trafficked corridors and people people doing circumventing to get there. >> as it turns out, the broadway currently takes more left hand turns than all the other intersections put together, so if we're going to maximize the travel time for the buses and for north-south traffic a number of left turns have to be given up and broadway had to be retained so the decision was made to modify that scene of that intersection to take the extra capacity expected and we're adding a second controlled left turn to broadway i know there are safety concerns at that

scene of the at that intersection and there there will no longer be uncontrolled left turns at broadway. we added a second turn lane there to deal with the extra capacity. >> thank you. interesting. one question on page 4 we note that there's 16 thousand daily passenger boardings within the passenger limit but i also notice golden gate transit using those lanes do we have any sense of -- i'd imagine with golden gate transit it takes that number of people who aren't necessarily getting on the bus but are travelling through so we're impacting so many people in a positive way on those buses. >> i don't have any numbers at hand right now for golden gate transit but i can say the 47,

49 lines which will benefit over all from this project not just in the corridor but the project will help speed up service and improve reliability along those lines and between 35 and 40 thousand passengers a day so it will have -- this project is a regional project as as caltrans continues to remind us when we meet with them. >> okay. thank you. >> just very quickly, i want to build off of the comments i see that in your presentation here you talked about how it's going to improve pedestrian safety along the corridor, i'm wondering if you folks spent anytime looking at how much safer it will be for people in cars to actually have more

controls for making left turns as opposed to uncontrolled left turns that might lead to a collision. >> that's a good point and we have been working very closely with caltrans to make sure that we don't do anything to worsen the safety situation for vehicles so far they have been very satisfied with the changes we've been making. but that's a good point. we can definitely look into that. >> i know that there's this company -- ups a great company they have this policy of not making left you are not left turns and part of it is the safety with eliminating left turns and it's good to control them and sometimes folks have issues with driving a little bit further but in the grand scheme of things if we're looking at making our city's

safer so looking at making it safer even for drivers so i'd like to hear about that. >> thank you so much for for the outreach efforts and i was wondering what the plan was by including seniors and the disabled so i was wondering what your plan was. >> so we're making every effort to meet or exceed ada requirements i've presented to the mta committee before and i've been working closely with both kevin jackson and carl johnson from the mayor's office and light house for the blind to see if we can come up with some new and innovative ways of identifying for the people who

are visually impaired that they are actually at an scene of at an scene of at an intersection with a brt stop. >> thanks. >> i want to thank you for that presentation. i think it's a great project. my concern is also with the businesses that are in that corridor you know, in terms of the white zones and yellow zones will they get their deliveries we don't want people double parked to slow down traffic have we looked at how we're going to address that? >> it has has been brought up and as we get closer to construction -- the first time it will begin to seriously raise its head when we start the actual construction is we're going to have to work closely with police and parking and traffic to make sure that we have very stringent

enforcement along van ness avenue the expectation is if we crack down early, we can prevent that behavior from developing. >> i just want to add i think the underlying part of the question how are mitigating concerns about existing white and yellow zones the shorter answer we've been working up and down the corridor to find work arounds and preserve them wherever we could. >> we've been working with the businesses and in a number of cases relocated white zones around the corner and in other locations at least one restaurant we've -- we tweaked the transition on some on some of the landscaping to help preserve their white zones because it was a matter of a couple of feet so we made sure

we could preserve their white zone in front of of the restaurant. we heard back from two hotels and this one restaurant we met with representatives from all 3 businesses and basically went through our plans to see what kind of impact we were having and how we could minimize it. >> fine. thank you. >> he >> members of the public? >> all right. >> good afternoon mr. mccoy. >> thank you. my name is glen mccoy a mccoy a 28-year

resident of san francisco and for all of that time i've worked in the civic center neighborhood having never owned a car in san francisco i'm also a long time and regular user of public transit folks thank you for the opportunity to offer comment on the proposed van ness bus rapid transit plan over all we think the plan is a great improvement for our neighborhood we applaud the foresight and care you are putting into it but on behalf of the ballet and i believe other art associations in the center we'd like to call attention to one serious concern about the stop at grove street given city hall the access to bill graham auditorium and of course the opera house and davis city hall i think it would be hard to find an scene of an

intersection on van ness with more pedestrian traffic so we'd ask that you take a closer look at that for all of our organizations a significant portion of our audience is senior citizens. we're very concerned about making access less convenient for them and a growing number are disabled citizens so we would ask that while we support the project, that you take a close look at at the elimination of that particular location. >> thank you sir. >> next speaker please? >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. i'm rustle kelvin kelvin the chief marketing director of the san francisco similar of the san

of the san francisco symphon y. we have a significant number of senior citizens that are patrons as you know at the hall we seat over 27 hundred patrons and we conducted a survey over the summer where up to 15 percent take mass transit specifically the bus lines and those are locals and obviously tourists also and again a significant number are senior citizens and that stop is right on the corner and unfortunately a negative impact on us so if you could reconsider that stop. thank you. >> good afternoon mr. smith. >> i'm a member of the san francisco transit rider's union and i'd like to show you this

plan looks like a smart adaptation to changes that are going on in the city and elsewhere. i think that carrying more people and fewer vehicles and making it easier to live without a car will address our high cost of living and it will address the changes of younger people driving less and wanting to live without cars . it will basically make the city more livable and it will help the agonizing trips that some people have to take from market street to north beach or bay or however far north it goes . my brother lives in the in the upper haight and he used to go to school around around pier 39 and he said it was

agonizing and this would do a lot to improve it. i don't know i don't know what else to say. i'm in favor of this. i'd like to see it happen. >> thank you. next speaker please? >> i thank you directors. i'm ruth naught the director of education at the san francisco opera. . regarding the grove street stop being eliminated not only because many of our patrons are older but we're making extra efforts in partnerships with schools and families to have more people coming that way as well so we appreciate you considering that as a possibility. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please?

>> my name is michael smith and i'm a long time transportation professional. i've tried to use data and information to improve the health of their transit systems and unfortunately the current system is not so healthy it's arteries clogged on van ness. it's not working for anybody even though it's the main transportation corridor and we really need to make improvements that are cost effective but go a long ways and these improvements are exactly that. the types of improvement we're looking for is traffic lanes that are dedicated to traffic turn restriction and see and such and these will make a huge difference the things we can not have is a did a dumbing down of the system so that it doesn't work for anybody. we know that more than 10 thousand

people use this corridor every day so i ask you to make as many improvements to this proposal as possible and not to detract from it in in anyway way the passengers of san francisco need you. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon and thank you. my name is alice, majy i'll keep this short and sweet we love brt we want to see it throughout the entire city. this timeline we want to move it as close as possible so let's stop the delays and make it happen. more people on transit means more people moving through this city and i frankly don't care how many parking spaces we have to sacrifice. thank you. [laughter]. >> okay thank you. next

speaker please. >> good afternoon mr. anderson. >> thank you for having me again. i live at 77 van ness here to represent the homeowners association for the building at the corner of van ness and fell. i applaud brt people in brt people in the building -- our building is situated to where it faces van ness. i can tell you our building -- we have no idea that -- it looks like where the stop is going to be is directly in front of our building. now it's a little bit over between hickory and oak and in june or may of last year i called and spoke with brt to see whether

or not the stop is going to be changed and i was told at the time it was going to be on market and van ness. we started a neighborhood watch through the safe program here in san francisco we've had beatings there and pit bull attacks and muggings and all kinds of stuff car break-ins 10 times a day and real concerns about large groups of people in front of our building. when you think about from 6 o'clock in the morning until whatever midnight you will have anywhere from 8 to 16 thousand people moving through the corridor i would ask that you really consider the residents that live on van ness there's a lot of residents on van ness besides just us. so i'm a former nurse just

retired and i'm very active for elderly folks and i'm concerned about elderly folks having to walk up there at night. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon peter straus and i'm here for the san francisco transit riders as i think you know by now we're very much in support of this project glad to see it going forward. i think you should have a letter from us to that effect and from members supporting this project. this is one of the most important best rapid transit project that the city is considering because of the congestion on van ness and we're glad to see it moving . that said, i want to mention two comments that don't directly

pertain what's before you today and we hope you approve all of the traffic changes today to allow the project to go forward but as we go into final design design we're interested in a lot of the details that emerge we understand how we moved away from level boarding and many people's frustration that that became necessary and final design that the staff work diligence work diligently and as we all know efficient boarding is extremely important and the staff initiate consideration to look at conversion of a 47 both for environmental and economic grounds because of the shared infrastructure that's being

provided on van ness for for the 49 line. thank you and i hope we have this out there and running quickly thank you. >> next speaker please. >> afternoon again. i wasn't really planning on doing this but now i was asked to. i'd like to start off. i just came back from new york. i did not see their mta mention during the whole presentation while here i'm quite proud of your support of vision zero and why i'm talking about this is that -- maybe this isn't the final but i need to see a little bit more vision zero perspective on this in terms of seniors and people with disabilities. i

remember when these plans were brought out i was so much younger then now that i'm a senior in training i have concerns and i've been hearing concerns not so much speeding up the buses but how are we going to get there? how safe is it getting there and i was asking and i was referred to subsection k which really doesn't say anything i'd really like to see we as the community would like to see more what are you going to do with pedestrian safety coming to seniors and people with disabilities and maybe crossing times we need to look at i do like the part about no no or restricted left turns helps a little bit but i'd like to see more details how to address the safety because for a lot of us it's going to be perceived safety getting to those

boarding platforms so i'd like to see a little bit more details thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon nicole schneider i want to thank you promoting transit on this main arterial making transit more convenient and accessible for many more people and also because we're helping to curb a really dangerous street actually reconfiguring the street so transit has priority one lane each direction meaning people have fewer lanes to cross when they are getting to transit i want to remind everyone that five of the 18 people who died this year died on van ness while walking and

this is a really really important reiterating what he just mentioned it's really going to be critical that we install the largest build outs possible that we really make that crossing distance as short as possible and calm traffic as much as possible along that corridor we know this is a main arterial and speeds can be adjusted with signal timing and really focusing on making sure that speeds are not in excess of 25 miles 25 miles per hour the current speed limit and the roadway is designed to encourage drivers at 25 miles at 25 miles per hour which is not what the current conditions promote and thank you you have our support we want to see designs for build outs and we want to make sure that they are as large and safe as possible

so thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> howard stras inner ner. >> i'm one that supported this project and it's finally coming about that's so great. you talk about all these improvements but the people in the the people in the city won't believe it until they see it happen. we got to get a project that really shows that happening and we find the statistics and also want to answer some of your questions and my friends at the opera and ballet some some of the senior citizens we walk from van ness. i hope it stops north of market that would be terrible to cross market in order to get to the opera house. so i don't think they have a real case. we walk it

everybody can do it it's not a problem. for access to the middle lanes that one of you brought up it's really so you walk halfway one time and halfway the other time. it should be safe and of course the -- so i just want to get started on this thing. one of the problems that comes in parking people will probably come and talk about parking. i remember we were maintaining most of the parking and caltrans came in i guess they were salivating for 50 years to get back to 12-foot lane lane and they had a chance and took it so i hope it doesn't make the streets less safe. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> thank you again directors.

mark gruberg speaking for myself. just a historical note i was living in brazil in the seventies when the first rapid transit lanes went in there and i've been there it worked very well there i'm sure it will work very well here i have a couple of concerns one has to do with taxis which is -- i haven't looked at these plans in any detail but noticed from the agenda that while a number of streets have prohibited left turns for all kinds of traffic and i can understand why that that might be necessary there are others where there's an exception for muni and i think if there's an exception for muni there should be an exception for taxis we're part of public transit and the cheaper it is for them and the

quicker we can pickup the next person and i think you know we fit right into that category and we should have that same privilege as muni and the other thing i'll say looking at the map it seems like it's an awfully long distance between the mission street stop and maccal cal ister and there's no stop on market street and i think there certainly should be one close to that and i also i'm hearing what the people from the symphony are saying that's a very busy corner and seems to be an appropriate place as well so thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> i remember some some of the

initial meetings and i know it's going to happen but there are some concerns that that ought to be dealt with and looked at just in case these issues come up. a lot of the cars are going to end up switching to the other north-south streets in order to be able to make those left and right hand turns and could create problems on those streets and create messes as well especially when there's double parking on those streets that are not enforced very well and i think that's important to look -- the remaining left hand turns and to allow cab drivers the exception -- i'm looking at golden gate south bound and at fell southbound are going to create messes on those other streets as well i don't know if you did an environmental impact

report or not but the impact to other streets because you are going to push cars to other streets i know you want to to to move muni faster so the streets from sacramento up to to bush it's a mess there and i think if you would look at solving that issue we wouldn't have such slow issues that go on the rest of the street and also eliminating the northbound pine left turn could create a huge mess as well pine street is a cross town street that particularly cab drivers use on a regular basis to go all the way across town and i think to push the cabs on other streets you are going to get stuck in traffic and you know how many times cab drivers are asked to make illegal turns and thank

you. >> robert weiner, marlene and mark moreno. >> the descending voice. for one thing, when you remove bus stops that means there's going to be more time for boarding because you are going to have a greater concentration of passengers also this difficulty in access and that reflects on the seniors and the disabled and i'm wondering if that's in conformity with the ada the adult, the american disabilities act and as as far as pedestrian safety goes, were the police ever consulted on this project? was there any working relationship with the police? if anyone should know about pedestrian safety, it's it's the police department and also with the removeal of left turns that means drivers are going to have to turn right to

go to polk street in order to make the left turn across van ness avenue you are going to have a greater glut of traffic on polk street and the other basic question -- why wasn't the brt built underground to begin with? this is the central subway that would be more appropriate. you are making the problem worse on van ness avenue by concentrating cars on 2 lines i realize there's a there's a prejudice to cars some people absolutely hate cars and which they were banished from the earth but this is no way to solve the problem. >> thank you next speaker please? >> marlene and i can't read her last in her last name and mark