equipped to process with the cards and they go back to our data base. the debit card system has allowed us to ramp taxi to our driver. we have distributed over $100,000 to drivers and $17,000 go to companies for that ramp service. we are trying to get money back in the program to acknowledge the hard work of the drivers also we've done more work with medallion reform. we have oh

you are 26 new parra transit vehicles are dedicated to parra transit advocates that have worked hard in the system. and you may have seen these vans going by in the community. they have a new striping system. they look real nice. they have big white stripes and they have red on the doors. both sides driver and passenger. parra transit advocate name and this is something that contributed to the program and who has sinced passed away. also inside the van is a poster with a person in the picture who has it to honor in their community. look for those because we are really proud of those and it's nice to see someone's name and who you may know. there is a

software system with parra transit system and allows new scheduling and allows us on the on board computers on the van system. now that those are all in place we have 120 on board computers and we have a van, the next step is branching out to a phone call system and we are piloting it now as we speak. this is for sf access riders who would like to be notified the night before of any scheduled trips for the next day and for the day of the trip to get an eta, a call with the van arrival information . we think it's going to be helpful for customers planning their time. it's frustrating that the advance know it but you didn't know that you can have a cup of tea. so we give

information to our customers to improve the communication in the overall service. >> we have a new service called the shop round. that's a place and i have come before you to talk about that. we talked about shop around in a grocery service for individuals who want to go grocery shopping and have a higher level of difficulty. that's for seniors but not necessarily for those that are parra transit capability. it's going well, we have expanded it which we call it van gogh shuttle for a group of individuals who are going to a social or cultural event. we are just rolling that

out now and providing the individual request for agencies for groups and individuals who have gone out to museums and the zoo and community meetings. that's been working well. as part of expanding that shop around to the van gogh shuttle we've included a staff for the management specialist to take a look at the big picture of transportation in san francisco to seniors and people with disabilities and see if there are better ways to achieve efficiencies and coordinate and we are interviewing for that position and very excited to bring awe -- a new staff on board. the website has a new look. it's sf parra transit.com and we are planning on adding functionality to

the website for parra transit taxi riders to have a portal where they can log on and look at their debit card and taxi transaction and also add value to their credit card online and being able to order tickets online. so coming soon. >> i hear that the scanner isn't working or it's never turned on or not communicating and also telling people they just don't accept

debit cards or they won't accept. it's my understanding that they are required to. i have been in a cab where they say the debit card is down and i say i have such and such amounted of money on me and i can't afford. we have negotiated a price so i can get where i'm going. i just want to say there is room for improvement in this system. i don't know how strong your relationship is with the cab companies. >> there is definitely always room for improvement. a couple of things, one is that all tax easy in san francisco are required to take the debit card. if they don't, there is a problem. all drivers are supposed to have backup slips

if this system is not working. sometimes it's a cellular network. it does happen. if it happens, where the driver actually swipes the card and says the system is not working, sometimes if they move the vehicle slightly, it will pick up the signal. there should be a back up system. she should take the card in a backup system. if that does not happen, then i would suggest you call that into 311 or to the parra transit office. i think 311 is the easiest for people to remember. accessible services is partners with the taxi division with the mta, we are in the same decision wechl work very closely together. my colleague who sits in a desk across from me who receives a phone call from 311 on the taxi side, she comes to me. we do want to get that

information. we have heard complaents. there are over 6,000 drivers in the city. not all of them are the best drivers in the world. some are but some aren't. so we do want you to call them in. >> on the van gogh are they only available in the daytime? >> no, there is some at night. if there is an opera, a movie. that's fine oovment does it go up until 10:00 at night? >> yeah. we are working on a brochure so we don't have anything fancy. when we do get a brochure we want to work on a transit website. if

anyone wants to work on a trip or you have information about a trip, you can give me a call. excuse me. 701-4440 or e-mail me at kate do the toren @ sf mta.com. >> do you have these in different languages? >> we will. we have our shop around brochures and our main languages, russian, spanish and chinese. i work in

a hospital and that would be helpful. >> thank you. i have your e-mail. >> staff? any questions? thank you. next is a progress update for light rail system. what i'm going to do is give you a little bit of a

background about the light rail system and talk about some of the things that will be coming in the future. i know many of you are very experienced and bob probably number one on this list. prior to the ada we were already making stops on the light rain system. with the ada there is a requirement for station accessibility. we looked at all of the stops on the ground and the surface stops. some of the things we looked at determining what are the key station for stops which are passenger boarding, the number of passenger boarding, transfer locations, major interest changes with other transit modes in stations and

major activity centers like employment and hospitals and places that were made for trip generators. at that time there were key station plans and at that time implemented and made those stops accessible. that happened during the 90s and since then we've done a number of other extensions in terms of accessibility as i'm sure all of you are aware of the t line which you can see on the map kind of on the side there, the red one that comes down the side, that's all access i believe every single stop. that's almost to the border of san mateo count and from the embarcadero station to 14 and the rest of 3rd street was an extension of that. as you know the central subway will be the next section of that which

will go from 4th and king into china town. the key line will extend from the extension to directly to miss skoeney center to pou street to union square and into chinatown. >> just for context can you explain a key stop means an elevated platform? >> yes. sorry. on the underground the accessible station where all the doors are accessible at high level. if you have been on the light rail we know that we have stairs going up and down. the stairs are up position and all boarding at a level with a train on the platform. when you go on the surface, it's an old street car system. it's

really a street car system that has stepped down into the street. the light rail vehicles that we have is a high low step. what we are able to do is raise the steps and then we have cement platforms so there is level boarding into the vehicle. the key stops on the surface positions require an elevated ramp in order for there to be access to the vehicle. i'm sorry i didn't make that clear. even on the surface we do have some full high level platforms like san francisco state and stones town and all of third street. all the way out. the new line the high level from level boarding at all doors. in order to make this older antiquated system which is the old street car system accessible. we need to build ramps and platforms so wheelchair users can get or anyone else that

needs to not of a level advise can get to the level floor of the platform. so in addition to these new lines, we have also built a number of additional stops since the time of the if you look at the map, there is randolph and arch and broad and preliminary and we hadded on the k line ocean and lee. ocean and lee is right by city college. there is already an accessible station at city

college. it it was preferred station. we added one there. the other thing we've done is some of the stations were older. and we've rebuilt a number of them. the one at the end at ocean beach and one appoint san francisco zoo and in san francisco which is outside of west portal which serves both the k and m line. it's had

considerable impact on the community at the location. there is drive ways. there is slopes. there is all kinds of geometric issues that make it difficult to try to fit this way side platform into an existing environment. we are looking at additional locations whether there could be feasible for future platforms. i want to mention some of the areas that we are looking at. we are looking on the n line between 19th and sunset. i know this one at -- that will be one of the first ones that we build as an additional platform. we are looking on the j line, i mentioned we were able to put a platform on the project we did recently right at market street it's right

on market. it means there is a clear and accessible stop.

there is an accessible stop. it has a lot of drive ways. every single block has multiple drive ways. we can't put it right in front of a driveway where someone can't turn in and out of the driveway. we are looking on the l line at a few locations. one that has been requested by customers is between the zoo and sunset. the other two locations that we are looking at are between west portal and 22nd and between ter val and 22nd. as i mentioned some of the challenges are the slope of the roadway. we need to make sure the slope doesn't exceed 8.33 of the platform. if it's not in the right direction, we need to build it in the direction that the slope

helps to get up to the higher level platform. drive ways. sometimes we need to make sure that we are complying with the health department compliance in terms of safety getting fire trucks in that area. obviously parking. whenever parking comes up, it makes it difficult. we need some feedback. if you see there is areas that see's greater need. we are trying to get changeover time. we want to make sure that we are able to serve all the people who use the light rail system. that's kind of a quick summary in the if you minutes of the light rail system. as i said earlier,

our contact information, anytime you want to talk to anyone in our department, feel free to call. we have a new administrative person who is so wonderful and someone answering the phone. please, be in contact with us. i can give you my e-mail which is annette do -- if you get to sf mta.com it lel get to the staff. >> we are going to have questions from the council and then staff and from public comment. tonya? >> i'm just concerned again since i last came to around

26th avenue and from there down to the next place is on the sunset. i think it's about 18 or 19 blocks. it's not like 4 our 5 blocks in between. >> it's five stops. >> but, like where that place is, i think a platform would be great. it's not blocking. it's right in the middle of the street. >> as we spoke recently, i definitely want to work with you. i think that's going to be the first location that we are going to be able to build. we are starting on public outreach. we'll be in touch with you very soon on that. anyone else. that's another thing i failed to mention. a big part of our job is education too. it's educating the community about the needs for these

platforms. often people are not that well versed. that's a really important part of the public outreach in the communities is these are members of your communities that need access to your businesses and to the residents in your area. sometimes that takes time for people to really understand that. but it does sink in. >> i would like to know is there any way that a stop can be for a person that they can exactly see these main stops and maybe put the

disabled symbol where a person can actually really see it. it would be real good. i wanted to ask about the m ocean. i live out on m ocean. when i get off of the m ocean coming into the bart, balboa bart, that is the most unsafe place. oh, my god! >> where that brick building is. that is something being looked at. that area is very difficult. there is so much going on and there is curb in the track way. they are looking at some possibilities of going past geneva. there is a citizens advisory committee in

balboa park area working in projects in that area. i can get you hooked up with them. there is a lot. one of the things i didn't mention is that there is an entrance from ocean avenue because there are also a lot of people coming from city college and from the high school there. we have a new accessible interns into bart station that comes from ocean and we are going to be building a platform across the bart station to the munis accessible stop. it's going to be a better access at ocean avenue and at geneva on the opposite sides so when they are moving on the train they won't have a lay over. we are having on both sides of the station. that is going to be improvement on the balboa side. >> even the curb that they are going to make a different color than mormal so they will stand out. so if a

person is walking they will really see it. it's usually the color of the regular sidewalk. >> right. i appreciate that. i will definitely pass that along. >> thank you. anymore councilmembers? staff. public comment? >> i'm bob. i was part of the program. i will call your attending that in anticipation that we didn't have the money to meet the need, i made sure that matt set it up that there was going to be construction. i made sure that was in the minutes and the point is that we can use that pressure on munis to say where is the rest of it. i do

want to compliment mta something that annette eluded to when the the massive reconstruction. the j line ended temporarily south of market street. in order to allow people to transfer to the underground to get downtown. they built a temporary wooden ramp at that stop: one i saw that, i gathered support i said look, you have already found you have room in the street and you've got a temporary platform. why not make it permanent? they listened to it and they

did it. if you have a problem speak out. mta fixed the problem. i said about going to community meetings when there are new key stops because we ran into opposition. some merchants felt taking away their curb side parking would take away business. it's one of those urban miss, that curb side parking is a lifeblood of small businesses. we ran into problems even with the then mayor willie brown who stopped the construction out of concern for these merchants in one neighborhood. eventually we held firm and we won and got the key platform from where we recommended it. you have to keep going to these meetings. you have to pay attention. you should not just

assume that it will be implemented. >> thank you. >> anymore public comment? anybody on the bridge line? >> no. >> okay. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> thank you very much to the presenters. it's very much appreciated. okay. moving on to line 10. information team report for the interim director on the mayor's office on disabilities. >> thank you cochair wilson. interim director mod. i'm going to keep my report brief today because i see we have a time challenge. i'm going to start with some quick announcements. on tuesday september 24th, this is a community meeting to talk about the skate

project. this meeting starts at 6-8 p.m. at the cafeteria at san francisco again hospital on the second floor. what's going on is that the city is going to be making some traffic and parking changes to port row. some of the plans are the sidewalks of the hospital. many of the features that will be part of the port row street escape is to make it more accessible but it's very important to make it part of the community process and also to support the changes that are being proposed for accessibility reasons. so we encourage your