answer emily's question. >> ms. senhaux (chair): you may. >> nicole: in terms of user testing recommendations, mayor's office on disability does have a list of community organizations. and we're also more than happy to help with basic recruitment. i'm happy to hear any other recommendations that the council would have, but wanted to make sure you knew we had a community engagement resource list that we distribute regularly. >> okay. thank you, nicole. >> nicole: thank you for letting me go. >> ms. senhaux (chair): last time i didn't let you. council member questions. let's be brief. we have another presentation. >> mr. madrid: i have two questions. one is that i saw on the station the message through jaws, right?

>> could you repeat the question? >> so one question i have, i saw your department has a license to use jaws. >> a license for jaws, yes. >> mr. madrid: yeah. and one of your staff of your department uses jaws? >> she doesn't every day, but in her previous job before she came to digital services and then ongoing in our department, she has designed for jaws before. she understands to some extent how to use it. and she has a license on her computer, but what we decided over the summer, we needed a computer dedicated in our department that is only used for testing with jaws, so the rest of us in the department, a, can gain the skill set so we can do

testing. b, so that we can have user testing and have it accessible or available to more people. like it wasn't just enough for her to have it. because she only has so much time. and also, it's important for us to see this as -- this is a skill that everybody in our department should have, right? this is something we all need to get up to speed on and become proficient and hopefully good at. >> mr. madrid: thank you. i'm wondering if you can answer this question. where someone apply for dahlia? categories that your department has to follow?

>> categories that we have to file? >> follow. >> oh, like the rules. yeah. that might be a better question for maria, because what i get is certain like business rules and i have to implement -- >> mr. madrid: i.t.? >> the i.t., we do some service designs, so sometimes we take the existing process and be like, hey, what if we move this around or did this to create efficiencies for your staff? >> mr. madrid: okay. >> i'm not sure i answered your question. >> mr. madrid: have you experience experienced application that is not completed or not efficiently, and how you guys

connected to how do you guys do that? >> the question is, tell me if i understood, if they get applications that are not complete? >> mr. madrid: or errors. >> or errors? >> mr. madrid: you guys have a lot of ongoing updates on the website. >> yeah. the way that applications work, it's a short form. so anybody who applied years ago, it was a stack of papers this thick and the rules are different. now it's called the short application. it's the bare minimum information that they need to get someone into the lottery. if you hit the submit button on dahlia, then that's everything you need to get in the lottery. and what happens is after the lottery, if you do well enough you meet with the leasing agent, they go through and vet. if something was -- typically, i

can't say always, but if something is a little off in the dahlia application, let's say you put your -- i don't know data entry or something changed -- during that process after the lottery, the leasing agent checks and you have a chance to fix it. like for example, on the dahlia application let's say you say i olivia stefanoviliv live in san francisco. you uploaded a proof document, you meant to upload the lease, but you clicked the wrong thing, that's okay. you'll get to go into the lottery. they'll say, hey, you uploaded the wrong document, bring in the right one and we'll count that. >> mr. madrid: thank you. >> ms. senhaux (chair): council member? >> ms. sassouni: brief question.

have you ever -- is your website able to reverse color background, so it has a white back -- black background with white letters? the white background is more challenging. there is a high percentage of people who have vision impairment. that's one question. secondly, do you have access for other languages? because some people may struggle with english. it's not their first language. i'm wondering if it's available in other languages. >> excellent questions, thank you. i'm not aware if we have reverse color. i know that we have the color contrast that christina did the test for. so i'll look into that and get back to you. and then in terms of languages, there is, of course the city-supported languages, filipino, chinese and spanish. we support all of them on our sites.

historically, a lot of them were google translated and we did a bunch of testing earlier, may, june, april. and those were, of course, not adequate. some were in certain languages, for example, there was pretty, i would say, embarrassing problems with the chinese translation. so what we've done from a community perspective, or a research perspective is partnered with asian institutes, do testing over there and speak with their staff. and come up with better translations and then also removing a lot of the google translations, the automated translations from google and making them human translations. they are sent to a vendor, then mohcd staff and then that's my long winded way of saying the dahlia site always supported the filipino, spanish and chinese,

but it was not always the best quality. what did i miss? >> ms. sassouni: closed captions in terms of the audio component? because people would not have access to that information. >> i'm not sure we have -- i'm not aware of any audio content we have on the site. >> ms. sassouni: i saw it was on the list, audio content. >> i'm sorry, you're correct. that list was a list of things that was on the audit. so the 29-page document that christina has of all the things we should check, i probably shouldn't have listed, because in our case, there wasn't any content there. >> ms. sassouni: okay, great, thank you. >> i should have done that better. >> ms. pelzman: hi, thank you

for being here today. you actually did answer my question in terms of focus grouping, or putting this out and actually letting people interact with it. a group i'd recommend is the independent living resource center. i actually have your site up right here. one of the questions i have is, do you provide images of the actual residents? because right now, all that is displayed, from what i can see, is the exterior of the building? and particularly for people with disabilities, there could be multiple needs that may not necessarily be addressed in a generic -- what would be, i would imagine a fairly generic approach to design.

forgive me for making that assumption, but it would be really helpful to see what a studio looks like, or a one-bedroom. >> because you're saying it would help somebody who needs to look at certain features and understand if they'll work for their situation. >> exactly. >> that's so helpful to hear. we have enough features and requests to keep my team busy for five+ years, so it's a matter of figuring out what is going to help the most people, or help make everybody at least get to have the same experience on the site. that's really helpful, because we've had a lot of people ask for more pictures. right now, you're correct. we look at a listing and there is only place for one picture and it tends to be a picture of the outside, and maybe one on the inside. which is not sufficient. but that is really super -- that is very helpful for me to understand kind of a much more meaningful important reason to have the pictures, rather than

just to see what it looks like. >> ms. pelzman: and basic amenities. where is the garbage disposal? how easy is it to get to it? is there an automatic door that opens it? and if there is parking, how is that situated in terms of accessibility? >> okay. and i was just going to mention. i don't know. i'm brand new, so forgive me if i don't know the answer to this. but i was just wondering if maybe somebody on the council would be willing to participate in reviewing or auditing the system so we have somebody from our community here helping out? >> the last thing was just based on the presentation that we just had, are you coordinating with

emergency response planning around the design of these facilities for disabled people? is there some kind of enhancement that could be brought in? >> that is an excellent question. that is more for the mayor's office of housing. perhaps they're planning. >> you're trying to design and be proactive about addressing emergency preparedness, maybe there are elements that can be incorporated? >> that's an excellent question. could i get your card after and i'll follow up with maria benjamin and see if she can get you an answer. >> yes, thank you very much. >> mr. herman: just a follow-up to my own question. the other issue is the bathroom accessibility. the ada bathroom in the units.

people who need that. my question is, about the application and the use of the site. for people who are visually impaired. how is -- is there some way -- this was my question also about audio, is there some way to have somebody who is visually impaired fill out the application through a voice interaction? as opposed to having to have somebody sit there to help them fill it out? is there some way to design -- digitally design the application so that it's an audio application. and takes responses verbally from somebody who may have visual impairment? >> okay. so just to make sure you understand, the applicant could

speak an answer and then -- >> have the application ask a question, what is your name? and then the person speaks it. and then it gets filed into the application. >> nicole: through the chair, i think one of the things to check on christina's audit is what councillor herman is describing is something available through a voice dictation. and typically, if we're following the current accessibility guidelines when we're accounting for web accessibility, that is part of this audit. so my assumption is that we're also testing specifically for what you're asking for. but it would be good to cross-check that. >> okay. i need to follow up with you on that. >> the only reason i brought it up, you said there was no audio

content. and in response to the other council member. so i didn't feel there was any opportunity for anybody who was visually impaired to complete the application if there was no interactive audio content. >> not built in. >> that's why i asked the question. >> thank you. >> ms. yu: i think you can uncover a lot of this through user testing with people who are blind. my only thing is please pay your user testers. that's all. >> okay. >> ms. senhaux (chair): thank you. any questions from staff? >> nicole: thank you for being here, emily. i'm very sorry that our colleague maria could not join. i think there are other questions, but i think it would be good to, maybe collect those and help get some of these other

questions. one comment that i have -- and again we're happy to work with your team -- when you were talking about the slide that is not rolled out yet on the different disability categories that you're asking the agencies to account for, i guess my question is, let's see if i can be as succinct as possible -- if the unit has not been identified as a communication or mobility unit, are agencies still listing particular features? and what i mean to say is this, there is a certain number of units that we need to, by law, set aside for folks with mobility disabilities that have specific requirements and communication units, which are specifically for deaf individuals. right? and then with specific visual features. there is not really in the code

anything specific for low vision individuals besides requirements for external signage. so what i'm wondering is, if we surpass our number of available code-approved units, are we still allowing for that distinction of the disability needs for or units. i guess my example, thinking about council member williams, who was unfortunately unable to be here, but is blind and has talked several times in public comment about working with her constituents at the lighthouse around trying to find housing. and many times individuals don't need specific other accessibility. they just need access to a unit.

and so i'm wondering if the prioritization still happens if you technically run out of the code-required units? and how that rolls over? or if that is something we maybe need to take a closer look at? >> i think i understand your question. i think that is a conversation to be had with maria. >> i figured that, but i wanted to make sure [laughter]. the way that our categories are listed right now, there are other -- there are other disability types that we can account for, but don't match one to one to code unit, but that doesn't mean that that represents the number of people actually needing accessible housing. >> right. >> nicole: so we can be thoughtful, i think, about how we list those disability categories. >> okay.

>> nicole: so whatever we're representing is accurate to the actual inventory or not. >> right. >> nicole: does that make any more sense? i think we need more discussion. >> i agree. i want more -- i would love more discussion, too, because i think it's a conversation that could happen between yourself, myself and maria and then we could figure out the business side. the part between you two and then i'll implement it. >> nicole: right. i want to make sure we're not misrepresenting what is or isn't available. and when there is more available that could still be utilized by someone with a disability -- >> technically set aside unit for mobility, but it could still work. >> still work because it's an accessible building. i want to make sure, there are many people with disabilities who, beyond navigating our

website, just have difficulty navigating the process of finding housing. which i think we hear in every public forum, but people with disabilities in particular struggle with matching their particular needs to appropriate housing very often. >> okay. let's talk more. because there is other work we're doing to think about, a search feature. how to make it easier to figure out which listings are best. >> nicole: that sounds perfect. thank you so much. >> i'd like to [inaudible] add a point -- would it be possible -- [inaudible] >> ms. senhaux (chair): microphone, please. >> again, i'm new, apologies.

would it be possible for us to have the dahlia link on the council's website. so when people are looking -- you know, they go to the council on disabilities, for those seeking housing, the link would be right there. it would be easy for them to find. >> that makes sense to me, but that's -- you know. >> we've linked to other resources on the web page. that would be no problem, yeah. >> and dahlia will never be done, it's a process. so even some of the things we found in the audit, without getting too technical, we're going to have to do a full rewrite of dahlia because the language is being sun setted. so there are some things we can do now and some things that have to wait. i'm excited about starting from scratch. the code we're in, it's like having a car where you can't

find the replacement part. it's getting outdated. so i'm excited with the new rewrite we'll be able to do things better. we have more tools at a our disposal technically. >> ms. senhaux (chair): i want to thank you very much for doing both parts of the presentation. we look forward to a follow-up. >> thank you, all, appreciate it. >> ms. senhaux (chair): okay. so we have room for public comment. we have another presentation. i'm going to ask for public comment, you can speak for three minutes. do we have any public comment? i believe we have zack. >> nicole: and bruce as well. >> ms. senhaux (chair): and bruce. okay, thank you. >> my name is bruce morgan. i just turned 70 on tuesday. i have cerebral palsy and a couple years back, i fractured

my back. and i've been trying to -- i live in north beach. i have 22 stairs to climb. i've been climbing them for 40 years. but i need, as i get older, uglier, slower, i need to get more accessible housing. i spend several years as a -- doing social work in the tenderloin many years ago and i'm finding that, like with dahlia, when i was looking at the website this morning, because i just did a quick look, it was showing you had to be working to -- because there was how much money you had to be making and what your rent would be. but for me, i'm retired. and so i couldn't -- it didn't

do me any good. that's the information that it's giving. good for those who use it, but in my particular case, it didn't seem to be helpful. and this is more information i didn't see at the moment. i'm finding there are a lot of agencies in the city that deal with housing in one way or another, but a lot of times the information they have is outdated, or you know, it's such that even they're not sure if it's accurate. and a lot of times all they can do is put you on a waiting list. and i've been on a waiting list here and there for years. i was on -- i'm on one where 4,000 people applied for 92

apartments. i'm like 1,000 out of 4,000. and the thing is, it is getting harder to find housing, especially if you're trying to find -- because i'm paying 60% of my income to my housing as of right now. and that is pretty steep. and but you know -- [bell ringing] -- i don't know how much longer i'll be able to live where i am, until i can't afford to live there anymore. there needs to be more coordination among the agencies in the city that deal with housing, so that when someone is trying to find housing, especially if they're senior or disabled and they're on fixed income, like i am, and they're trying to find, they can know that the information -- [bell ringing] -- they're getting is

accurate and that this coordination among the agencies, and that you know, it's current and it needs to -- so you're not just running from place to place and finding out you're just too late. and so i mean i don't know how long it's going to take me to find housing. i mean, i'm on waiting lists, but you know, it's getting harder because it's getting more expensive to live here. and if you're a senior, disabled and low-income, you're being forced out or into areas where it's not necessarily safe all the time. and so there needs to be better coordination among the agencies. and people don't, you know, can know that the information they're getting is current. it's not two or three months old

or years old. and if they got a chance to find some housing, whether they're just spinning their wheels and hoping that something is going to come up. thank you for your help. >> ms. senhaux (chair): thank you, bruce. >> ms. senhaux (chair): any more public comment? zack? okay. >> i'd like to request just one extra minute to speak slower for the sign language interpreters. >> ms. senhaux (chair): unless it's disability related -- >> you can deny that request, thank you. >> ms. senhaux (chair): i'm not denying it, i'm explaining it. >> it's a request and you're denying it. i'll continue to give my public comment.

bruce's comment hit the nail on the head. housing is the dark cloud that face the disability community that we don't want to talk about, but we need to talk about. to be severe disabled. if you're disabled in california to the point you can't work, the maximum amount of money is around $600. that's everything. if emily shore can show me any place that is available for rent under $950, i'll be happy to give all the money in my wallet and the shirt on my back, because i've been looking for a long time. especially a place that is wheelchair accessible. that's a pipe dream as it is. that's if it's the whole amount, you know, let alone clothes, other needs. i've had to request multiple times to get housing lists, as

bruce says, they're accurate. i'm on their e-mail list, they don't send me what they're supposed to. i'm in a unit right now that doesn't have wheelchair access to the door and there is no law that requires my landlord to provide that. they can't force my landlord to provide that. there is a law that says i can pay for it, if i have the money and can hire construction workers to do all that, which i don't. and so that's a really big problem. i think there is great comments made about pictures to show for the units that are on the market. i think that's a no-brainer. the fact that some of that stuff is coming across as news here, is shocking to me. getting interpreters and not just using google to interpret different languages. i mean that's ridiculous. why are you using private corporations like computer speak to translate for members of our community? you could be hiring interpreters, creating jobs. and i think council member

tiffany made a great point about paying people for that as well, whenever you're doing any kind of testing and market research, or -- for people in the community. there are, as of 2019 point in time, 3205 people with psychiatric or physical disability living on our streets. 801 seniors. these are conservative numbers. over 70% of -- [bell ringing] -- of san francisco's homeless population is previous san francisco neighbors. these are not traveling hippies. these are people we know. to be severely disabled in san francisco right now means to be homeless. unless you have a special circumstance, family members to help you out, you have a special situation, to be severely disabled in san francisco for the majority, it means to be homeless. [bell ringing] >> ms. senhaux (chair): thank

you. we're going on to information item number 8 which is curb management strategy. i want to welcome our presenters and thank you for waiting. hank wilson, parking policy manager with sfmta and francesca napolitan, curb access manager with sfmta. and alex jonlin, transportation planner with sfmta. thank you for waiting. >> good afternoon, my name is francesca napolitan. hank and alex couldn't be here today, so it's just me representing the parking and curb management group. i'm here to talk about an effort that they're undertaking. so quickly what is curb management? we're the agency charged with managing the curbs, so we're responsible for regulating the curb, dictating who can use it and when, for what purpose and if they have to pay. before i dive into the strategy and some of our draft

recommendations, i wanted to talk about why curb management is important and we as an agency are creating this document. so curb management has been a challenge for a long time in the city. photo on the screen is a picture from the 1970s when the first transit-only lane was implemented. even then, double parking was a problem with the bus having to veer into on coming traffic to get around the cars. jumping ahead to the present day, we're still facing many of the same challenges which negatively impact modes that the agency wants to support, like muni, para transit and taxis. and within the past few years, we've seen explosion of new services, such as bike-share, car-share, services like lava may and the meditation bus, über

and lyft, food services and parkless which are putting additional pressures on the curb. in addition, we're seeing high demand for loading space from a variety of users such as small businesses, schools, non-profits, funeral homes and hospitals. we get hundreds of requests every year for yellow, white and green zones to serve these users. and this increased pressure on the curb has created a number of issues that this policy document seeks to address. so the lack of loading space creates safety hazards. as illustrated in the photo on the left, when vehicles double park, bikes are forced to veer out into traffic. on valencia street, a review of collision data found that # up to 50% of bike-car collisions were directly related to loading. pedestrian safety is impacted

when pedestrians block crosswalks to load, forcing people to veer into the travel lanes. a lack of loading space also leads to transit delays and congestion. the sfmta has expended considerable capital to put in transit only lanes, but double parking undermining that investment. double parking has a significant impact. it's a major contributor to increased congestion. a study showed that eliminated ring double parking could ease delays up to 30%. lastly, curb management is essential to making the projects that sfmta works on successful. especially bike and transit projects where we want to make sure that the facilities are not blocked by double-parked vehicles. this requires ensuring that we provide adequate curb space for other users in the vicinity of

our project areas. however, with our current policies programs and fool tools, there are limitations how we can address the safety concerns as well as ensure the success of projects. curb management team was created last we're why two angles. the first to do more wholistic curb planning that is based on a place. looking at a neighborhood as a whole, instead of block by block level. the second is to create a curb management strategy, which is what this presentation is focusing on. so the curb management strategy is a policy document that seeks to guide how we allocate curb space and supports our agency's other goals such as vision zero, transit first, equity and

accessibility, climate action strategy and economic vitality. >> i just need a point of clarification. sorry. [inaudible] >> we're talking about the area alongside the sidewalk. so kind of the curb zone. the whole zone. driveways, loading, bus stops. everything that is alongside the curb. sorry for that confusion. so there are two elements of the curb management strategy. the first is the framework which sets priorities for how we allocate curb space to all these different users across the city. the second element is the strategy which has three main parts. the first is design guidelines for the project managers. this provides best practices how to allocate curb space, guidance

on where to put different zones, like yellow zones, bike-share stations, things like that and what the dimensions of different types of zones should be. the second element is process improvements to streamline how we as an agency do outreach for the implementation of curb management and lastly, policy recommendations how to improve curb management going forward. today, i'll focus on draft policy recommendations that seek to improve accessibility at the curb. our first recommendation is to expand para transit loading zones. it needs to get as close as possible to given destinations, but often doesn't have enough curb space station. we're recommending -- curb space. para transit loading zones are not defined in the transportation code. we're recommending that there is a definition of para transit loading zones that is codified.

so that there is increased availability of loading space for these types of vehicles serving people with disabilities. our second recommendation is expand accessible loading zones, or white zones, throughout the city. right now, the sfmta focuses on blue zones to serve the needs of people with disabilities and they have strict guidelines. however, these zones are not always available and often have vehicles parking in them for extended periods of time. they can also be difficult to sight. so we want to increase accessibility by focusing on adding more white zones that are designed in an accessible way. those can serve people, including para transit, as well as accessible, taxi riders, or folks who just need assistance and time getting out and need to be close to their destination.

ideally, we would design the zones as close to the blue zone recommendations, but that's not always possible. so we think, in addition to aiming for that, we should also aim for just creating more accessible white zones. >> is this for parking for unloading and unloading and getting in the vehicles? >> white zones legally can only be used for loading, where blue zones can be used for parking. we want to increase the availability of white zones for destinations where people are dropped off or picked up, versus just focusing on blue zones, where only one vehicle is occupying for a significant period of time. >> it's not expanding parking by turning white zones into blue zones. >> no. >> okay, that's too bad. >> our third recommendation is

improve the availability of green zones as another source of parking. green zones are short-term parking zones. they can be metered or unmetered and have a time limit between 15-30 minutes. currently people who have disabled parking placards are not subject to green zone time limits which restricts their availability because people will park in them for extended proceed of time -- periods of time. we have a couple of ways to increase the availability. one is to physically put in more green zones, but the others are how to manage the zones. one option is to place meters at unmetered green zones. this would encourage turnover in areas with high parking demand and easier to enforce the time limit. another is to remove the placard

exemption for green zone time limits and enable those with placards to park for free, with a stated time, but not indefinitely. our fourth recommendation is to replace muni flag stops with curb side bus stops. many are flag stops are the bus or train stops adjacent to parked cars. these flag stops force people in wheelchairs to go into the street to access the bus's lift ramp. and then seniors and people with disabilities who are not in wheelchairs are also still effected because it's more difficult to step onto the bus when you're coming from the street, versus on the curb. so our recommendation is that the agency adopt a policy to avoid creating new flag stops and gradually replace them with bus zones ensuring safe equitable transit for everyone.

this would eliminate a flag stop to put in a bus stop removes parking. and lastly, we think there are opportunities to utilize enforcement to improve accessibility. for example, parking on the sidewalk that is shown here. it's common throughout the city. it's enforced only upon complete, not upon site by parking control officers. so that policy could be changed from officers to site on site for obstructing the sidewalk. this could significantly reduce sidewalk parking across the city ensuring there is an accessible path of travel for everyone. this would also require engagement with communities where sidewalk parking is common. another opportunity is to shift the focus of enforcement to prioritize the most harmful violations, such as double parking, sidewalk parking, blocking intersections and stopping in red zones.

then lastly, enforcement could proactively cite for the use of unloading zones, which means citing people who are staying over the stated time limit to make sure there is more room for people who need to load and unload. so in terms of next steps, our group is going to continue stakeholder outreach, gather feedback and we'll be revising the strategy based on the feedback received. and ultimately, we'll bring the final curb management strategy to the sfmta board for adoption. and i'd be happy to answer any questions or take any comments or suggestions. council members, keep the questions short. >> mr. madrid: two questions. i saw this before, and it was

suggested to alex to change the board accessibility -- the word accessibility. can you go to slide 10 i believe? it's a little bit confusing when you're saying equality and accessibility. >> you think more clarification on what that means. >> mr. madrid: i think it's more like accessibility, right? >> in this case, because we're talking about the space, but if there are suggestions on visual accessibility or other things we should take into account, we would be happy to hear that. >> mr. madrid: something to think about. >> okay. >> mr. madrid: that's one thing. and the second thing, when you

in charge of the curb section, are you also in charge of -- or no? >> so the planning department is the agency that authorizes curb cuts. >> mr. madrid: san francisco mta? >> no, we do not approve or deny curb cuts. that goes through the planning department when they're doing project level approvals. >> mr. madrid: okay. so when do you go through the flag bus stops, and there is no curb cuts, do you guys notify

the curb cut department? or how does that work? >> with the flag stops, we would have to work with the residents or businesses that are fronting where the flag stop is, because we would have to remove the parking or whatever is currently occupying the curb space. and they would have an opportunity to weigh in on if they wanted that parking or whatever happened to be there removed. >> mr. madrid: and then, if someone -- if the place has no curb cuts, do you guys notify the department? >> yes. so we would have to work with public works, because they're the ones that physically construct any changes to the sidewalk, including curb cuts. >> mr. madrid: thank you.

>> ms. sassouni: yes. i am a bicyclist and i see a whole lot of problems with the curbs, especially with the bike lanes with double parking, with trucks in the way, and not just that, but über and lyft, i feel we need a lot more vacant corners where people can pull out of the traffic without double parking. and i see people double parking on the white line all the time. like if they're running in to pick up food. people abuse that. it's a terrible issue. i think we need to educate people about what to do in the case of even a momentary drop-off. i think the white lines are a great idea for drop-off, pickup. so at each corner there is

something available versus having people pull right into the bike lane. and then i can't get out of the way fast enough. it's very dangerous. i'm just not sure how to address this. it's very frustrating as a bicyclist. for example, there is also not enough yellow zones for ups parking. they're all taken over by the bicycle share things and people in the neighborhood are upset about it. and double parking as a matter of course. and there has been no community input opportunity or anything. >> we completely agree. and that is actually the whole reason we're doing this plan. so i think i mentioned briefly how we're working on corridor-level plans as part of planning efforts that our agency is undertaking. one corridor that we have been working on is valencia where we actually did extensive data collection and saw the huge

negative impact there are from über and lyft, food delivery services, loading, and we completely agree there needs to be a huge increase in the amount of white loading zones, as well as yellow loading zones. and that the way that we do it right now isn't working. where those types of requests are generated by individual property owners. and really as an agency, we need to look more proactive at whole neighborhoods and look at the needs of the whole area and go in and add an additional zone. i agree and that is what we're working towards. >> ms. sassouni: thank you. i hope it's successful. i hope there are more community businesses that get involved. i agree with your comments. >> ms. pelzman: i'm curious how

are you conducting your stakeholder outreach. and how you would recommend if there isn't enough input from our community, how we can provide meaningful input? >> so right now we are focused on looking both internally within sfmta because a lot is internal coordination required as well as talking to sister agencies, like environment, planning, public works. we haven't started working into external stakeholder outreach. so i would welcome suggestions on groups you think we should go out and meet with and what other stakeholders you think would provide input, because we're still working on what the external stakeholder outreach would be. so suggestions would be greatly appreciated. >> what is your timeline?

>> we're hoping to have a completed draft by the end of the year. for the next few moments. >> so it's pretty quick. >> yeah, if you have information you'd like to share, that would be great. my e-mail is on the presentation. >> ms. pelzman: okay. would it be possible to provide some kind of either a guide book, or whatever manner is necessary to be an effective communication tool to our community, something which explains what our options are and how they work. so we understand what the white line means. we understand the options with the green line. i mean, i don't know if there is a place where that information is available. how to use your placard? when you can use the placard? i would request that you build

that into your outreach material or your notification materials. and the final question or point is, i think this is great. and thank you for doing this, but how is it going to be enforced? >> so i think we need to acknowledge the reality that there are limited enforcement resources in this city. and we're going to have to prioritize what enforcement does. enforcement, unfortunately, is already stretched pretty thin. the opening of the case center are putting more strain on the enforcement resources. i think our approach is we need to proactively design for the users and the demand we have. we have double parking because we haven't provided adequate loading space. and so i think what we are hoping is that we can at least alleviate some of the issues by actually designing our streets to meet the demands we see now.

most of the streets were designed in a time where everything was private out parking. while that still is an important component of the street, we also, like i mentioned, are seeing many more different types of users who need access to the curb. so our hope is to start to alleviate some of these issues by reallocating at the curb in a way that represents the demand we're seeing today, but i don't think, unfortunately, we can rely on enforcement of the zones. >> i want to relay a personal anecdote. i was going to the ball game and had specifically requested, because i have a crosswalker that, i be -- walker, that i be dropped off at the curb cut, berry and 4th street i think. my driver, über driver, accommodated me and then got a ticket. and i went as fast as i could with my walker over to the mta person who was ticketing him, or

ticket enforcement to explain what was going on. and there was no negotiation. so i would, you know, in these situations there needs to be some accommodation and acknowledgment that those people are trying to accommodate us, have to do so in that location and they should not be penalized for it. thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. herman: to things. in terms of -- two things. in terms of expressing some of the changes you're looking at making, that is going to be tricky because you have a dmv booklet that is statewide and if you change the rules about white zones and blue zones and green zones in san francisco, how are you going to communicate that? i'm not looking for an answer right now, but i think it's something to think about, because you have a booklet that comes out from dmv which may be

counterproductive to what you're trying to do. the second comment i have is, as somebody who used, when my husband was alive, the blue parking placard, we often found it was very difficult to find a spot, because those placards are given out like jelly beans. and i don't know the answer to that, but there seems to be -- you know, if you start expanding blue zones, more blue zones, i'm very ambivalent about that because of the experience i've had with people who get those placard and really don't need them, and have them for a while when they do need them, and continue to get them. and take up the spaces. so if you're adding more blue zones and adding blue zone availability to green zone or

white zones, you're kind of compounding the problem. so i'm ambivalent about the expansion of the use of those placards, unless we can really get on top of being accountable for who really needs them and monitoring that better from a state level. >> i just want to clarify because it sounds like some of our recommendations didn't come across clearly. we completely concur with what you're seeing about the blue zones. there is rampant abuse of blue zones. there are efforts to have placard reform at the state level, because that's where it has to occur. i didn't want to suggest we were moving toward more blue zones. i think what i was trying to highlight was that there are other types of zones that can be used by everyone and so we would like to focus on expansion of those with some adjustments.

so increasing white zones is a great way to provide loading for both people who have blue parking placard. they can't park in them. they're not legally allowed to park in yellow or white, but it's a way to provide more access without tying up a spot all day long like you would with a blue placard with someone who is abusing it. the green zone, we see abuse of those zones because people with placards are not subject to the time limits, which is why we're suggesting there is a reform, as you stated, would require state legislation as well that people who use those are not exempt from the time limits with the disabled parking placard. maybe they get twice the time limit because you need more time to get in and out of the vehicle, but as a way to reduce abuse in those types of zones. >> ms. smolinski: thank you. i'll be brief.

thank you for presenting. i love a lot of the ideas, more white zones, reducing flag stops, et cetera. i'm curious, of course, the competing interest is parking. how do you balance that? curious what the analysis is like? [laughter] so one item i didn't touch on in the presentation is the framework. and so the idea of the framework is to say that in different parts of the city, there are different needs and priority. if we're in a residential part of the city, then, really, most of the curb space is for peoples' private vehicles. however, if we're in downtown, i think you may have noticed, there is virtually no parking for peoples' private vehicles on the street. it happens off-street in the garages, and the street is more muni, commercial loading, white loading. in the neighborhood, commercial areas, like valencia, it's kind of this mix of both.

and so there it's really using our public outreach and planning process to work with the neighborhood to find a better balance and say, you know, you have a lot of loading needs and we're going to have to accommodate more loading and that means you're going to lose car parking on the street. but trying to find the right balance for each neighborhood. i do think it is a tradeoff. and it will not make everyone happy in every situation as is the reality of most planning in san francisco. >> thank you. staff? >> nicole: i'm going to forego, except to say, thank you and i have thoughts we can talk about outside of this meeting before it goes in front of the mta board. >> that would be great. >> nicole: also want to give permission to nate to leave because he has to catch a flight and we're at time. you can go if you need to. okay.

>> thank you, nate. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for waiting. it's coming up on 4:00. do we have any more public comment on this agenda item? zack? right now we're finishing public comment on this information item. 8. thank you. >> hi. i'm a wheelchair user. i need to use blue zones frequently and i do find them to be really helpful. i think they are abused by people who are not disabled. and think that's a separate issue. it's an important one, but i think it's separate. they recently added a blue zone to a park, holly park, near me. it was a huge help. the blue zone is nowhere near the entrance, but it