role is in ensuring that we are protecting the safety, well-being of our residents and our workers here in our city. i -- you know, so there's a federal layer, a state layer, and a local layer, and i just want to speak to our local department of public health. i'm incredibly disappointed. you are our agency, you represent the board of supervisors, and i just thought that the responses that were stated today were unacceptable. department of public health should be fighting on behalf of our residents. we should be demand be accountability. we cannot be colluding and collaborating with them. i just think given what we've heard today, we have to be committed to the position of retesting, and i look forward

to working with our current mayor and board of supervisors to ensure that happens. we need to be the community advocate, not the advocate for the federal contractor. i think overall, i'm just going to express my dismay and utter disgust at what is happening. i cannot believe that tetratech is getting any additional dollars from government or federal agencies. i'm speaking right now as a citizen and as an elected representative, but i strongly believe that any contract should be ended with tetratech. this is just not especially isabl isable -- acceptable. i think it would behoove us, on our own reputation, that we stop contracting with this agency. it makes us look bad, and i -- i'm -- i just have to say i'm

utterly confused as to why that has not happened yet. i'm glad that all the agencies are working as quickly as possible. by the way, i've heard many good things about region nine of e.p.a., and i know that, you know, you continue to ensure that we do regress testing and work, but i think we have to go above and beyond our bureaucratic response and the scientific response and actually respond to the understandable concerns of our residents. (a), there is evidence of falsification of data that impacts the health and safety and well-being of our residents. and two, this neighborhood experiences disproportionate instances of asthma and other health related concerns. we have an additional responsibility to our residents to ensure that we really are doing everything that we can and we're doing it as quickly as possible.

i hope we have a hearing before september. we said as quickly as possible, and even before this hearing, i hope that we get a response on what the next steps are in terms of the proper course of action, and that we get to fixing this problem as soon as possible. thank you so much, supervisor, cohen, again. >> thank you, supervisors, and so i think i heard a potential request to continue this hearing to the call of the chair. [inaudible] >> okay. and so colleague dos, we'll do that without objection. and so madam clerk, is there any other items before us today? >> there's no other items of business. >> thank you. then we're adjourned. -

>> tenderloin is unique neighborhood where geographically place in downtown

san francisco and on every street corner have liquor store in the corner it stores pretty much every single block has a liquor store but there are impoverishes grocery stores i'm the co-coordinated of the healthy corner store collaboration close to 35 hundred residents 4 thousand are children the medium is about $23,000 a year so a low income neighborhood many new immigrants and many people on fixed incomes residents have it travel outside of their neighborhood to assess fruits and vegetables it can be come senator for seniors and hard to travel get on a bus to get an apple or a pear or like

tomatoes to fit into their meals my my name is ryan the co-coordinate for the tenderloin healthy store he coalition we work in the neighborhood trying to support small businesses and improving access to healthy produce in the tenderloin that is one of the most neighborhoods that didn't have access to a full service grocery store and we california together out of the meeting held in 2012 through the major development center the survey with the corners stores many stores do have access and some are bad quality and an overwhelming support from community members wanting to utilities the service spas we

decided to work with the small businesses as their role within the community and bringing more fresh produce produce cerebrothe neighborhood their compassionate about creating a healthy environment when we get into the work they rise up to leadership. >> the different stores and assessment and trying to get them to understand the value of having healthy foods at a reasonable price you can offer people fruits and vegetables and healthy produce they can't afford it not going to be able to allow it so that's why i want to get involved and we just make sure that there are alternatives to people can come into a store and not just see cookies and candies and potting chips and that kind

of thing hi, i'm cindy the director of the a preif you believe program it is so important about healthy retail in the low income community is how it brings that health and hope to the communities i worked in the tenderloin for 20 years the difference you walk out the door and there is a bright new list of fresh fruits and vegetables some place you know is safe and welcoming it makes. >> huge difference to the whole environment of the community what so important about retail environments in those neighborhoods it that sense of dignity and community safe way. >> this is why it is important for the neighborhood we have

families that needs healthy have a lot of families that live up here most of them fruits and vegetables so that's good as far been doing good. >> now that i had this this is really great for me, i, go and get fresh fruits and vegetables it is healthy being a diabetic you're not supposed to get carbons but getting extra food a all carbons not eating a lot of vegetables was bringing up my whether or not pressure once i got on the program everybody o everything i lost weight and my blood pressure came down helped in so

many different ways the most important piece to me when we start seeing the business owners engagement and their participation in the program but how proud to speak that is the most moving piece of this program yes economic and social benefits and so forth but the personal pride business owners talk about in the program is interesting and regarding starting to understand how they're part of the larger fabric of the community and this is just not the corner store they have influence over their community. >> it is an owner of this in the department of interior i see the great impact usually that is

like people having especially with a small family think liquor store sells alcohol traditional alcohol but when they see this their vision is changed it is a small grocery store for them so they more options not just beer and wine but healthy options good for the business and good for the community i wish to have more >> if you frequently travel before i van ness i might be surprised van ness will goodwill go the first transit corridor to

have brt as more frequently known the goal to get conveniently van ness and geary boulevard one of the most reliable transit systems in the country van ness avenue is a major connecter between potrero hill and mission on the south side of san francisco correcting connecting us to the marina and state highway in the financial with the western edition neighborhood it is mostly residential a lot of the geography of van ness the rain that is wide it was uses is a firebreak in the 1906 san francisco earthquake a lot of building occasion that helped of hoped to stop the fire from jumping van ness had a light rail or sprash separating and along geary 0 when we came to the question of how to address the needs on haven

because of its cost effectiveness we have found in the brt system with the new vehicles. >> the new mr. secretary is a change we will actually have transit in the middle ♪ the far legal unit and a broadly prom >> one of the reasons it is in the center a was it is an clouf right-of-way a set of pedestrians will cross from the sidewalk to the middle of the street a. >> to move the reliable along the corridor with this travel time had been signifying reduced we think the ripped will go from 16 thousand a day in that portion the corridor up to 22 thousand and we'll have those beautiful new one like this one. >> with the dedication of the signal and lighter saying that

between stops we were able to estimate a .32 improvement in travel time and a 50 percent reliability improvement as a result. >> we're pitting u putting in a up to date modern system of new thirty foot high light fixtures and pedestrian lights on the same pole again inviting a comfortable environment for pedestrians. >> it has become a 3 dimensional street project. >> the water that is my understanding under the ground and the emergency firefighting water system month will be replaced and new street lights and traffic lights and the paving and stripping the trees both in the medium and on the side. >> the main core of the project goes from market it lombard that's where we'll be

replying the sidewalks. >> there are a number of trees that need to be replaced and they will be additional new planting. >> we're planting a lemon gum that gets to be 50 or 60 feet tall that comes over the offer head wires that wee when we get done van ness it will look like a new street it will visit fresh new looks like the grand boulevard again. >> we're going eliminating left turns off of van ness into the side streets and places the left turning traffic backs up the traffic and upgrading the signals to the mini traffic will flow more smoothly and traffic impacts as we execute the construction signed we're

working to minimize these but impacts that will likely shift the traffic up franklin and we'll pick up the traffic. >> right now that looks like we're skeleton to start in march ever 2016 are of our construction. >> in the past people prospective of bus traffic that go unreliable and noisy and very fluting we're here to remake the vehicles are on the streets and with the combination of the brt improvements much more rail like services with the technology. >> the public is in for a

>> on december 28, 1912. san francisco mayor, sonny jim rolph stared into the crowds of those who have gathered. a moment in history. the birth of a publicly own transit system. san francisco municipal railway. muni as it would become to be known. happy birthday, muni, here is to the next 100 years. the birth of muni had been a long-time coming. over the years the city was disjointed privately owned companies. horses and steam and electric-powered vehicles. creating a hodgepodge of transit options. none of them particularly

satisfying to city residents. the city transit system like the city itself would have changes during the san francisco earthquake. the transition that will pursue from this aftermath would change san francisco's transportation system once again. facilitated by city boss, abe ruth, ushering in the electric city car. the writing was on the wall. the clammer had begun for the experiment including public transit people. owned by the people and for the people. the idea of a consolidated city-owned transit system had begun traction. and in 1909, voters went to the

polls and created a bond measure to create the people's railway. would become a reality three years later. on december 28, 1912, mayor sonny rolph introduced the new geary electric streetcar line and the new san francisco railway. that he said would be the nucleus that would host the city. and san francisco gave further incentive to expand the city's network. a project by way of tunnel leading into chinatown by way of north beach.

in december the first streetcar was driven into the tunnel. just two years after its berth, muni had added two lines. and k, l and m lines that span out from westportal. in 1928, the j line opened heading west to the beach. in 1944 san francisco voters finally approved muni take-over of the market street railway. by then motor bus and trolley bus improvement had given them the ability to conquer san francisco's hills. after the war most of the street-car lines would be replaced with motor or trolley bus service. in 1947, the mayor recommended replacing two lines with motor coaches. and it appeared that san francisco's iconic cable cars

had seen their final days. entered mrs. cluskin, the leader to save the cable cars. arguing that the cable cars were a symbol of the city, and she entered a charter placed on the november ballot. it passed overwhelmly. the california street cable railway was purchased by the city in 1952. there were cut backs on the cable car system and in 1957 only three lines would remain. the three lines that exist today. in 1964 the cable car's future as part of california's transit system was sealed when it was proclaimed a national historic landmark.

in february, 1980, muni metro were officially inaugurated. in that same year, muni received its first fleet of buses equipped with wheelchair lifts. in 1982 when the cable car had a shut-down, they added an alternative attraction to the cars. the festival was a huge hit and would continue for the next four summers in a permanent f-line that would extend all the way to fisherman's wharf, by 2000 the f-line was in place. and in 2007 muni extended the

third line to the southeast corner and returning to third street. for the first time in 60 years. in the course of last 100 years, muni's diverse workforce forged by men and women of innovation have reflected the many cultures that flock to the city. muni's ground-breaking antidiscrimination has guaranteed equal opportunity for all. the city's policy mandates the course for the future, as they work diligently to increase options and increase multialternatives, and deduce -- reduce the carbon footprint. it continues to improve the systems. during this sen -- centennial

year we reflect on the transit system. driven not transportation authority meeting for today, tuesday, april 24, our clerk, if you could please call the roll. roll call, commissioner breed absent. cohen present. fewer present. kim absent. peskin present. ronen present.

safai present. sheehy absent. stefani present. tang present. yee absent. we have quorum. >> last week, schools and families celebrated bike and roll to school week, thousands of youth and adults rode in bike trains, rode with parents and teachers and used their own pedal power to get to school. on april 17, our director joined supervisor ronen's office to celebrate with students as they biked and rolled to school. bike and roll to school week is sponsored by safe routes partnership and organized by the san francisco bicycle coalition and we are a proud sponsors. to keep things rolling, it will be held may 10th and we're pleased to help sponsor the bike to work day. in addition to biking, participants can volunteer or

join a convoy to bike to work with their neighbors. these events stand in marked contrast to the challenges we've had with e-scooters on our sidewalks in the past several weeks. i called for the three major companies to work with the city, as you all know, they chose to flat our process. i appreciate the efforts of public works and the city attorney's office to help manage these devices when left inappropriately in the public right-of-way and continue to be concerned about people operating these devices on sidewalk which is not legal and has led to injuries for pedestrians. our staff is tracking a new bill that has been introduced in the legislature seeking to enable these devices to operate legally on sidewalks and we will pose any provision that -- oppose any

provision that hinders our ability to regulate this activity in san francisco. finally, on a more positive note, i'd like this ask staff to arrange a briefing at our meeting in may for the body by the planning department on the newly renamed rail yard alignment and benefit study that is nearing completion. the study which for the past three years has been analyzing alternative lines for the downtown and look at removing the caltrain yard is now in the final stages with recommendation for the pennsylvania alignment for downtown caltrain extension south of the current terminus. this will pass below 16th street, preserving access into mission bay which will be a huge improvement for the city. i look forward to hearing about the analysis and for this body to move forward in confirming the alignment and finally advancing design of this project in the coming months.

of course, at our last meeting announced that at your request we will return to our committee structure and i am working with staff on those changes to our rules and regulations. and with that, is there any public comment on the chair's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. we'll going to the executive director report. >> our condolences on your loss. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. >> members, we're happy to bring the rail yard alignment and benefit study to the board with our partners at planning department and other agencies next month. that's a really big development. i look forward to further conversations there advancing the works to deliver dtx. meanwhile, at the state level as you heard a few times, april 2, the state department began a process that allowed permits to be issued for driverless vehicles. we continue to track that.

mayor farrell held a safety briefing last month. and we continue to weigh in at the state level through the rule-making that is happen, even the public utilities commission which regulates tnc, they're now proposing that autonomous vehicles be allowed to be tncs. it's a very fast moving landscape where they're seeking the public utilities commission to involve autonomous vehicle technology in the next generation of that technology. we're working with sfmta to comment on the decision, we're working on the rule-making at the federal level as well with numerous cities in california. we thank senator feinstein for pressing our issues in the ab start act. in terms of regional planning, the good news, we were pleased to see metropolitan

transportation commission recommending approval of four priority grants that will difficulty san francisco. the first is to the planning department, $500,000 for a study, 500,000 for the market street hub environmental impact report to advance planning in the south van ness mission corridor and then two grants to planning department for the pda housing feasibility analysis. congratulations to all the applicants. we are appreciative of the support. regarding regional topic of interest, the means based transit fare program was held and commissioner kim along with our reps have also weighed in. pressing for further work to develop the path program, pass program version, the staff recommendation had been for 20%

discount for qualified riders to be funded with $11 million and one to one match by operators. bart is concerned about going beyond the 20% discount and our contingent would like them to consider a pass base discount, not just per ticket. we'll continue to track that work and try to bring back another version of the staff recommendation next month. commissioner kim in particular had expressed frustration that the staff had not considered integrating the program with clipper, we'll continue to follow up on those concerns as well. our horizon work, this is mtc planning work and it sets up the next bay area, continues at the regional level. the region is doing what we had done in the connectsf program, looking at scenarios. demographic shifts and making

sure that the future projects that we invest in can perform under any of those given the uncertainty we face. there will be a series of policy papers and we'll keep you posted on those. we've been collaborating with mta and planning department on connectsf work that will feed into the horizon work in the plan bay area. we'll keep you posted on the transit pieces and the streets and freeway planning we're doing for future planned areas investment strategies. the staff also have been preventing at various conferences, pricing and demand management. this is becoming a much greater topic nationally as well given that the infrastructure is mature, in our state, built in the 50s and we're in the management mode, maintenance mode and others are looking at demand management, given that technology and policies are enabling many more strategies to

be realized. so rachel highet and camille are presenting on treasure island and bart perks, demonstrating that incentives can encourage people to shift their time or mode. again, the treasure island has met, they met in april and heard an information item. anyone interested, we can provide more information. this is an idea that merged from public outreach for future residents of treasure island to be able to use a pass that enables muni, the ferry and the ac transit service in the future. in addition, we are working on the vision zero ramp study, there is an online and paper survey that is available for residents and travelers in the soma neighborhood, where we have a lot of freeway touching down onto the city streets. we're asking neighborhoods,

residents and stakeholders to identify the worst intersections, the places we need intervention to improve safety. these are in multilingual format online and on paper. so please contact colin post our staff at our front desk can direct to you the survey. we want to thank commissioner ronen's office of a walk-through of the hair ball. the staff and public works, bike coalition, district 9 and 10, cac all toured the area, looking at the lighting in the freeways, the underpass. it was striking to see how many lighting fixtures were there, not working. it's a mixture of jurisdictions, san francisco public utilities and caltrain have lighting facility, so we'll be looking to retro fit the existing lights

and adding more. the fleet replacement and expansion is continuing a pace 47 new buses hit the street in the third quarter. this is exciting. the prop k tax is being used to help replace the expanding fleet. we saw 28 more diesel coaches and 19 trolley coaches under the contract with new flyer and several of them have been rolli rolling onto the streets. finally, on management administration, i want to thank cynthia fong, she has been joining us about 20 bay area agencies with a common goal to assist small and disadvantaged local firms doing business with transportation agencies. they meet on a monthly basis to establish ways to better increase participation from the local and disadvantaged businesses, in fact, we'll be hosting a meeting in educational workshop on may 15, 1-3 p.m.,

it's on bonding and insurance. it's for small and emerging businesses to learn more about insurance and bonding requirements related to transportation and learn how to obtain sewerty bonds -- surety bonds to increase their capacity. thank you, with that, happy to take questions. >> supervisor peskin: any questions? any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you, director. if you could read the next item. >> item 4-11, compromise consent agenda. 5-11 were approved and are being considered for final approval. they're considered routine. prepared to present if desired. if a member objects, we can move to consider separately. >> supervisor peskin: any public comment on the minutes of the april 10 meeting? seeing none, public comment is closed. on the consent agenda, a motion? made by commissioner tang,

seconded by commissioner sheehy. >> on the consent agenda. cohen aye. fewer aye. kim aye. peskin aye. ronen aye. safai aye. sheehy aye. stefani aye. tang aye. yee aye. the consent agenda is approved. >> supervisor peskin: nexttime. >> item 12 on the update of the valencia street bike plan, information item.

>> good morning, commissioners, my name is kimberley and i'm the project manager for the valencia street bikeway improvement project. thank you for having us here today to share our updates on the project. so the project began in february of this year, and for this project we'll be taking a look at safety, curb management and enforcement along the valencia corridor. we're setting the structure from market to mission street. the project will result in a phased implementation plan we'll be bringing forward in the fall and with that plan, we'll have recommendations for the corridor. i wanted to share about the outreach we've been doing so far and the data collection effort we're starting now and touch on the near term improvements you

may have seen and the next steps between now and next fall. for our outreach, we've been calling this the early listening phases of the project, we conducted door to door and stakeholder. so far, we've gone out along the entire two-mile stretch of valencia speaking to the businesses, we've made contact with 15 business -- 215 businesses and shared with them a survey, which is meant to find out more information about the needs of the businesses when it comes to commercial and passenger loading. from those surveys, we've received 80 responses from a 40% response rate. we're defining outreach as handing a vey to someone.

we've reached out to 45 different stakeholders and those stakeholders are covering community groups, neighborhood associations, places of worship, schools and even tncs. so some of the conversations we've noticed that people recognize the number of compromises, tradeoffs and challenges with valencia street. some of the feedback we've heard from the conversations include the need for loading. as your going down the street, you see folks are stopped in the centre turn lane. that's one of the things we're encouraged to look at. we've been reminded of the number of schools and we've reached out to the schools and have conversations with dhem about their needs. we've heard feedback whether the enforcement group is taking a look at the bike lane or emphasis on parking meters. through all the conversations we've been encouraged to have a

flexible design. we just wrapped up all of this rh about a week or so ago, so we're going through and conducting analysis of the data gathered and will be bringing that forward in a few months. most recently, we've engaged with a consultant to begin data collection along the corridor. right now, we're collecting bidirectional volumes, there are three locations where we're getting a feel of the overall traffic volume. we're taking a look at the parking occupancy and turnover and collecting bike lane activity. that will be happening next week. with the data collection, we're hoping to get a better feel for the overall interaction and behaviors in the bike lane, whether it between commercial loading vehicles, tncs and bikes. we've conducted a customer survey that was conducted the

first week of april. it is to help get a better feel for shopping patterns along the corridor and that has resulted in 200 responses. most recently, in mid march, a number of improvements were made between 15 and 19th street n. the photo, you can see the one that buffer that was installed. in that one-foot buffer, a number of delineators were installed. they encourage further separation between vehicles and bicycles and they were only installed in the areas where the bike lane was adjacent to a park and there were no impacts to parking. with the improvements, we're trying to encourage changes along the corridor while working on the overall planning for the project. the next step of the project includes a series of community workshops in the spring, we'll

be bringing back all the information we've gathered from our stakeholder interviews and door-to-door outreach. later this summer we'll have a project open house. we'll be working on a number of near-term improvements. so as you saw with the safe hits we installed from 15th to 19th, we're making additional improvements, including slot improvements, intersections that have high number of collisions, we'll be taking a look at color curb improvements along the core do. with that, i'll be happy to take questions. >> supervisor peskin: any questions? commissioner ronen -- sheehy. >> supervisor sheehy: the time line for the project is -- when do you -- this seems like this is going on pretty long. you're talking about the end of the summer? >> so what we're working toward

right now is have a series of community workshops. we're aiming for mid june. the workshops is going to bring back the data analysis and outreach and then later this summer we'll have open house where it will be the culmination of everything we've seen and heard in the work shops and later this fall, we'll be back to the board with the near and long-term recommendations to the implementation plan. >> supervisor sheehy: so really the fall of this year, maybe a year from now we might see those go in? >> with those recommendations we have to see where we have funding as well as public support. one of the things that we're working on that we called out in the initial scope when we got the funding for the project was that we're taking a look at market to 15th. market to 15th was a stretch of valencia called out in the pine apartment public plan for parking protected bike lanes. we have an engineer working on a

fees nlt of that stretch. if it looks like it will work, we'll get the protected bike lanes. >> supervisor sheehy: less than a year from now? >> we're trying to work on it as quickly as we can, so he's working on those, while we're working on near-term improvements in the corridor. >> supervisor sheehy: what are your conversations -- i mean i see a lot with the people who have businesses there, but what were your conversations with people who actually use the lanes. the people who actually use the bike lanes. because i've been down there, the traffic is constant. >> there is a lot of public support for the parking protected or some sort of separation between the cars and the bikes. so we've heard comments ranging from let's have a two-way cycle track, with parking protected bike lanes. it's been quite a range, but there is a lot of support from folks that do bike there. we've also made a point to reach

out to businesses and those who need to use the parking on the curb to get a better feel of what their thoughts are. >> supervisor sheehy: you talked about a lot of collisions. it is not safe right now. so, i guess i'm not capturing a sense of urgency when i see families that bike up and down valencia and i bike on valencia and i've taken part in people-protected bike lanes and observed the traffic in the evening and the tncs that just basically pull over and don't really care if there is somebody biking in the lane. so i just -- i'm not getting -- i mean this sounds like something that might happen two or three years from now. in that interim, people will be injured. i get loading zones and all that, but at the end of the day is what more important, human life or other interests? and just the sheer lack of safety on that street. i find that concerning.

and then the -- so that's just a comment i guess. the question is, what are you looking at between san jose and going all the way up san jose to randall. we have protected lanes on san jose to randall, we have this huge stretch over to valencia that could be, you know, you could put parking protected ba bike lanes in tomorrow. >> yes, so the cross section of the roadway is similar to the cross section between market and 15th, so some of the designs we'll take a look at for one of both could be very similar. >> supervisor sheehy: so, i guess is there any way to accelerate this process? >> i can take a look at it and discuss with our management what could be done to fast-track this project.

>> supervisor sheehy: great. thank you. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. i do want to -- appreciate that you tried to take some interim quicker steps with the protected bike lanes at certain points that don't affect parking. just wondering what your feedback has been about the half measure? i've gotten mixed feedback and has it made the situation better, or in some cases i've heard that it's a little worse. >> we've heard mixed feedback as well. there was a lot of excitement initially and then a few weeks later we did hear some concerns about how it was operating. there are still vehicles that are choosing to pull into that bike lane, sometimes even squeezing in between the curb and the safe hits. so we're taking a look at that and monitoring it. as we continue moving forward on that. >> supervisor ronen: if it is making matters worse, then we

should be making sure that we're taking them out until we have the full study. i want evaluation in the interim on that. i will say that is not the only measure. i was thrilled they responded to the letter, both lyft and über asking them to drop off on side streets. lyft is doing a pilot project between 16 and 19th. i haven't seen data on how that project is working. i'm looking forward to seeing that. i wish über had done the same, they didn't and we're continuing to push them to look at alternatives, drop off and pickup places. and then we did advocate for the mta to increase enforcement, which they have quadrupled, but

i don't know if that improved to the double parking yet. it would be nice to see interim evaluations with the three strategies working in tandem and see if they're working while we're conducting the study and hopefully, installing a full protected bike lane on valencia. >> our team is receiving that same data you received from enforcement, so we're going to take a look to see what patterns in terms of what citations have been upped. and we've made the effort to reach out to lyft, we've met with them with twice now. we have asked about their pilot and we're hoping to get a little more information once that pilot concludes and they have data to share with us. so we're making that effort with them as well. >> supervisor ronen: i do think as we're waiting for what we know will ultimately improve the situation greatly, that we should use every tactic we can to improve the safety issues on

valencia which are serious and evaluate what is working and what is not. let's not make the situation worse, i want to make sure we're evaluating that closely in the interim. thanks. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. any public comment on the item? please come forward. thank you. >> hi, my name is mark, i have a thing called designer, the reason that i'm responding is that couple decades ago i did a design for elevated bicycle guideway that would go from downtown across from north to south santa cruz and i worked for ten years with the inventor of a structural system. and i found, i was astounded by how light this structure could be and how inexpensive it could

be and recently there has been breakthrough in materials and some opportunities to bring this structure forward. and so, i elevated bicycle guideway could be a solution to the problem you're talking about. please stand by.

the real test will be the upcoming public workshops where the community will be able to voice their opinions on the proposed improvement. we are confident through the m.t.a.'s thorough outreach process the team will be able to insure that the project serves all the people who bike. i have received a lot of emails from members who are excited to see safety and traffic improvements coming to a major north-south bike corridor. i can say that our members are excited to see the m.t.a. imagining and creating a better valencia street. we look forward to further work done on the project. thank you for your time.

>> thank you. are there any other members of the public who would like to testify on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. this is information item. so we will go on to the next item. >> item 13, progress report for the van ness avenue bus rapid transit project. this is an information item. >> how are we doing there? >> ms. mccarthy. we made up for lost time yet? >> good morning, commissioner. to touch off of that, i am peter gabancho, the project manager on the van ness improvement project, the core of which is the van ness bus rapid transit project which will feature san francisco's first bus rapid transit system. globally proven solution to i a dress traffic congestion and improve public transit. wrapped around the core is an