least make sure there is shrinking habitat for ride-hailing riders. >> doug betton, skip high. >> i'm doug betton. i live in glen park. i've been biking in the city for 30 years. i'm disgusted with the delays that occur in all these projects and i want to encourage you to look at the processes inside the departments, as to why the delays continue, painting a stripe, whatever. these delays are not acceptable. and i am glad that the projects are moving forward. but we still have a lot to fix. there's an internal problem with the delays in the processes and

a lot of projects out there. so, again, thank you for moving the projects forward. please look internally, at why we have so many delays. thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker. >> skip high, lori juicy, miles cooper. >> chairman, members of the sfmta. i'm sky pile. we live in upper haight and i compute to king street for work. my wife's job is in foster city and she commutes using her bicycle and caltrain. i've seen a variety of improvements that have made my commute let terrifying. the conditions on townsend remain horrifying, particularly around the train station where you have taxis and delivery

vehicles competing for access to the curb. i'm here to tell you firsthand that these conditions, a paint-on-the-ground bike lane is not effective. the inevitable result is injury to people on bikes. each time i ride through, i wonder, is this the day i get hit by an inattentive driver and fail it pick up our daughter from school or get a phone call telling me that my wife is in the hospital or worse because she was hit by a driver. or learn that a co-worker, who also commutes from the haight, was injured here and will require rehab before he can return to work. i was pleased to learn that the sfmta had been looking at this subject. i'm pleased to learn today that the temporary measures are in place and i look forward to

seeing them implemented as soon as possible. countless fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, will make it home safely and will not have to worry that tonight is the night that their loved ones will not be coming home. >> lori juicy, miles cooper, cathy deluca. >> hi. i'm lori. i just wanted to support the townsend bike lanes. i'm happy to hear that we need bike lanes in there as soon as possible. it's obviously, as supervisor kim said, an untenable mess. the bike lane, i don't use it there, because it's easier and safer to ride in traffic, because people are pulling in and out of the bike lanes all the time. on my way home from the mission, i go mission to embarcadero every day, coming back, it's just people are pulled over on the side of the road across from

caltrain. and i really encourage everyone to support it and not back-pedal again. thank you for your support. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> i am frustrated that it would be taken off the table and put back on. i'm here because my 4-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. i go to stanford with her on a regular basis. she climbed into a radiation vault and sat in there by herself 20 minutes a day. she has no fear but asked me to

stop riding on townsend. i get off 1 1/2 blocks away and i ride and ride a lot and-day that to respect her concerns. when a 4 1/2-year-old is smart enough to recognize that things need to be changed, it's front and center, not taken off, put back on, taken off, or watered down watered down after public comment. >> chairman brinkman: thank you and accept our best wishes for your daughter. >> cathy deluca, kristin lucky, claire blackwell. >> good afternoon. i'm cathy deluca, policy and program director at walk san francisco. when projects are delayed, people die. we've seen that on mission street, the project has been delayed for three years.

and we just saw the same thing with kevin manning. when projects are delayed, people die. and i am excited to hear that townsend will move forward. i guess i'm not hearing a sense of urgency today. while san francisco works with the san francisco bay area families for safe streets, these are people who have lost loved ones or are victims of crashes themselves. and the absolute trauma that people feel every day is something that i never, ever want to experience in my life. i'm here today because for better or for worse for you all, it's your job to make sure that no one ever suffers that. and i know vision zero -- our goal is not until 2024, but not one person should die before then. not one person should ever die

on our streets. friends and family of kevin manning are in such pain right now and we and you can do something about it. please, don't start investigating short-term things that can happy on the embarcadero. don't start getting a preferred design by the fall. do it now. come tell us today, we're going out there next week and we're bringing cones and we're going to make the streets safer because we will not let anyone else die. that's the leadership that we want to see and i implore you to make. thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you very much. >> good afternoon. i'm kristin lucky, organizer on staff at the san francisco bicycle coalition. i'm here today because we must act urgently to prevent delays on the embarcadero. we've heard from so many of our members that there needs to be change. we put out a safety last week and i would like to read a condensed version of it.

sfmta and port of san francisco must act urgently to prevent further deaths of san franciscans trying to earn a living, commute and seeing their friends and family. the entire length of embarcadero is a high-injury corridor. seeing people biking and walking hurt including two fate agents. sfmta and port of san francisco know this, but they've been dragging their feet to make the necessary improvements to make the embarcadero safe. the city has proposals as part of the embarcadero enhancement project. it's been four years since and there's been no plans to show for it. kevin manning's death shows a lot of delays. it calls on the port of san francisco to implement delays

ending hotspots and to fund and construct the bike lanes in the next three years. city leaders should take the steps to prevent loss of lives on our streets. thank you for your time. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> claire blackwell, charles defarge, jeff snocks. >> i'm claire blackwell, lifelong resident of san francisco. i'm here to hold the sfmta to its promise for protected bike lanes on townsend street. growing up, my parents never considered allowing me to bike to school or to friends houses across the city. i'm so grateful that sfmta's push to construct the bike lines, which has allowed me to feel safe riding in the city. this is why i'm bringing you my concerns about the decision to

drop protected bike lanes on townsend street. it's one of the most dangerous streets for cyclists and i fear for my friends and co-workers. as a new rider, i feel consistently unsafe navigating townsend with high volumes of traffic and vehicles cutting into the lanes i'm reading in. my safety as well as my friends depends on the projects. my concern about the sfmta dropping a project is greater than my concern about townsend in particular. now that i've seen a plan be dropped, how can i trust you will followthrough on your vision zero goals or protecting other bike lane projects. if you care about the residents in this city, i'm urging you to deliver physically protected

bike lanes. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, directors. i'm charles defarge. i'm here on behalf of our 10,000 plus members to hold sfmta for the promises made to protect city bike lanes. people cannot wait 5 to 10 years for the sfmta to prioritize their safety. it's a crucial connector for the thousands of people that ride it daily. people on townsend contend with the worst we see on our city streets, it's abysmal pavement conditions, unprotected bike lanes, ubers and lyfts. as these people brave the mess on townsend every single day,

your staff is backing away for improvements on this corridor. we had a dis line. stake holders, and users had galvanized, there had been public input surveys, as well as full boarding between 5th and 4th, which will provide robust protection. a month ago, with little to no idea, sfmta scrapped the project that was due to be in the ground in six months. because of the voices of the people behind me, it's back on the line. we need to see these things and need assurances that it's moving forward and with the original design. our city leadership cannot continue to stall, cancel, delay protected bike lane projects or back-pedal on their decisions on

townsend or any other streets. you have a responsibility to keep people safe on our streets. i'm urging you, please implement a protected bike lane on townsend and set the priority. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. just wanted to say thank you. catching you doing something right. first of all, moving along with our heroes. they're fantastic. the new voice on muni is fantastic. also the masonic project. i bike that route. to get home and to work, and it's great. the new bike lanes. however, i think using masonic is a good example. we can talk about what we need to improve on. thank you for bringing townsend on the table, but masonic was delayed. i believe it was supposed to be finished last november.

it's caused concern, traffic issues, as well as it's been mentioned, the other projects that can be improved speed-wise. i urge you, as others have, to work in haste. i know that's easier said than done. there's a lot of projects and things going on. if as supervisor kim mentioned, we could provide oo-- prioritiz it would be great. perhaps there will not be a protected bike lane because of the project with muni and caltrain. however, is it not possible, even now, today, for the whole stretch, and when we're avoiding 4th and 5th street, to not have a testimony bear barrier, just something to keep other vehicles

out of the bike lane. i've been hit on townsend multiple times. i had to go to the hospital one time. i will say thank you, again, for all that you do. encourage expediency. i will leave you now to ride my bike to work on townsend street. thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. >> sue hutmer, ellen kariso. >> hi. i'm sue hutmer. i've lived on townsend street for 14 years. been here for about 30. i want to say thank you for the change in plans on townsend. i had cancer about 20 years ago and couldn't bike, but as soon as the city bikes came out, i was able to because of the way they're constructed. as soon as the bike lanes started appearing, i became a

symbol to my community, but i cannot encourage other people to do it if it's not safe. i want to encourage you to do everything you can to make it safe. and because mission bay has so many people on it, people come up 3rd and not on to king. they go on townsend. and i just want to make sure that we're encouraging the right behavior. if we want it get people out of their cars, we can't do what trump did. you can't befriend putin because you are encouraging the wrong behavior. if you are taking over spaces with bikes, you have to protect the people on the bikes. thanks. appreciate it. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi.

i'm a cyclist all the time. we have no car. never had a car. climate devastation is happening because of co2 and cars are the main component of co2 emissions. it's in our interests to put as many people as possible on bikes. bike lanes are necessary to keep us safe. uber and lyft are clogging the roads with people that don't know the city. i bike to the embarcadero all the time for work and caltrain to go to san jose, to take care of my father who have parkinson's. i live on the great highway. both routes, all bike routes, are vitally important to my survival. please get serious about biking now. don't value cars over the lives of my life and my students. thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you.

next speaker, please. >> catherine roberts, brian clofus, jessica jenkins. >> hi. i'm catherine roberts. i've been biking in san francisco since the early '80s, when i moved here to be a bike messenger. >> if you hold the microphone, it will give you feedback. just let go of it. >> i have a little experience biking on these streets. like so many people here, i still feel like i'm taking my life in my hands every single time i go out on the street on a bicycle. i went to the people protected bike lane protest on townsend a week ago tuesday and i had a white-knuckled bike ride the entire way from upper haight to townsend in unprotected lanes. i passed a ghost bike. very sad.

then i was on to the hair-raising experience of biking on division. and then from there to the white-knuckled bike ride on townsend. i cannot count the number of cars that were driving, ubers and what not, driving straight down the bike lane that people had to put their bodies in the way of to force the disgruntled drivers to go back into traffic where they belonged. i honestly -- i can't believe we're even talking about the idea of a protected bike lane. what is the alternative? what is the alternative to protection? it means being out there without any protection at all. what happens is people die. as a legislative body, you don't have the right to put our lives at risk when you have the ability to transform the city streets so that that doesn't

happen. townsend is great. move ahead with it and embarcadero, but we should have protected bike lanes on every bake route in the city. we should not have to be out there risking life and limb because of the way things are. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> brian clufus, jessica jenkins, jason ali. is mr. clofus here? moving on, jessica jenkins, jason ali -- i will read a few more, madam chair, if there are members of the public over in the overflow room that wish to come up and over now. that would be a good time. jessica jenkins, jason ali, matthew blane, alex garcia. and those are the last of the people that turned in a card for this topic. however, some members of the public may have signed up to

discuss the townsend or embarcadero under public comment. >> i'm jessica jenkins. i've been bike commuting for years and i started off on townsend. there's been a lot of improvements. i had my first major track cash. the tracks have been removed, but on the people protected bike lane watching the flow of commuters, it's striking the diversity of them. there's a handful of bike commuters 15 years ago and now it's a constant stream. it was disheartening to see what

they had to contend with. the 10 or so yellow cabs have been replaced by dozens of t.n.c.s, whose driving behavior is pretty awful. so really, it deserves, a high-quality bike lanes. i see more tourists and kids biking and it's horrifying to watch. it was very vulnerable. i'm happy to hear that y'all are moving forward. please keep the pressure on. thanks. >> jason ali, matthew blane, alex garcia.

>> chairman brinkman: if we have any more public commenters, you can come forward. >> i'm matthew blane. i live in san francisco. for six years, i computed the length of division and townsend and i'm an aggressive biker. i've biked in philly, boston, and new york. it is shocking to hear the reversal and glad to hear it's moving forward. i urged m.t.a. and the board that if it's going to take a while, do some immediate room suggestions to try to segregate the drivers that are new. i'm thankful to work from home and make it easier to commute. thank you. >> alex garcia, paul valdez,

sonya trout. >> hi, everybody. thank you for your time. i'm alex garcia. my boyfriend and i live a car-free life and townsend and embarcadero are extremely important. i work at go-bike. we had 17,119 trips in june. that's almost 600 a day. so that's a really important intersection. seeing those improvements are important. you see embarcadero corridor, thousands of people using those stations. so it's really important. i'm speaking in support for working it out. i work with a lot of city agencies. there are little things that we can do to move the projects forward. i'm speaking as an individual in support, but using bike share stats to make the case. >> paul valdez, sonya troust,

matt brasina. >> good after football. i'm paul valdez. i'm an everyday cyclist in district 9. i'm an activist for the people protected bike lanes. a solemn, organized bike ride that we honor lives lost while biking in san francisco. i was so disappointed in your decision in delaying the project. this decision is negligent with a disregard to the safety of many who ride and walk in this demanding and oftentimes perilous corridor. is it going to take another loss of life for you to understand that safety is paramount? will it take another preventible death? since i've been biking in san

francisco, i've noticed it to be your trend. i implore you to step up and at the least come up with near-term bike infrastructure improvements to townsend as soon as possible, like yesterday. can i have the overhead, please? >> chairman brinkman: if you put it down, sfgov will switch to it. >> these are some of the precious lives lost while biking in san francisco. i would like to use the remainder of my time in a moment of silence.

>> chairman brinkman: thank you, mr. valdez, for that powerful reminder of why we do the work we do. >> sonya troust. and there may be people who submitted speaker cards under general public comment, if they could line up on the side for this topic only. >> hi. i'm sonya troust. i live in district 6. i didn't even get my driver's license until i was 29 because i just biked. even though i have a lot of hours in biking, i'm still shy about biking in san francisco. this particular protected bike lane, there are a lot of people

for it. it's a heavily trafficked area. i can sort of understand the feeling that that street will be renovated soon, but there will be so many people using that street, it makes sense to invest in it now. it's also sort of jarring that the decision was just reversed without any interaction with the main advocacy group. we have so many people moving here. and traffic is such an issue, we need to encourage people to bike. it's not just for traffic. it's because biking is clean and climate change is still a big problem that everybody can do something to help address. biking is one of those things. people help people have

healthier lives. it's really life or death, as the previous speaker told us. thank you so much. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. >> matt brazina, mark magater, jeremy frisk. >> i first have a message for the director, followed by a message for the board, followed by a message for the press, followed by a message for all the people behind me. director reiskin, on tuesday last week, nearly 100 people participated and put their bodies on the line in townsend in a people-protected bike lane. i think i speak for the 250,000 people who have participated in last year when i say we are appalled that you would cancel a project like townsend. i believe, and maybe mr. mcgwire can correct us, it's from 8th to 4th. we have the same issues down to

3rd and 2nd. we need a complete, protected bike lane the entire length. press, in the next few weeks, the people of the protected bake line will be on the embarcadero. for the first time, we will be wearing white. we're going to protect the streets and the location where the ghost bike is. a free and open press is how we hold city officials and staff accountable to their responsibilities to keep us safe. now i want to speak to the people here fighting for a safer, greener street and those watching at home. a safer, greener future of our streets is coming. i'm distraught that it requires the sacrifice of manners like kevin manning, but we have reason to hope. bike share and scooter share, having the first experiences

traveling on dangerous streets. social media spreading videos. the word protected lane is on the lips of millions of americans. keep up the fight. keep contributing your energy. this is important work. the future we're starting to see is worth it. >> chairman brinkman: thank you and thank you for the work you've done to organizing the powerful demonstrations. >> mark migater, jeremy frisch, rick gurling. >> i work for a technology company, big employer. one of the things that i've noticed, amazing work that you've done and you should be acknowledged for all that m.t.a. has done to improvement biking.

i started to bike to work then and i still do it. the pictures of the people that you saw represent who bikes across san francisco? it's not just the young. it's a cross segment. i'm 59 years old i bike to work every day. to work along townsend is aged and needs to move forward to protect the people. it's really important. on the other side, though, that area has had no pedestrian access. the south side of that street and it's unbearable. we have people that commute up on caltrain and need to get to our office. during the wintertime, it's unsafe. it's not lit. it's not protect e eprotected. it's a dumping ground. it needs to be much better. that designation of a pedestrian area is amazingly well-designed and i urge you to move forward as fast as possible in all

directions, please. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> jeremy frish, rick gurling, and jane natoli. >> i'm jeremy frish, folsom and 24th in the mission and i put my life at risk getting to work every day. i start my morning dodging vehicles, blocking bike lanes, between 24th and division. half the week i continue to downtown s.f. and i get to enjoy a six-block respite on a bike lane. the other half of the week, i'm forced to take townsend in order to get to the caltrain station. even on a day where i'm able to get down townsend without a car blocking the bike lane, which is

rare. there wasn't even a bike lane between 6th and 7th due to construction. theres been 40 recorded bike collisions on townsend. per intersection, it's the fourth worst in the city behind embarcadero, market and valencia. one injury should be unacceptable to the board and we have one a month on townsend in the past few years. kevin manning, a petty cab operator, was murdered, giving a family a ride on the embarcadero, another long-delayed, protected lane project. reinstate the project now to implement protected lanes by the end of the year and do something to keep people safe on the embarcadero. it's time to start waiting to be the world class biking city. amsterdam and copenhagen became

biking utopias because they started to prioritize bikers over cars. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> rick gurling, jane natoli, sean grunburger. >> i'm lucky to be here today because i could have been kevin manning. 14 years ago, a muni bus ran me over and put me in the hospital for three months. i was off work for a year and i'm still recovering from that. i'm happy to say, i still ride my bike. it took a number of years to get back on a bike and i'm extremely careful. i ride the embarcadero only on sunday mornings because it's the only time it's safe. i rode home from the ballgame the other day on townsend

corridor. and i want to just tell you that, when people get hit, does doesn't take a death. my life changed. i'm still here, but my life changed, family's life changed and everyone around me changed and you have to take that into consideration and you cannot postpone things that are so critical. i don't understand why the embarcadero is such a problem. you have two split lanes. one could be for pedestrians and bikes. the other could be for cars going one direction. it seems to me like a no-brainer. i'm going to amsterdam and copenhagen this summer because they have bike lanes there. if we had bike lanes all over the city, people would come here to ride bikes here.

thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> jane natoli, shawn brunburger. those are the last people that wish to address you on this topic. >> hello. thank you for listening to us today. i'm glad to hear that townsend is back on. i agree with many of the comments and would like to see a robust plan. i compute on it daily. it's covered with sand and garbage. people are going everywhere. cars are going everywhere. people are going everywhere. there's a lot of disorder there. i understand why people don't feel safe on that street. it's not safe. most of my commute is not in

protected lanes, but it's easily the worst stretch. my office is moving, but it's moving to townsend. 1,000 people in my office commuting daily. we deserve a safe commute. the street redesigns that are putting people walking and biking first, makes our streets safer for all. we need to move expeditiously. we have so much work to do in so many placed. i was doored on howard, which still haven't seen as many improvements. i've been hit elsewhere. i bike through golden gate park, which is still not a very safe place to bike. we have so many places to concentrate our energy. it's low-hanging fruit. it will make it better for everyone and i hope you move quickly on it.

>> chairman brinkman: thank you. >> shawn brunburger and david golden. >> hi, directors. thank you. i'm an 18-year resident of san francisco and i live in the mission. i drive frequently. and on every one of the rides, i've been disappointed by the state of the pavement and lack of space for cyclists and pedestrians. riding on townsend has felt uncomfortable and has for decades. cyclists and pedestrians deserve more on the status quo on this street. i don't want to wait years more for meaningful improvements. and it's clear that other people agree with me. i'm pleased to here the announcement. i urge the sfmta to fully

reinstate the plan for protected lanes on townsend. thank you very much. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> david golden. madam chair, last speaker to discuss items addressed by director reiskin. >> i want to thank you for the bake line between church and sanchez. i bike that and three times a week i have my daughter with me on the way to preschool. i want to thank you for reinstating the protected bike lane plan on townsend street. i put myself on the last on tuesday and got to see firsthand -- i don't commute myself daily there, but it's a madhouse. having my body there physically, i felt the im pending danger

that cars posed to me. but we're there. and we'll 21 to hold the events. it's concerning to me that we have to go to those strengths to get the political attention and will for progress. in the absence of that voice, we're backtracking and making negative progress. as is so evident, a delay means death or injury. i don't want to see another dea death. i will show up, continue to show up. i will give you the political backing that i can to be able to move these forward. my ideal is that the projects

happen because they keep residents safe and don't need to stand on the line or need to stand here before you. thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. do i have any more public comment on the director's report? anyone? yes. i see one more person coming forward. >> thank you. i'm erica byrne. i'm on sutter street on nob hill. so i was baffled to hear director reiskin's statement that he doesn't have $6 million. i watch the number 3 bus go by every few minutes. it was supposed to be eliminated back when willie brown was mayor. we would have $2 million times, what, 10 years, $20 million. i would be happy it have the number 3 bus discontinued today and take that money and put it

towards saving lives on townsend street. thank you. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. i don't think we want to sacrifice other people's bike lanes. thank you for coming. do i have any more public comment, public comment is closed. thank you for coming down here. your comments are powerful, poignant, and we're hearing them. i share your fear when you have loved ones or yourself out here on bicycles and some of the streets, the conditions, can be terrifying. i know. i've ridden them. i worry for my partner when he rides back and forth from work. he's under strict instructions to never tell me about negative interactions but i know that happen. director reiskin, can we go

briefly into what happened and why the project was pulled from the website? i understand the d.t.x. project is coming. also, can we go into the timeline for how quickly we think we can address townsend street. i thought the commenter that said a shrinking habitat for t.n.c. would be helpful on that street. i don't know if there's anything we can do about that, but it's something to consider. >> madam chair, i concur with your comments. i would like to thank the members of the public and supervisor kim for their comments. very powerful. i, myself, have ridden way bike and bike-share bike on townsend many times. so i'm very familiar with the conditions there. we don't want anyone to be added to the photo collage that we saw. that's not why we're here.

so in terms of the townsend project, what we had developed was amounts to full street construction. if we look at townsend, it's not a city-standard street. it does not have curb or gutter. we had developed a plan to build almost a brand-new street. i think there was a good design, as some members of the public made reference to, but when we looked at the funding -- funds required to get that in place, the stretch of townsend is heavily used and people on muni and other modes, we would have the street torn up for a period of time. and by the time it was done, we would be facing within a very

short period of time, the construction of thedown town extension of caltrain and rail that would render the improvements useless. our intent was not to accept status quo and do nothing, but what is a better way to get improvements in the ground faster. there are needs for improvement and we're as strat eggic -- strategic in our use of funds. every dollar we don't use here, we can use somewhere else. the revised approach will get safety improvements on the ground much sooner. in terms of timeline, we think within a month to have a revised design that we will start

sharing and socializing with the various stake holders. the people on townsend and the various modes and, you know, i think with an expeditious process, we could see improvements at the end of the calendar year. >> chairman brinkman: for embarcadero, when do you think we may get some safety improvements on the ground there? >> i will defer to mr. mcgwire to answer that. >> i mentioned, directors, the possibility of doing an improvement southbound and

improvement route on battery into and out of the financial districts. looking to get those done by january, 2019. if we can get that done, get it done faster, we'll certainly aim to get it done faster. we don't need environmental clearance, as far as we know, to move forward. >> chairman brinkman: good. thank you. again, thank you, everybody, for coming down. i want to leave time for fellow directors to give any comments or questions. i just want it say that i know the staff at the m.t.a. i've been on this board for a long time now. i know that we care and care deeply about the safety on the streets. i want to thank you, again, for coming down and having the people protected bike lanes, and showing us that you do put your lives where your mouths are on this and we hear that and see that and i, for one, will be encouraging staff to do everything we can to take a hard look at some of the streets,

townsend and embarcadero to see what we can do to tame the situation. and maybe we can have some stepped-up enforcement to send a message to the other users of the street that this is a vital connection. i sit on the caltrain board. we encourage every other city to make safe walking and biking connections to our stations. we need to do the same in san francisco and make sure that our caltrain users and commuters can get through that stretch. director rubke? >> commissioner rubke: the timeline that you discussed, it it for 4th through 8th? >> yeah, so the immediate improvements are 4th to 7th.

we're trying to address the most critical and difficult section first. >> commissioner borden: i'm heartened that the project is back on the schedule again. i apologize to the community that we in some ways failed you in not getting this done sooner. as you know, all transportation projects take a long time? it's frustrating for us up here, whether we're waiting for an sbrt, which i was on the committee in 2003, talking about it. everything takes longer than it needs to. i don't really know and maybe with the -- in the changes of looking forward, if there's a way it have things like this happen faster, we have to be more nimble. time is passing too quickly. i know this is not -- it's a

very multilayered challenge that we have. but whatever we can do to move it forward, protected bike lanes are the only ones that will not be driven into. i see it -- i own and work with restaurants and struggle well keeping ride-shares or valet out of the bike lanes. it's inevitably that it will happen. so we know that we're creating a natural conflict. we have to do something to fix that conflict. whatever we can do to help that happen faster, i'm committed. i would not ride my bike to townsend street because i would not feel safe. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. and we'll move on. >> clerk: item 8, citizens'

advisory council report. the chairman is here. >> chairman brinkman: following this, we'll go straight to consent calendar item 11 and then return to public comment for matters not on today's agenda. mr. weaver, good to see you. if there is anyone remaining in overflow room, you can come to this room, room 400. there are plenty of seats. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm dan weaver. i'm the chair of the sfmta-cac. i'm reporting on motions we passed at our recent meeting last week. the first motion concerns the

geary rapid transit project. we got a presentation on that at the full cac, most recent meeting. the mta-cac recommends that trees and landscaping be part of the geary project and existing landscaping and trees be maintained properly by the sfmta and city and county of san francisco. this came up because we got a presentation on the project and its advancement and the only plan for landscaping or trees along the routes would be if they had to replace the tree. they promised that if they had to remove one, they would replace it. in terms of dealing with the entire corridor or even the major parts of it, there's no plan. it's amazing when you consider how important landscaping and

tree planting has been on masonic. it's just something -- there's a misfit here between project geary and project masonic. i'm not sure how it comes about. i think it needs to be addressed. the second motion that kim came out of our engineering maintenance safety committee. sfmta-cac recommends that when the new bus-only lanes are established on the geary corridor, the m.t.a. work with sfpd to keep the other vehicles out of the corridors or lanes.

second motion, the sfmta-cac recommends the for disposal cars, streetcars, while an assessment is immediate for the e and f lines. if it is deemed that a number of double-ended are needed, the stored single-ended can be converted to double-ended cars. basically, we're pointing out in this motion that although the m.t.a. board has approved a plan to eliminate a certain number of historic vehicles because they're no longer needed or in bad shape, that they should be saved until we can figure out or agency can figure out that there is a need and a way in which the

single-ended cars can be made double-ended cars. so don't throw them away yet. that's the essence of the motion. the c.a.c. recommends that historic rail car operations and maintenance be its own division similar to the model employed with the cable cars. it's in the best interests of the m.t.a. that a dedicated director/manager be installed for the maintenance and operation of the historic fleet. the force needed to maintain the fleet has to be highly skilled and resourceful as mechanics of these cars vary in scope. because these cars are historic and the numbers are limited, an

in-house, specialized crew is needed to fully maintain the cars as outsourcing firms are becoming rare. that's it. >> chairman brinkman: thank you very much. thank you for your service. and please pass our thanks along to the c.a.c. and all the committee. thank you. do i have any public comment on the citizens advisory council report? >> just briefly, wanted to support in particular the second motion regarding the disposition and encourage the board to consider the vote on disposing of the cars. i think as the motion indicated, they may have value in the future. it's really unfortunate that over the last 35 years, they were left to sit and rot and deteriorate and be exposed to the elements. at geneva yard at pier 72,

various locations. also, i've -- as i've commented before, it would be helpful to the public to see the transmittal letter with the c.a.c. recommendations included in the packet. i understand when there's a c.a.c. meeting five days before this meeting, it's difficult to do time-wise, but when there's more than five days, it's very doable. you can include with the next packet the transmittal of the recommendations and perhaps even staff responses that has been created. thanks very much. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. all right. we'll move on. >> clerk: moving on to consent calendar. item 9 has been continued until later on the agenda. there are multiple items that have been severed from the consent calendar at the request of members of the public, including 10.1, x-b, 10.2, 10.3,

10.4, 10.5 and 10.8. >> chairman brinkman: all right. i will ask for a motion to approve the consent calendar minus 10.1, x-b, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.8. >> move to approve. >> chairman brinkman: all in favor? aye. opposed? hearing none, consent minus those items is approved. >> clerk: 10.1, several traffic modifications. >> chairman brinkman: are we taking the sever all together, ms. boomer? we have a member of the public. >> taken care 10.1x-bb, i thought that these were all

related to the paved street project that would be before the board today, but i don't see here. i expressed opposition at that time and the paved street project. i don't believe i got any notification that the items weren't going to be here, so it looks like these are on separate tracks. i believe that there may be cumulative impacts of these traffic changes, though it may seem minor. may be cumulative impacts between the changes east of octavia. and for that matter, proposed traffic signal at haight and buchanan. so i will consider weather to file a ceqa appeal on these matters. it would be great in the future when people