired we're the how to governor the country and better. this is a way to upgrade may be anything like science and history. it's very bottom all the way up they're still upgrading their knowledge. in america you don't go back to yale. a conventions we do they have to come to san francisco to upgrade

their knowledge. i think myself as 24 years i can teach the schools how to make money. this is neutral i have a very good instrument even though i have no health care. when i go to dental office i don't go to there every year. i am healthy than you or i know you're not healthy. i tell you i have a lot of secret way to make people healthy. like go to see the doctor and somebody get sick everything is running 25 percent of our money is going to health. i put that in my pocket i eat

good interest >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> (calling names) hello again commissioners i want to put my $0.02 on the issues. you know, i've been driving a cab for 24 years. i don't think there's anything in this city who can teach me. and why i have to take a yearly test is beyond me. it really is. i think all the drivers who have been driving a long time are very, very good can be drivers. they know the rules and how to talk to people but maybe some of the new drivers need more tests because they're the bad apples in this. i believe this thing is racially

motivated. you think we're immigrants and all stupid. you don't test those people drooifk pink mustache cabs they don't have to do anything. but you put more and more and more and more regulations on taxi drivers. it's not right. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> (calling names). >> hi mr. owen thank you. i want to applaud the initiative to insure quality control for the private taxi training schools. regarding annual training for can be drivers that's unnecessary so i think you need to amend the current language. i know that chris thinks about what they anticipates & but it's not what the legislation says.

i appreciate also in terms of there's been some investments with the bicyclists with the group of experienced drivers need some training maybe a one-time course would be adequate. and there's bad apples there's few drivers who don't want to go to some districts and they talk on the cell phones and they agriculture about taking credit cards. they've use it as a disciplinary tool. but in general we're independent contractor. i have to be carefully when you come up with something like this such as an annual training

course every year for someone's career when, in fact, their independent contractors >> thank you. (calling names) and he's the last person. >> good afternoon. this training came up last week. we were concerned about utility type of tricks harming pedestrians. so we wondered maybe there's something like that a muni driver course that should be imposing training on utility drivers. maybe you're a big truck driver but not ready to drive in san francisco. maybe you, increase pedestrian safety that way. thank you >> thank you. >> (calling names) he's the last person.

>> thank you the repeated training for the taxi service is crucial it eliminates problem drivers. yearly online is great it's not the best idea but if that's what it comes to. if they fail they should payne pay for it themselves. medallion drivers shouldn't have to go through the course every year. let's move forward carefully so we're not composing too many rules. it's my suction to move forward and have the gypsy car drivers and tell me mayor we're going to

move forward with this >> members of the board what's your pleasure. >> can i have again, a clarification. so the way it's written we're asking the taxi drivers to get training so you're saying it won't be every year >> actually for every driving permit refusal there will be some online training component. >> and i know at my corporate job there's 4 training we have to do every year it's - it takes

thirty minutes are we envisioning something like that or - >> i think it would certainly be within an hour. the word training to me is interchangeable with outreach and communication. a lot of this is be able to reach the drivers. we make regulatory changes and we want to update everyone on that. we have particular corridors where we're trying to do a lot of expensive work to improve pedestrian i safety. it would be great to tell the taxi drivers about that. the bicyclist training i use is when i personally found out the right hook was the bets way to

come into contact with the bicyclist i would also think of that. those simple messages we're learning and again, the regulatory measures are good so all the drivers who have not been in training for 20 or 2515 years we have an opportunity to reach out to them >> thank you that clarifies it. i'm willing to move it >> i have another question. just quickly one of the public speakers mentioned a thirty day window to get the training is that within the legislation and a i don't believe that's within the legislation the period is over the period of '90 days. so if you're birthday is in

august you have between that and the end of the year to complete that. we can certainly come back to the board and show you charge it is we're doing. the online training is still a little bit away base we have to develop curriculum and contracts but this is expensive looking at the fountains for that and i think the speaker was talking about the new driver training course are that he was the representative from one of the expertise. i think he believed we're playing a requirement that people finish the courses within thirty days and i was suggesting 90 days more appropriate >> what we have if you come on monday you can wait 4 months and

you can come back on tuesday and wednesday and technically you've completed the course. the specifics he referred to are in the draft standards for the schools and i'll be happy to expend that beyond thirty days and 90 days is reasonable. >> i need clarification. so for new drivers they go through the certification training course. so the renewal can be taken on line >> if we find that somebody as commented some kind of an egregio egregious behavior we'll send

them back to the mta training class. i think that the idea or suggestion be there should be some kind of an off-line training would be a good idea were >> we have to reminder we have a population of 8 thousand drivers. >> somebody pointed out their immigrants and they may not have the technology so we need to have an alternative. clearly the question about i wonder if this needs to be universal every single person but i'd like to a watch that and have reports on that. if someone was been driving for many, many years i think we need to show some flexibility.

and a were trying to get the bicycle safety reluctance and there's been a lot of regulatory changes and it's hard to get those changes out so it's helpful to tell the person's there's a new rules. >> i would think that at the end of the day that there be more conversations than ever so the motion is second for the motion. >> all in favor? item 11 right >> mr. chair as we move onto the regular agenda we have the modifications with the cappa improvement projects. >> there is a second. you i wanted to bring this to

you to give you a brief presentation. while it's just traffic modifications some of them are part of a streetscape project. and it's from a couple of years ago. the seeds were planned in some community planning that was done over the last decade over in the castro. a lot of transportation issues but the project has been led by the planning department and mta has been a sixth part of that. i think it's got broad community support and i want to give you a brief overview. we have some staff from the streets give you a quick walk through >> quibble for the benefit of

this presentation. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon directors. chairman and mr. ruskin. very happy to be before you to discuss castro street we've been talking about for the many most. i want to acknowledge any colleague from the department today. see if i can show you those slides. i realize we've been here a while. if you'll indulge me for 10 slides. we have approximately market street and 19th street as the director mentioned the project is a coordinated infer with our

office has heavy involvement. we've worked closely with many partners including the upper market benefit strict and they commissioned their own projects that was the seed to this project and also working with the merchants and the community association. castro street is one of our commercial vibrant corridors. we run a couple of muni lines and the 35 eureka and also crows castro and 17th and the location of our historic car terminal.

the street is a very busy commercial district. the picture on the upper right it's where we see trucks double parked. and the pedestrians level is very, very high and the sidewalks are crowded on the weekends and the street serves the automobile traffic as well. photo just to give you a sense of the roadways it's nearly 60 feet wide with generally 1 traffic lane for those two blocks which provides a substantial amount of excess pavement and we see double parking and this is a typical