>> yeah. and so whatever the timeline will be for when the scooters hit the streets again. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. i would like to move to public comment. i will remind people who want to comment on townsend and embarcadero this is a great place to do it. or you can stay and comment under general comment. ms. boomer, let's set a 2 minute time limit. you will hear a soft chime when you have 30 seconds left. and then a louder chime when your 2 minutes is up. when that louder time happens, i will politely, but firmly cut you off. people in the overflow room, as your name is called, go ahead and come to this room.

>> muni got me here early. thank you. scooters was brought up in this room. i'm going to talk about that today. it's an issue that is very important to me. and i feel that the scooters can add something to the mix, to the tool pox -- box. i will not ride without a helm t helmet. i will not lose my credibility. scooters can help people. people with disabilities, especially disabled veterans like myself, people who have served our great country. and we should look at what we

can do and muni is one of those. i'm a muni mobile ticket today. i'm not arnaz much, so not using monthly. ride-share, bicycles, scooters, things that will help me in my last mile needs to be compleme t complementary to my use of muni, which during my times in san francisco, i will always use. i named my last bike muni. i hope that we will approve the permits expeditiously. it must not be an emotional process, just because a person doesn't like something, doesn't make it wrong. if they meet the requirements, the permits must be granted. thank you.

>> chairman brinkman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> david pilpail, maureen persico. >> good afternoon. a number of items. i also wanted to mention louis dorsey, who comes in to help out under prop f and does a great job. i used to spend a lot of time at central control late at night. i'm familiar with what they did then and i'm sure there is more working done overnight. hopefully we can hear back how it went at a future meeting. next item, director reiskin did not mention the transbay terminal, which i understand has a big opening on august 12. i hope to hear more about that. and also to hear more about the

bus routing. i believe that it would be better to make a right on beal, other than the first routing, which is difficult, an onramp for the bay bridge. next item, on the twin peaks construction update. and i am wondering if there can be updates posted so we know what is happening. operator availability at green division, lrv and pcc is an issue and will be more of an issue in august with the return to the regular schedules. i hope john haley and julie hirs hirschbaum and their teams are looking at greater availability. i hope we'll hear in the future

about the issues with bart, canopy's project and early morning service and what changes are in store. >> chairman brinkman: thank you. i would like to go out of order and recognize that supervisor kim has just joined us and ask if she would come up. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you, director brinkman and director reiskin and want it thank the members of the public to allow me to speak before the 2:00 p.m. board of supervisors meeting. 5 want to speak on the townsend project. it's been a project that i've been speaking with director reiskin and staff members about for the last five years. it's long been a priority project for our office simply by the sheer number of users on this corridor, whether they're pedestrians, cyclists, those that are getting off of caltrain

and on and also the sheer number of ride-share vehicles, which has gone up significantly since 2013 when we first started talking about this project. also, with the construction on central subway, for those of you that spend time on townsend and 4th, it's a sheer -- it's a complete mess. and director rubke, who lives close to this intersection, knows how difficult it is for pedestrians and cyclists to maneuver around the 30, the 45, who have been rerouted, along with the ride-share vehicles and our cyclists and pedestrians, who use this intersection very well. i understand that it is a costly project. the changes could cost up to $6 million and there are concerns about how long the improvements will be in place given that we are also planning for the downtown extension of caltrain. however, i will say this. we know regardless of our hopes

and our faith, that delays are inevitable. but even if our best assumptions move forward and d.t.f. comes to the ground in the next five years, we should not think of the number of years that revenue and investment should be put in place on this particular corridor, but to think about the number of users. i think this particular corridor has a higher number of users and many others that prioritized in district 6. if you multiply the users with this corridor, even a five-year investment is well worth it. even if we save one lives, two lives, three lives, we will have considered the $6 million worth it. just in the last five years, there's been 43 bicycle collisions and this is one of our vision zero high of-injury networks. vision zero is one of my policy priorities that i've engaged in

during my time in office. we have more people killed by cars than guns in the city and county of san francisco and the high-injury corridors, many of them, are in the district that i represent. it's important for not just saving lives, but we need users to walk and bike and not drive and to take public transportation. and how we're going to get there in the immediate future is by making our roads safer today. i encourage sfmta to continue this project on track i'm personally very committed. i have six months remaining to make sure that we make the district safer for all of us. townsend street, 6th and howard will be our office's priority and we'd like to see them come to specific milestones to make sure that they don't get off track. thank you to the directors and the members of the public here

today to support this and thank you, also, for letting me speak in advance. >> commissioner torres: i wish you all the best and thank you for your service to the city and county of san francisco. you provided great leadership during your tenure and we're grateful for your service. >> supervisor kim: thank you. >> chairman brinkman: we appreciate the support you have given to m.t.a. and vision zero. >> supervisor kim: and i will do whatever i can to move this through. >> chairman brinkman: can we please return to public comment? >> maureen persico, elizabeth kreely, doug betton. >> hello. you know my name. i've been a resident for 26 years and a bicyclists here in san francisco for about 16. what i'm not is a bicyclist on

townsend, because despite my experience, townsend is too dangerous. today is my day off and i have 100 other things to do more than i would like to be here. how about a nap? but i am here because sfmta -- sorry. today is my day off, and i'm here because of the safety of my fellow biking and walking citizens it is important to me. and i'm glad to hear tom mcgwire's report that townsend safety improvements are back on the table. you have backtracked from your shameful decision to do nothing because of the actions of the s.f. bike activists and grassroots efforts of people protecting the bike lane activists. and i will speak up and show up for the protected bike lanes that our citizens must have. >> chairman brinkman: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> elizabeth kreely, doug

betton, skip high. >> i'm elizabeth kreely. i live in the mission district. i've been cycling in san francisco for about 26 years in the san francisco bicycle coalition member and contributing writer to mission local, where i write about transportation issues. i will limit my comments to say that i'm happy to hear that the improvements on townsend are become on track. i hope they remain there. i had an experience on townsend three weeks ago where an uber driver left the eastbound lane, crossed the double yellow line, into the bike line to execute a clumsy three-point turn to get back into the westbound lane. it's not the first time that this sort of -- this really bad driving has happened on townsend

street. it's clear why we need to have improvements there. i will not state the obvious. the one thing that i really look forward to is taking habitat away from t.n.c.s. that have overtaken townsend street. it's one of the most direct routes from mission to embarcadero. embarcadero is a similar problem. one of the reasons that i need to proceed with the townsend bike lanes, until crtc data can be used to effectively curb congestion and usage, you can at 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.