to have your point of view. even if you don't want to be a member, you are welcome. it's open to the public. we have bart board meetings usually the second and fourth thursday of each month in downtown oakland by the 19th street bart station. just check bart .gov to confirm there is a meeting if you want to come. i alluded to some new tactile features on the platform, there is the yellow truncated domes and black truncated domes where the door ways are. we have made some changes to this. the truncated dome will be

wider pursuant to the california building code. we've (teddy -- tested it out a lot. we are in the station right now. it will be useful in my opinion to passengers travel by wheelchair. there is also always a conflict to providing between a pathway for blind users and wheelchair users that have to divert across this. there is a wider space between the dots and we are also making it all yellow. right now there is black. so the purpose behind that is to comply with ada federal and state standards, but we will be marking the door ways in other ways. so people will know where to lineup with the sticker. we are still trying that out. we want to present first and foremost a color contrast. that's the intent, a

visual and tactile contrast for safety purposes for people with sight impairment for that strip. even though black, people like it to know where to lineup, it's not for their convenience and we will communicate that in another way. we are also expanding the directional bars. right now it's 1 foot by four 4-foot, we are making it 3-foot by 4-foot. because usually people are lined up in front. if you are sweeping with a cane, you may miss that. so it's a bigger matt. at the four center door locations. we also have detectable pathways for blind users. bart usually tries things and to be honest we usually get it wrong but in practice we learn. for this particular example we start out

with a 24-inch pathway and now it's too big, passengers using wheelchairs will complain. it's a pretty long way to traverse an across. now it's 12 inches and now to 6 inches and just as effective for our intend audience and less intrusive for those traveling with leading -- luggage and wheelchairs. we have expanded our user trial groups. we are sending out invites to welcome everyone to participate. i would invite this group. i will send an invitation to donna. to show

where the platforms show where the door centers are and we put a mock trial and people didn't like it. it was too much clutter and when the consequences are misinterpreting the signs and falling onto a track, we can't take that chance. we are exploring different solutions to let people know how to get to the doors or which direction to go to. how am i doing on time? each year bart receives $4 million in budget for transit. many uses it to operate bart chooses not to and instead for disability initiatives. this is to address the latest codes or make some improvements. for example recently we up grated our fire alarms which is just

a sounding fire alarm to a flashing fire alarm so if you are deaf or hard of hearing you are alerted that something is going wrong also. we are also working to try out a video relay system for deaf passengers so it's basically skype with an asl interpreter so if a passenger needs to communicate with a station agent and needs assistance, this is something we are trying to do. we are also making some improvements to closing the timing of the elevator closing and opening. we are also, i'm going to be replacing the floors of all the elevators. right now unfortunately they are used for other purposes besides transportation. it's an isolated, an area where people can be by themselves and people

have used it for unfortunately for restroom purposes. the smell, we can't clean it out. unfortunately it's people's only access to bart. so what we are doing now is we are making this industrial bathtub where it contains all liquids. it will be easier to clean and won't seep down or corrode or warp. i think we had some duct tape on the floor of the elevator. this won't wear out on the at least anytime soon. lastly, this is an invitation to anyone. we would like to try out thing. so we use a small portion of this money to try out things. like i said, when we first try, whatever we do initially is usually we learn from it. so this is just some small test. for example we've recently tested a step here. it's

technology. blue tooth activated speaker that when you get within 40 feet of it, it starts sounding off. we can use this for blind passengers if they want to know where a station agent booth is or where an elevator is. this is one example of technology that we are pursuing. as well as imagine if you are blind and your path of travel is now interrupted because of who knows, something has gone wrong or bart is making a change then we can deploy technology such as this to divert people to another stairway or elevator. we do have april 1st, a track and trade program for people with mobility impairment. from 10:00 a.m. to

noon. we will bring an out of service train for passengers to explore. if you don't know where the speaker is to contact the station agent. if you don't know where the seats are because usually when you get on its too crowded or you are afraid to enter the bart system because you don't know about it, we are going to bring a train to explore and the station agents and letting them know various safety features of the bart system including where the the safe area is on the track way. if for example you were to fall on the track way, there is an area underneath the platform so that will be where you go. people will be allowed and the whole department will help people explore this area. this is for the public. you are welcome to attend. we'll also be having other group

representative preparing wheelchairs for making it easier to tie down and wheelchairs riders to make configurations for wheelchair users and having some table events. lastly we are working to host a technology conference. right now people are using their smartphones or apps. we want to tap into applications that people are using right now and see how we can apply it to bart to make it more accessible. if you are using a speech to text or if you have hearing, maybe you can go to a designated speaker so it translates for deaf passengers. or, we are also looking at indoor navigation system like indoors. but sfo

where you can be directed. it's 30 feet wide. so we can't have the features that sf 0 has but the key features. that's it for my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. i would like to start with council member roland wong. >> thank you, mr. franklin. i have two comments. one of them is when we deploy the first phase of the new bart cars, i think it may get very confusing when you have two older existing cars with two doors and the new cars with

three doors. i can't really picture how people can actually navigate to figure out which door and you know even with signage, announcements, it's very hard to picture that. so, i know we brought it up at the task force the bart accessibility task force. i'm still really confused at how we are going to manage that or bart will manage that. the second one, i attended the loop, it was wonderful. you can hear everything through the head set it's just

a good technology. those are my comments oovment briefly we are going to be indicating displaying on the platforms whether it's a new or old train and creating a symbol by it to be tied to the marking on the flat form. so there will be an audio, visual, a color coding tie in between the designated cars and the cars will have a symbol. it will be a green bike symbol or ada blue wheelchair area on the side of the car. you will get a clue on the side of the car. there will be passengers that are confused. >> i have one more comment about the bicycles. it's going to be door

1 and 3. what was the compromise for the bikes? >> one of the doors will have bikes. andre ethier 1 or 3 depending on which direction the train is traveling. >> that's another confusing part. okay, thank you. i have a couple of questions. obviously quite a bit of effort and time went into issues that surfaced last year and i appreciate what bart has done. i have a couple questions. there is a bike rack that holds three bicycles, correct? are there bikes allowed on the cars then or is it a maximum of three for each car? >> well, right now there is no restriction on it. some transit agencies restrict a number of

bikes per area, so, you know, right now the wording is if bart train can reasonably accommodate a bike, i over see the department that runs the bike program and i watch this all the time. i have never seen a bicyclist say it's too crowded for me. they are always coming on. they never say, you know what, if you are late for a meeting, you are going to make room. they are really good to say, excuse me, everyone using that pole, i'm going there to that designated area which is where they should be. if bart allows it, they should be out of the way. there isn't concurrently a rule. we just did a survey on how passengers are viewing this change of policy. people are accepting of it so far. if there is a little bit more conflict it's

something we are watching. the policy can change. we didn't allow it, now we do. bicycles are exploding on bart. we've added 6,000 parking spaces in our district for bikes and they are full. we are trying to make it more attractive by putting bikes on the inside. we are adding bike stations at the civic center so people don't to have bring their bikes on board but what happens is more and more bikes are coming on to bart which is a good problem but a bad problem. it is an option. other transit agencies have deployed it to limit bike access. >> okay, my next question is about an ada coordinator. is there a full time ada coordinator at bart who can help you get it better the first time in the

future? maybe not completely perfect, but maybe avoid some of the difficulties that happened this last time. >> i am the ada coordinator for federal purposes. so i am the chief point of contact when dealing with the fta for a variety of reasons and i was appointed for this process. i think that we are never going to get it right the first time. we put in a detectable pathway and we made a right turn. every time it deviated and made a right turn. it's a zigzag that is really hard to follow. it seems like we are always going to have to -- we have to try it in a small area. so with the new cars, our current fleet, if you look at our

current fleet we have reconfigured it. even though there is controversy, it can be adjusted. it's a change order to bart. the solutions are we can remove a pole, we can take out a seat very easily with these new trains. we are going to have a lot more cars with this new fleet in service and hopefully that will ease crowding but when it gets crowding again, there are options. i am the coordinator. i intend to voice my opinion, not that they will listen to me all the time. [ laughter ] . >> well, i have to ask that question and one final question. it's always the elephant in the room in san francisco when we talk about bart and that's the elevator situation in the downtown station. you have to go down

one level to get off the ticketing level down to the exchange levels. i want to say it so you hear it and take it back that we still need to work on that. >> okay, i have heard it and we are looking at that physically and we are also, if you look on bart, on the station pages, it gives an accessible pathway. it's a poor description right now. it gives you directions to the elevator. in washington d.c. they have this new application that was for the blind, they did a click and go demonstration that gives more specific clues to all portals. so you will get the layout of the land before you go to an area so we can physically describe it but we are also looking to make the improvement to not have people go to

get into system and get into the platform you have to go a long ways, often. >> okay, i have a question from council member member harriet wong? >> thank you for your presentation, mr. franklin. so with the new cars, i was wondering are there going to be less space because i'm a bart rider also. >> there are going to be less seats. i believe there is 56 seats versus 60 on the current fleet. we are having, let me hold up the -- so because of the third door, it takes away seats but that does allow faster boarding and makes it easier for people to get on and off the train. so right now there is getting we have

unfortunately the bart system we have four lines feeding to san francisco. so any problem in san francisco backs up the whole system. so we really need to get people on and off the trains through two doors. people like to stay by the door so they can get off even though they might not be getting off immediately. this third door comes at a consequence of less seats. >> thank you. >> is there any questions from staff? >> yes. to the chair. >> sorry, you snuck in there. council member kostanian has a question. >> i wonder for the bicycles, what you have there to secure the bikes? >> it's this rubber two part contraption where you wedge your tire in between so it doesn't fall

over. so you rollin and it secures the bike. >> okay, joanna? >> thank you very much for your presentation and i know you have the dubious honor of being the ada coordinator and you have taken the task to heart with continuing education and such. i want to also talk about the elephant in the room as a frequent user of bart and the only thing i have to say is that it's really fortunate that i work for the mayor's office on disability issues that understand access for bart users because over the winter i have been late to work pretty much every single day most often because the civic center elevator has been out of service constantly. often times during the big storm both

the civic center elevator and the bart elevator went out of service and one would have to come to montgomery or embarcadero to get downtown. making a long story short, those that rely on elevators if you have an elevator inoperable please contact to range for repair service. being caught in the downpour i did such a thing and the bart agents knew nothing about it. the only option they had was to call para transit which is not a demand responsive system and my only option was to turn right back around and work from home. the reason i'm saying such a thing is because this is explained from a lot of us who work downtown

who use wheelchairs. when we talk about the ava and equal opportunity to being able to access the system, users will rely on elevators are exposed to very unequal ways of accessing the system. if i were a biker, i could lift my bike up the stairs and up the escalator, but i don't have an option. so what many of us thought it would be a much more appropriate response to actually when we have long-term outages and in stations and the closest place to travel is so far away is to have a shuttle on call or waiting rather than trying to deal with the 3-hour or 4-hour wait. it's just not an equivalent way of access ing the system. i understand the people

with disabilities get a discounted fair but the exposures we have on a daily basis, i know you said the added bart center in the station, but safety is an issue and there is no proper force : we are exposed to crack smoke and other issues. >> we do have a service advisory that we send out throughout our website, text, e-mail, to let people know the status of the elevators. that's one thing. if it doesn't help you, the para transit service is on a demand where walden house -- when there is an elevator. even though you are not a transit user, we certify our agents every 2 years and this is in the training that we have the number to call and we have arranged for

reciprocal relationship for para transit to get to service quickly. sometimes there is a wait. you are entitled to request of the service agent to request para transit to bring you to the next place. >> with a two 1/2 hour of estimated arrival. i will look into that. that is in my area. i will get back to you. we have a policy and i will clarify that and when we replace the elevator floors we are going to be taking an elevator out of service and we will be having full time para transit vehicles at that location during the outage. i think where there is sometimes even though we can call para transit there is sometimes other transit agencies that in different parts of the

district that maybe a better option in the interim. like if you can use muni practically. not if the elevator is there. >> just practically where it's just an option that, it's either a wait for a para transit if you have to go to an area or sometimes there is public agencies depending on where you are that sometimes is a better option. it doesn't let bart off the hook, but practically it's something to consider. >> to the chair, a comment too. one of the roles of the ada coordinator program is really to have a centralized place where people can file complaints in realtime as they are happening to

try to take some corrective action. are you now that single point of contact person? >> we have a contact page. i am, but we also, there is different ada complaints and we do have i can reconfigure our web page. we have direct points of contact if it's an employment issue, whatever the particular issue is. but that's a good point and i will put on the top, if you are not sure, contact me. >> i think it's a good suggestion because sounds like some of these reports might be surprising if you have some of these not followed for whatever reason. i think if you have that, it will be helpful. i want to thank you for your presentation. it was really comprehensive and also responsive to so

many issues that were raised in the community over the last year. i have one final question. it's actually, it might seem small but to me it's meaningful. to me it's the color configuration that you chose. the bart chose to use blue for the regular seats and green for the accessible seats. that's so counter intuitive for what we are trained to look for in a disability community because we always look for the federal international blue when we are trying to identify the disabled features. i would urge you to reconsider that color scheme so that it can be simpler and easier to read for people especially who might have cognitive disabilities and have some different problems translating. >> i can respond if you would

like. >> sure. >> i think council member wong had written a letter articulating that same point. this wasn't my decision. but the reasoning for this decision was the green was just too goddy for all the seats. and it should be brighter for to call attending to it. that's whether or not you disagree or agree with the reasoning, that's the rational for the board for aesthetic purposes. >> all right, thank you very much. >> thank you very much >> heather? >> i have a quick comment for the color option. for people who have color blindness, those colors might not be the best to consider especially

the green. perhaps that could be reviewed as well. >> okay. thank you. >> i have a comment card for mr. brown. is this the item you want to comment on? okay. so later today. later in the meeting. thank you. >> all right. thank you very much, we are going to move on. our next agenda item is an update on the development of the new affordable housing data portal. we have mr. chiu ms. yanga and ms. sallee. >> good afternoon, brian chew director of community development and mayor's housing and community development. i think as many of you may recall we