through june, july. pretty quick increase in fine or bail amount for double parking, and we wonder at what point will folks start to feel the pinch of receiving citations? >> in terms of raising the amount? >> yeah. >> actually just giving my perspective on that. i don't think raising the fine is the important. $110 or $80 is enough to deter people, and what's missing is not having a higher and higher fine amount. what is missing is consistent enforcement and we seem to have a trend in some areas around various traffic violations where instead of just consistently enforcing the law we keep

jacking up the penalty to the point where the people who are penalized sometimes it can be a massive hardship. we see some tickets up at $600, 800 and enough to cause huge hardship for some people and i sound like a broken record, but there's just appears to be very little double parking enforcement period, and i know that -- it was down in 2014 compared to 2013. it seems to be trending back up a bit now. >> correct. >> and i know staffing is what it is. i understand it's challenging when you're under staffed but this is all in the broader context of a long-term i think neglect by the city in terms of really focusing or doing much of anything to deal with double parking. i think

it's absolutely the wild west and i think small increases or decreases in parking enforcement in doesn't move the dial. i would like to see a much, much more significant commitment from the mta from the sfpd to have more consistent double parking enforcement in numerous parts of the city, and it's very frustrating to me. i know it's very frustrating to a lot of people when we hold these hearings. we ask for more enforcement and then people day to day go around and still get caught up in a huge traffic jam because one person decided they were going to double park or the j church line is shut down which happens last year or the year before -- it's shut down because

one double parked vehicle blocked that track, or over and over again you see a cab that could easily pullover to a curb cut to pick someone up and stops in the middle of the street and everyone has to stop behind them while they get in and out of the cab. it's an absolute culture of i will leave my car where i want to leave it. i will stop my car where i want to stop it and no one will do anything about it because there is so little enforcement so what can we expect going forward not just to have a little upward trend in parking enforcement but a meaningful shift in how the city approaches parking enforcement for double parking? >> well first of all i do take it seriously, and you do have my commitment to put the resources that i can into double parking,

but there are other balances that we have to recognize. there are people that pay for permits and they want their areas enforced. they paid for that so we have to enforce residential parking as well. meters -- there's only so many meters. there's only so much parking space in the city. there are a lot of other things we can do not just enforcement. not that i am trying to diminish the importance of enforcement because i agree. it is important but i always going back to the 3e's education and engineering as well. we need to do everything that we to ensure there is sufficient yellow zones in the right places in the right time frames for people for vehicles for commercial vehicles to deliver their goods. we're

in a society that everybody is buying off the web. how do we expect people to deliver these goods and receive these goods if we don't find solutions to that? education. i think we can always do a better job in educating, and we can educate schools. we can educate faith base community. we can educate a lot of folks, business community, to the facts that double parking is not an acceptable practice, and then enforce it, but i also need i don't have unlimited resources. i would prefer to have more people out there in places where the observations made whether it's muni, whether it's the bike coalition and we're working with the bike coalition and

comiewntding to the degree they're letting me know which locations have some of the biggest problems whether it's top 10 or top 16 and we have actually put a lot of resources into some of those locations. and does that take away from other enforcement areas? possibly, yes, but i am willing to make that commitment to the degree that i have the resources to do that, and i will do that. >> and clearly parking enforcement matters and i know enforcement resources aren't unlimited, but it seems like what you're saying that the enforcement function is appears to be under staffed if enforcing residential parking and meters and means that double parking is not being adequately enforced

and i will say it's also not the wlok blocking of bike lanes is a real issue and it's important, but it goes well beyond that and i know the bike coalition does a good job reporting the hot spots but understandably the focus is going to be on block bike access and the bike network. there's a lot of other streets that aren't usual biking streets. >> correct. >> drive down bush street or pine street where i think most people don't bike very much, and you will have double parking that causes big traffic jams. >> right. >> and it's about muni as well, so i just -- i'm not reassured by your answer and i know you don't appropriate your own budget in terms of your staffing but i am interested in knowing from the agency in terms of what the plans are to have enough enforcement resources so there can be consistent double

parking enforcement because right now there isn't a enough. >> okay. so part of that is we are looking and working with consulting firm to help us develop the tools that will give us some sense of what the right level. it doesn't make sense to me just to say i need more people on double parking without an understanding of what i have to give up for it, so we are looking at a tool that will help us through that process. it's more of an optimization tool and that that i hope to be able to say i've got these resources and we can only do this much, and with that is a story then -- a defensible story then to either grow my resources or keep it the same. >> i mean i think that my

thought is that the agency should figure out these are the resources hey we need to do an effective job enforcing double parking restrictions and working back from there. what do we need to do to get to that resource level without under mining important functions? to me that seems to what would make the most sense. >> i understand that. >> is that the end of the presentation? >> that's it. any other questions i am happy to answer them. >> any other questions? supervisor kim. >> thank you. yeah i had a few questions. one actually our office got a couple of photos of commuter shuttle buses using bike lanes and other places to drive and drop off folks at which is not part of what

they're supposed to do given the new program and i am curious what education your department is doing with the commuter shuttle buss to ensure that they don't do that? >> >> so working with the program manager carly payne we're actually reaching out to the providers of these shuttles and letting them know -- educating them of the right and wrong, what not to do, so through that education if they do it right there's no citations. >> how many communicator shuttle. >> >> commuter shuttle bus vs you cited since the program start. >> >> a lot. >> that's good to know. i lot photos last week and using the green bike lane on market street. >> i'm sorry. it's more of the enforcement of others too that don't have permits that

we're citing but we're citing a lot of both non providers and providers. >> okay. that's great to hear. i know they're not the only category. i only ask about that group because sfmta specifically permitting this group of drivers and vehicles and it's a new program so we want to make sure it's as successful as possible and that we committed to our residents if we created a regulatory scheme for these vehicles that in exchange we would make sure that they were driving safely that there were pedestrians and cycles and not doing things like walking and bike lanes but using the stops we allocated for them. >> correct. >> separate from this but another innovative expansion of mta's enforcement. i appreciate the work around double parking and i want to incur with supervisor wiener we have more to do and i push and encourage the department to do more, but i also know that we have been

pushing your department to do don't block the box. >> correct. >> traffic citations and it's been great that we have made that pilot permanent now as of december, and seeing it's a similar line to cars blocking traffic in a different part of the intersection, the block between the crosswalks, i haven't gotten an update on that program and i am wondering how it's going and it's under your leadership as well. >> yeah, that is doing very well. prior to the pilot last summer we were issuing around 150 to 300 citations a month for gridlock, gridlock turning, and we have increasingly moved that number up. last month we did around 950. >> wow. >> so it's a lot. >> that's great to hear. have

you noticed a significant improvement in traffic flow in the south of market? >> that's hard -- >> i know it's a difficult question. >> there is no silver bullet but i think at some intersections i have gone out and looked at ti certainly can't gauge it from the citations because it's such a problem area and i think it's been as supervisor wiener stated about double parking has been a problem for a lot of years. you know it's hard to say. i think it's still early to tell. >> okay. i appreciate that and i would love the data points on how that program is doing. >> yeah. >> i know just started since december but i am curious about what the results have been and great to hear about the increases in that program. thank you. >> you bet. >> thank you. i have just a

quick question. one of the concerns that i have they see are the drivers with uber and lyf t completely ignoring traffic rules and i imagine it's the same enforcement you would enforce upon any person in a vehicle and blocking traffic to pick up or deliver a fare to the curb. instead what you see is them stopping in the middle of the street. >> correct. >> and i was looking at your presentation and i see the numbers. i'm a little surprised. i see a trend with the numbers in 2014 seem to be decreasing at least in some of the streets particularly the ones i was looking at in the south east. is that just because you have concentrated

and focused your enforcement on a different part of san francisco? >> that's correct. we try to get the best intelligence that we can whether it's from our own officers, whether it's from a group again like the bike coalition or through supervisors' offices through complaints, but yes that is correct. we have actually just -- we end up moving from one location to another, and that's the sort of the -- i will call it a problem with putting a detail together to only focus on double parking when i have a lot more officers out there doing their regular assignments who can look for those types of violations. >> how do you determine where to concentrate your resources some. >> well certainly along muni

corridors. that's key. the bike lanes, a lot of combination of residential, light industrial commercial like on mission. valencia now that's bike so primarily muni, bike and where you have a combination of commercial, muni, bike, residential. >> and are you starting to track the number of violations that are incurred by uber drivers or lyf t drives? >> yes as you know may know they don't have any identifiable mark that says they're a uber or what have you, other than in some cases uber has the little "u" in the front passenger window. side car has its own appearance on the side mirrors.

when we are able to recognize what type of vehicle it is we established a code and i believe it was back in -- must have been june or july of last year and we have been reporting that out to kate torin who is meeting with the state puc on how to better handle that whole situation, so citations have gone up considerably -- >> you mean the number of citations? >> yes. >> is there a way to increase the penalty to discourage -- particularly those in the sharing transportation economy, to dissuade them from violating everyday traffic laws? >> well, i don't know how we would do that. >> i imagine it's a state law. >> yeah. when they're getting whatever citation that they're violating whether it's a double

parking, whether it's not paying a meter so it's hard to say. they're not any different from a regular vehicle, so unless we have the ability to recognize them and -- yes, maybe at the state or maybe local ordinance. >> i think i disagree a little bit. i think we have the ability to recognize them because on duty they have a pink mustache. side car will have a little covering on their rear mirror or side panel for the mirror and uber has the illuminated "u" in the windshield and it's obvious who is doing what when you see someone flagging getting in the car or leaving so i believe there is distinction between an everyday driver and a uber. we will use that as an example and about other business that's growing that i am unaware of it.

>> and i agree and sometimes now the mustaches have been getting smaller. they're no longer on the grill and on the dash and the "u" is over there and sometimes they're covered up. to the degree that we can get them the officers don't have the luxury of moving around the car looking for identifiable labeling. >> also identifying questions that they ask when they pull someone over. >> we don't pull people over. we violate for the parking so they might not be with the car. >> i see. okay. thank you. >> are there any other comments? supervisor wiener. >> thank you. so related to supervisor cohen's comments and i think it's fair to say -- at least my importance that double parking is a equal opportunity endeavor and while they're

plenty of uber lift et cetera ride sharing cars that double park or stop in the middle of the street to pick up or drop off a fare there are plenty of taxis that do that as well and plenty of private automobiles that to do it and there are delivery trucks and it just runs the gamut so my perspective it's really about all vehicles. i really don't care if it's someone is driving their car or uber or a cab. it doesn't matter. they're blocking traffic. that's just my perspective. i would make a request to the mta i would really like to know -- maybe have a report back, not in a hearing, but a report back about what the mta's plan is to have adequate resources to do sufficient and consistent

double parking enforcement? and again i'm not suggesting that resources be pulled off of other enforcement endeavors but if the agency needs to step up it needs to step up so would 60 days be sufficient to have that report back from the agency? because i know again you're not used don't generate your own budget. that is generated by senior management the mta and the mta board of directors and so i want it to be from the agency as a whole so that we know what is the plan to make sure there are a enough resources to do double parking enforcement. >> okay. >> so 60 days sufficient? >> yes. >> okay. i appreciate it. madam chair the sfpd was supposed to be here. they're not here. i thought -- >> i'm sorry. >> sfpd. they say they're on the way. i don't see them here. >> they had to leave, yes.

supervisor they had to leave. >> they're sending someone. >> i'm sorry. >> i suggest that we do public comment and if they're here we can hear from them and if not we don't hear from hem. >> sure. public comment is short on this item. >> >> thank you for the presentation. >> thank you. public comment is open. [gavel] i have three cards. [calling speaker names] okay. come on john. and howard and you guys can cue up so we can get going. >> thank you very much and i would like to thank scott wiener for bringing this important issue before the board and the mta. i have recently sent scott some emails about this as well as some photographs that i have been starting to take of double

parked vehicles and their license plate numbers and i would hope that perhaps the mta might consider civilian reporting of these violations as a way to -- let's say we become it is traffic cameras of our local neighborhoods and they can send out tickets to these folks and see if we can't get some more citation monies from these violators. i think because of the ever increasing traffic and the growing population in san francisco and the constant reduction of street parking let me point out what is going to happen to polk street with another 140 parking places removed. get ready to put more resources there because you will see a lot more double parking. i hear what the mta is saying. i don't believe that there should be any exemptions, partially or otherwise. as private individual when i had remodeling done on my home it

was my job to get permits and pay for them to have parks so that my contractors could park in front of my home while they did their remodels and i think they should have to do the same. i walk a lot and i am willing to take the pictures and make report to the board or the mta. i would like to say it's not just cars and commercial vehicles. the san francisco fire police and the san francisco police department park in front of coffee shops to get their is that corrects. i don' -- their snacks. i don't call that a emergency. >> next speaker. >> i want to thank the

supervisor for calling this hearing and launch into the importance of double parking and muni riders and muni itself. muni is a billion dollar business and the typical line is 40 minutes and if double park cars add a minute to the running% and 2% and on the average you're talking about $20 million a year just because people want to double park and so that shouldn't go on and then there's the importance -- the ability. if you don't have enough enforcement officers to find out who is doing it and ticket them then you have to raise the fine. it's the only thing that works. we cannot have a system -- we spend a lot of money for enforcement and people are dodging around. if you get caught it has to be serious because you're part of a $20 million cost to the city and it should be reimbursed and not only that you need to pay

enough in the fines to cover the cost of the officers otherwise it's not really reafnlt i had great hopes for the program for muni years ago and concentrate on muni street s and 24th is not listed. >> >> and i know the five which i often ride goes over narrow streets which should be enforced so we also need more yellow zones to take care of the trucks. you may not know it but this is prepaid or automatically pay the fiens, cost of doing business and pay a million dollars a year or month or whatever and they don't care and they're moving but if they have yellow zones they have a place to park. i am sorry that means there are less spaces for other people so this is a -- >> thank you very much eric.

>> good afternoon supervisor. my name is eric and with the san francisco bicycle coalition. and i appreciate supervisor wiener's attention to issue and bringing it up again this year, so over the course of december and january and mta and the mayor announced a crack down of double parking and box violations and we gathered information to share with the mta and sfpd on that and over the course of two months we received over 500 responses from people via social media and online forum that people could submitted where the locations were and the violations they were seeing and identified 70 locations in the city. in addition to this stuff you mentioned a lot about driver education and i wanted to let you know about programs that we.

do we educate all new taxi drivers and about loading and unloading and other safety precautions and educated all recology truck drivers and shuttle drivers also and looking to expand the education program to really educate fleet operators with large vehicles in the city how to drive safely so over the last two years 16 miles of bike lanes have been added it and this is a safety concern for our members and a lot of people in the community and see the city implement these bike lanes in the city. the mta should look at increasing loading zones during specific times of day and non commute hours for loading and unloading and look at long-term solutions to alleviate this problem and we have to look

at other infrastructure improvements to address this issue. thank you. >> thank you. any other members of the public to speak on item number 3? please come up. >> i think our cards are over on the ledge way. i wanted to echo support for this item. i think enforcement is certainly part of the solution but it's not the whole solution. protected bike ways that basically block people from being able to park in them. infrastructure is the way to make some of these changes. loading zones, -- increasing the loading zones certainly helps. i would love to see on the 311 app where you can take a picture of someone who is double parked and actually send that in similarly to the way that you can for people parking in drivers, blocking driveways or

pedestrian ways. i thinks -- an innovative solution to an app that we have and people are using. i would like to see education on the part of passengers. as a passenger of taxis and ride shares and just getting into other people's cars i often will say move out of the way. move down off to the curb and so it would be great if we could educate passengers on where to load safely, and then i just want to give a shout out to 31 balboa muni driver yesterday. i believe her number was 3779 which r was fierce and she took in the matter of one route which took 30 minutes. she took three pictures of double parked vehicles vehicles in the roadway and also in the muni zone,