in the past studies they showed how buses were trying to maneuver around various streets and blocking traffic for everybody. we have to find those places and maybe have to clear out the corner so there's no parking for particular hour. we're talking about using muni stops and maybe the stops -- most of them will have to be much longer so the google bus can be in the front and muni will be in the back in the same place all the time and it has room to pass around if the google bus is taking too long. these buses cannot take any -- delay muni any more than it's delayed now. muni is proud to have two doors and using them boarding people as fast as they can. these guys have one thing and lots of conversation. the other thing, i was amazed to see that 28,000 people are riding a private bus system went the city. i wonder if something can be done about that, that a muni route can be salutely modified and they can do that. people going a long distance,

people going short distance, not wanting to rub elbows with the rest of us. [speaker not understood]. i think it's very essential they pay every penny [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood] the buses are assigned particular hours a da. are ~ away [speaker not understood]. you're going to have to accept that. let me see. so, we will have to deal with some of the peak hours to deal with some of them. thank you. >> thanks. next speaker. >> [speaker not understood]. and maureen roland. >> good afternoon, ms. martin. good afternoon, i'm jane from people organized employment ride. as you know, we organize low-income people of transit dependent bus riders. and i appreciate what ed said,

this policy debate about the google shuttle really puts the mta in the middle of conversation about bus he. it's about the impact of the tech industry, displacement, tenants rights, affordable housing, all the issues our members struggle with every day. this city has a very important role to make sure that lower income people of color can live here and deal with the [speaker not understood] crisis. and the mta has a role as well. i think, you know, we really depend on your support in terms of providing a reliable public transportation that our communities need. we need more affordable bus service and for the mta they address service problems, service disparities, like overcrowding in the mission and our lack of service in the bayview. we know for you this is an important step forward in dealing with the affordable of transit. an important aspect of the affordability of san francisco. ask we need to keep working for transit beyond that. we've been working with ed, i

met with him last week. i met with john haley around the t train. we need to continue to work on the service disparities and that is why we're working on the transit equity charter amendment. we're very concerned that the tech industry is privatizing public transit. we're concerned that the tech industry is using our public infrastructure and not giving enough back to the new system to provide the service that our community so desperately need. we feel like pilot doesn't achieve these goals ~. we think the tech industry can do more. and we'd love to work with you to try and figure out what the policy solutions are, whether it's a nexus study, whether there are other revenue measures we can look at that will charge developers, the tech industry, downtown business, the people who are making millions in this city to pay for the transit system that lower san franciscans need so much. thank you. >> thank you so much. next speaker. [cheering and applauding] >> [speaker not understood]. maureen roland and [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon.

good afternoon. my name is [speaker not understood]. i'm an organizer with power with working morals with black and latino families. we're here as an organization because we're concerned about the proposals ~ charging $1 for, you know, stopping at a bus stop is very low, especially in light of what our communities have been facing recently in terms of, you know, having low-income bus riders being fined $100 for not having $2.75 to go to work, to help kids be able to get to school thanks to the mta we were able to work together and run free muni for youth. and we're in the process of fighting to make this program permanent ~. but at the same time, i still meet people who haven't heard about the program and trying to find $100 to get to school. time and time again we're told, as we're, you know, hoping to build bridges between community organizations and the mta board that, you know, the main

problem is problems with funding. and, so, when we hear from our communities, you know, my bus didn't come but i did see the twitter bus come and they're not paying anything. you can see who is being prioritized in the city. it seems really unfair that when there is such a budget crisis right now that we're not asking these corporations to pay. it isn't that, you know, we don't understand that they're tech workers out there who are also residents of san francisco, but it's the fact that you have these rich companies coming in and aren't paying anything. so, that's why this proposal is really concerning to our organization. thank you. >> thank you. the next speaker, please. (applause) >> cynthia cruz. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. ed kurtoff. >> good afternoon, ms. cu. [speaker not understood].

we remind fellow politicians that we are paying attention. at the recent environmental commission hearing, carly payne mentioned a survey of tech bus riders done by u.c. berkeley grad students which i have sent to you already. the league tech did the study and results reinforced key points we'd like to make. i don't have all the time to give all the specifics in this public comment and i tried to provide a copy, but the clerk would not take it. tech buses do take cars off the street. they also create car trips through displacement and car tech riders are increasing housing costs. we're not opposed to the pilot program but we think the current program is insufficient. first of all, companies need pay their share. charging $1 a stop is a joke. [speaker not understood] compensate for delays to muni [speaker not understood]. cost recovery fees that the media and the city attorney do not want to address. if the companies are willing to

pay more, they could just negotiate a fair price with the city or the sfmta could do a nexus study [speaker not understood] and charge a higher impact fee or put a higher tax on the ballot. ideally we would negotiate an amount everyone could afford to support. [speaker not understood] and tech companies. they are paid enough to cover the cost of electric for caltrain. we think the tax should be progressive structure in two ways. joint double decker buses should pay more than shuttles. [speaker not understood]. we also think sfmta needs to take a closer look at the location and number of stops. someone is going to get killed biking alongside these buses. they should be kept away from the most dangerous pedestrian intersections and they should not be allowed on bike routes. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. (applause) >> [speaker not understood].

ma he reroland. ~ marie roland. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon. good afternoon, my name is ben ebber line. guerrero and 4th street. busy traffic there. i'm also a rider, local rider and i also do a lot of work for nonprofit called eco city builders. so, i deal a lot with sort of holistic urban systems. you know, i'm a little bit puzzled to focus on transportation. i know that's what you do, but i think it needs to be a much bigger conversation about the things people mention about displacement and so forth. i just want to from a personal experience, i think one reason why this got to heated is because i feel like i'm not against shuttles. there's been inner city shuttles for a long time and also genentech studies going through stations to provide to genentech, so forth.

the last few years it feels like the street got flooded. so, i think it had a huge impact on our city. i said to myself, how did this happen without any public discussion first? usually when there is a pilot project, we close down mid-market for one block. let's study this for awhile and see [speaker not understood]. now all the buses are there. now i feel like the pilot study is being proposed let's have 200 stops and do the pilot study. i'm worried that this is going to rubber stamp it and this is going to be a done deal. i'd like to point out and confirm what the other people said, i think there needs to be a lot of environmental impact. carbon footprint, how much carbon footprint is added by people who are being displaced, people with high incomes, what kind of consumption pattern do they have, what kind of a carbon footprint does that bring in? it's a complicated study to say all these people, all the less

cars for the buses i think very simplistic and i would also propose further inquiry to more holistic impact on all parties involved. thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. (applause) >> maureen roland followed by [speaker not understood]. robert [speaker not understood]. and sarah grant. >> good afternoon. hi, my name is maureen roland and i am with the defunct friends of the great highway. i last came forward to address an issue like this with elizabeth o'shaughnessy whose father laid out the streets here. and i would like to object that anything be done at this time. there has not been enough rigorous costa analysis on what is happening with this. my son is relying on the transportation system being that he's disabled, hearing impaired and bad lungs and there is no mitigation for the diesel fumes which are carcinogenic and much more highly harmful than car fumes. i would like you to step back, if this is going to go on, it is really symbolic to put a

price on t but you could at least make it $2 which is what the muni riders pay per passenger, not per bus, per passenger, each time. (applause) coming into the city as well. because they obviously are commuting outside the city. so, they should escape the cost of transportation every other citizen has to pay. >> next speaker, please. good afternoon. >> [speaker not understood] followed by [speaker not understood]. sarah grant. and anthony balaster. good afternoon, [speaker not understood]. i'm [speaker not understood] transportation policy director with spur. spur is a think thank that supports good policy and good government. we ask the board to adopt the proposed commuter pilot program today. we support [speaker not understood] reduce conflicts with muni vehicles and collect detailed data about shuttle behavior, which we can then use to a dot a more nuanced policy

in the future. we are greatly concerned about the consequences of not adoptsing this [speaker not understood] today. lack of useful real time data. as you know, we're at the beginning of far reaching changes in urban transportation, new transportation technologies are coming to market. new services are being tried out. commute patterns are changing. and the way we use curb space is changing as it is a [speaker not understood], bike corrals and boarding for new mobility provide early. at the same time, we should all continue to work to make public transit work and spurs to work with muni and regional transit. so we hope eula apt this legislation today. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon. hello, my name is ed [speaker not understood], thanks for having me. i live in san francisco near 24th and jersey street.

i've lived in san francisco more than 10 years. my daughter is in rosa parks and my son will be entering there next year. i consider this my home. [speaker not understood] i speak on my own behalf. when i first joined google i used the shuttles. they made it possible when we moved back to san francisco for me to go without an additional car. at this point i work within the san francisco office and i ride my bicycle almost every day. but if there was no shuttle i might need to have an additional car or motorcycle to get down to south bay when i need to meet with people there. it would not -- not having a shuttle would not mean that i would change location. it would just mean that i would need get an additional car. as i said, i ride a bicycle almost every day so i am very much in favor of this proposal because it includes mechanisms to try to improve street safety. i'm well aware of not just the long distance shuttles. all of the shuttles do impact

traffic and riding a bicycle i'm he very aware of them. i believe this proposal allows a framework, it provides similarly to initiate a fee structure and to figure out how to improve transit. i strongly support it. thank you. >> . next speaker, please. ~ thank you. >> [speaker not understood], [speaker not understood]. >> are any of those folks here? >> is robert [speaker not understood] here? sarah brand? anthony balaster? he is in the room? you'll follow ms. brand. >> good afternoon. hi, [speaker not understood]. hi, my name is sarah brand. i took the afternoon off and took 8 hours to be here that's how much i care. one of the things i noticed for myself is i was born and raised in san francisco.

i've been paying for muni since i was in diapers with my family. when muni breaks downey walk an hour and a half to work if i can't get on the bus. so, that's how that work. but one of the things i'm really proud of is we have a transportation system and it makes me really sad that we have regional shuttles and corporations that are saying, you know, you can't fix that. so, we're going to go around it. they have created a system where they renegade decide what they are going to do and they ask you the board who is really in charge to go along with their system and stamp it or come up with a system that works based on what they already did. and i encourage you as the board to find your system that works for us because you are in charge and you are the people who decide how much they will pay. i do not have a car. but when i have to drop off my disabled father, when i pull into a muni stop i run the risk of a huge fine. which is why i don't do it.

so, that is something i ask you if you're going to offer that to private citizens and private cars, offer that to private buses. they can afford to pay $200 if they park in a muni stop. thank you. (applause) >> [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. jim [speaker not understood]. mike watson. >> good afternoon. good afternoon. my name is anthony balaster. by the time i introduce myself to the bosses, i'm a coach operator. you see me back here all the time. it's my day off. i'd like to know what's going on. i'm here not representing the union or sfmta. i'm over here to speak about what's going on. i [speaker not understood] at third and geary and i pick up people in wheelchairs, elderly people on 38th and of course

8x. anywhere between market and van ness on gary, it's hard to get into the bus zones. you have limo drivers parked in the bus zones. that is one instance that outbound there is three car. if you flag stop at 108 right there, then i notice there is a gentleman in the wheelchair, i picked him up before. his legs -- both knees are missing. i was upset. i'm going to get in trouble for this. i secured my coach. and i found out those two cars belong to the pizza place right there. so, they move their cars. and then i picked up their [speaker not understood]. this program is going to work, these coach operators have to look at the bus zone and see

what kind of people are there waiting for the muni. there's elderly people, there is a chair there would have to pick up. we have to be alert, we have to be trained. i do like the proposal put together. anyway, let the muni coach go in first [speaker not understood]. a lot of accidents happen because of delays. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. (applause) >> next speaker, please. >> [speaker not understood]. jim watson. matt reagan. henry pan. >> good afternoon. good afternoon. thank you all very much for the opportunity to speak. the hearing today is at 1 o'clock. i know a lot of folks are at work today. i did want to submit a petition for those who could not join at the. i would like to read the petition from you. it's signed by 215 a san francisco residents who couldn't make it.

we are pleased to present you with a petition affirming this statement. we the undersigned are writing you in support of the resolution before you to amend division 2 of the transportation program to establish a pilot program to [speaker not understood] did he nated muni stops and to continue to offer to thousands of san francisco residents mass transit alternative to get to work. [speaker not understood]. paying thousands of cars off the road, reducing vehicle regional miles traveled by 45 per year and reducing the carbon output 11,000 metric tons [speaker not understood]. i'll read several of them. shawn from san francisco wrote that the shuttles are necessary to reduce traffic, carbon emissions, increase productivity. this is a win/win for employees, companies, bay area residents and the environment. jillian from san francisco writes, as a seven-year tech employee in san francisco, i'm so grateful to have access to

these butters. i had to make the drive to the peninsula by myself. robert writes, the shuttles provide hundreds of or for san franciscans. thank you very much for the opportunity. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> jim [speaker not understood]. matt reagan. henry pan. dominic [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon. good afternoon, mr. chairman, members of the commission. i'm jim wonder man, president and ceo of the [speaker not understood] regional association of businesses headquartered here in san francisco, work with the sfmta and a lot of the affect l company about a year's time to try and work this out and come up with a reasonable compromise that we could begin to get our arms around this for the city, which has become a defective

thing, very important one. the system collects about 35 to 45 san franciscans per day to their job location, supervisor wiener and some of the folks who testified more than 50% of these folks would impact city streets and carbon emissions [speaker not understood]. we think it's a very worthwhile program. you have your work ahead of you as an organization to work this out because it is a pilot and there's a lot of details that will have to come from this point forward. but i think it stands to reason that there needs to be a program and it needs to involve cost recovery. it is tied, it is certainly a lot of focus on the problems that this is associated with. and those are extremely real problems. they're not new problems but they're exacerbated by the economy.

and the organization, we're commit today work with folks in this room and you and others to see what we can do about affordable evictions and difficult issues that are happening. let's not focus on the transportation port of it. that's what this pilot is doing. and we urge support on your part. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speakers. >> [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon, mr. watson. good day, thank you for your time. i'm speaking on behalf of bowers intelligent transportation. in support obviously i guess of the commuter shuttle program. i'd like to give a little bit different face to the issue. it's been kind of phrased as a google bus. people leaving san francisco and going down to silicon valley. but as carly's information showed, about 80% of the riders are riding within san francisco.

we operate buses down to the peninsula, but we have them from the east bay into san francisco for the riders. most of the riders we carry from shuttles, from bart to caltrain stations, to employers within the city. we run commuter shuttles for tootctiontionv at san francisco state. we ride va patients or doctors to work to their medical facilities in the city all using cooperatively muni soxctionv for approximately 10 years. we're an employer that's based in san francisco and are some 400 employees, our bus drivers, bus cleaners, mechanics, just remember working class people that are supported by this service. and we'd just like to again mention our support of this because it enables us to continue to put food on our table. thank you.

>> thank you, mr. watson. next speaker, please. >> matt reagan, hillary pan. dominic hay. lena bardovi. [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon, mr. reagan. good afternoon, [speaker not understood], matt reagan also with the bay area council. we are the group as my colleague adrian [speaker not understood] explained, we bring the tech [speaker not understood] a year ago to work on this issue. i'd like to thank carly payne and the wonderful collaboration and cooperation we had with sfmta. it's been a wonderful process and i think we're at a very good place with this pilot program. i think there are some minor details that need to be ironed out in the next number of weeks where we can successfully match the shuttles and the muni services together in a seamless manner as possible. [speaker not understood]. most of my tenure at the bay

area council, i've been working on housing issues and this issue has been somewhat conflated with housing issues and affordability issues in san francisco. i spent an awful lot of time in this room on thursday afternoons with the planning commission the last number of years. it's great to see how many housing and the last of housing, and their energies to this room on thursday when affordable housing projects are before the planning commission. quite often there are hundreds of people opposing those projects and little or no people standing in support of them. so, i would advocate and ask about folks who are showing up on a thursday as well as tuesday. perhaps we can get a solution to this problem. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. (applause) >> next speaker, please. >> [speaker not understood]. forest hanson, rebecca rodriguez. good afternoon again, my name is henry pan as i said

before. i am here to inform that you guys should probably take a more scrutinized evaluation, consider charging higher fees for these shuttles, which cause a [speaker not understood] impact on everyday mean aloe riders by blocking the [speaker not understood]. the shuttles are delaying any service causing everybody not to fly in. everybody is running late to school and work as a result of these shuttles. so, that being said, a higher fee should be charged, many agencies [speaker not understood] providing better services for those tech workers that they may not have to rely on those shuttles any more. in addition, dta and [speaker not understood] could use some of that money in order to increase service down in the peninsula by getting --

de-emphasizing the shuttles, but unfortunately these shuttles are robbing these agencies of the funding they desperately need. as you can see, san trans, they are cutting their services this week. so they can really use some of that money. >> thank you. next service. (applause) >> [speaker not understood], forest hanson. rebecca rodery guess. a good afternoon, my name is dominic haig. i live in san francisco [speaker not understood] years and i want to give you my perspective. we've heard from people who benefit from shuttles. [speaker not understood]. my goal is to work in the 95 451 [speaker not understood]. now as of recently i started working with a company involved in the shuttle business in san francisco. i rarely have to drive. i normally take a bike to work. what we're doing is bringing

innovation to the [speaker not understood] areas. this is an excellent [speaker not understood]. so, i urge you to adopt it. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> linda bartolvi. forest hanson. rebecca sanchez, aim os gregory. >> good afternoon. good afternoon, my name is [speaker not understood] and i live and work in san francisco. my daily commute is on muni. [speaker not understood] i am fully in favor of these commuter shuttles having a space in our city. these shuttles take thousands of cars off of the road and [speaker not understood]. the rising cost in san francisco is happening. it has been happening for a long time now, but it is not because of these shuttles. these shuttles are merely an answer to the growing population of residents who do not want to drive alone in a car every day 2 and from work.

the adoption of this pilot program will ensure people do not start driving in cars to work. because of these reasons i urge the board to a reasonable step in the right direction. thank you for your time. >> next speaker, please. >> forest hanson, drew sherwood, aim os gregory, and [speaker not understood]. >> hello, my name is forest same son and i'm here in support of the pilot program. i'm able to live and work here in san francisco thanks to my employment in the shuttle sector. i would support this proposal even if that weren't the case. the city set a lot of goal [speaker not understood]. this is necessary if san francisco in the region is to fulfill the population growth projected over the coming decades. [speaker not understood] single vehicle trips taken and ghg emission, and they continue to be a valuable complement to public transit and a viable

alternative to driving alone. i'd also remind everyone that a large part or goal of this pilot is to better understand and reduce impacts that these shuttles have on municipal. everything can operate a little more efficiently. a lot of thought, time, and discussion has gone into the role of this [speaker not understood]. and sfmta as a whole has played in this process. the further enabling the aforementioned contributions and establishing an equitable positive relationship between muni and private and public commuter shuttles. >> thank you, sir. >> [speaker not understood]. aaron mikel. nadia win stead. >> any of those folks here? >> is rebecca rodriguez here? drew sherwood? >> gentleman is coming forward. good afternoon. thank you. i'll keep my comments brief.