we have had people who probably have lost their life prematurely due to the fact there is not equity in the bus lines in district 10. that is what i wanted to say. thank you. >> thank you. let me ask you this. are there specific items that you think bring back bus stops? there are items that would help alleviate the issues you discussed. >> many of our patients use paratransit. you have to make an appointment 48 hours prior to the appointment. if you get sick, diabetic, if your sugar goes awry you will not be able to use it if you have not booked an appointment.

often times pair tra-- pair para transit is late. they are back at the door saying if you don't get on now you will miss your ride. you have to call in and wait for three or four hours to get picked up. the other thing is the paratransit card that you get where you pay $18 for taxi vampers. paratransit will match it so you have $90. the problem is if your paratransit card is empty you have to go to the off office. there is no online way to load the cars. they go to the office so they

can acquire the paratransit card to get reduced tax fee. i think that paratransit needs looked into, it needs to be on time. it means to be more thoughtful about the patients. in an emergency you can book within less than 24 hours if you are going to your healthcare provider. i think the paratransit card should be able to load it online versus going to an office somewhere. >> you are saying and it struck me and tell me if this is wrong. the cash fare is $3 with the clipper card it is $2.50, is

that right? so i will say this what she just said is why they are working with m.t.c. on a discounted day pass. currently they only have a discounted monthly pass. >> they could pay 5 bucks cash and have a discount good for a day. >> would you be able to do that without the clipper card? i am hearing like it occurs to me and i have a clipper card tied to a visa card. i swipe it. it gets more money when it needs it. i can do that. people pay cash so they may twice and we have to come back because they can't get a pair granted.

it trials me i know why muni is moving away from cash fairs. it is affecting certain communities in ways that may be weren't considered at the time that the decision to move away there the cash fare was made. commissioner compton. >> i want to bring up a point. i guess s.f.m.t.a. is working with the hill and the southeast hill center in the choice program. that program is going to take 25 of our patients and 25 of the patients apartment southeast health who don't qualify to have flywheel doctors. this problem is so long standing to only have 25 patients to be

admitted to that program is not acceptable at this point. i wanted to make that point. i think it needs expanded already. thank you. >> commissioner compton. >> i have a question. my question was about the 53 line. before that was i guess discontinuesed, did people have to take four buses? to the services. >> well the 53 bugs buses were re-- buses were removed that bus went from 16th up to the hill all around. many people who lived up on those hills could not get to the

doctor's appointment. that is a new housing development. we built it. i guess it is always taken two or three buses. you have to take a bus down the hill and the t train then you have got to walk. >> so is there a solution currently to paratransit? the choice that you were talking about. >> they are offering 25 patients who do not qualify for paratransit to get to and from. i believe southeast has 5,000 patients. we are in district 10 where some of the most vulnerable and lowest income residents leaf in

25 people in a choice program to get to the doctor is not adequate for 5,000 patient. that is not adequate. >> i would say to the muni access to healthcare in district 10 needs re-evaluated. this is not the first, you know, you are like the period person today to talk about access to healthcare and the negative impact can be fatal. we are talking about people's lives and there must be a different solution than the scope gap measures described in

the choice program. it also sounds like there are enough people in need of public transportation. there should be a wider solution. i don't think it should wait 18 or 12 or 6 months. it seems immediate and urgent. >> last thing i wanted to add is that san francisco has the worst mortality rate for african-americans in the nation. we lived in san francisco that any other city and the average income of a plaque person is $29,000. the average income of their white counterpart is $110,000 per year. with this being said that many

of our residents are dying because they don't have it with the transcript. we are innovative. it is not acceptable. we need change and we need it now. >> thank you. i understand we have no other commission questions or comments. thank you. i understand we have representatives here from sf paratransit. we will add that to the list. come on up. we will take all comers here. >> good evening. i am with transit of north america we manage the sfmta paratransit program. i have been listens to the

comments. i want to make a few clarifications. the sfmta paratransit program has many moving parts. the van transportation, which is approximately about 60% of our service, is guided by all of the provisions of the americans with disabilities act. the scheduling ahead of time referred to in the previous speaker's comments is day ahead you call to schedule a right. the ada prohibited priority to medical trips. it doesn't matter medical, work, school, recreation, it doesn't matter. there are no provisions for prioritizing trips. same day trips have preference to medical needs. if a rider has an urgent medical

need, they can try to schedule for that same day and priority in that case is given to medical needs or if, for example, a service animal is ill that qualifies as well same day. 40% of the service is taxi. just to clarify on the way the taxi paratransit works it is for every $30 worth of value you add to the card, you get -- we charge $6. for every $30 you pay $6 that gives you $30 of taxi rides. those don't require day ahead. those are on demand the day of service. that works for many of our patrons. i also wanted to mention that on the choice program, i think she said it is 25 patrons. it is 75.

that is the way the pilot is to start with 75. we have been work was the department of health on that programming. it is not to say it won't need more resources at some point, but it is to start next month. we will see how that works out. i am sure m.t.a. will be closely in communications with dph on the resources to be added. i want to mention on the taxi card we did launch by telephone. you can call if you have a credit card you can call and add value to your paratransit debt card. online access is being pilot tested right now. you need a credit card to purchase online that is being tested by the pilot participants. it is a soft launch for the general public using paratransit. those are the things we have been working on.

i wanted to mention that i heard julie talk about the chronic operator shortage. we had a similar short age earlier this year. we have resolved that. never totally resolved you are always recruiting for operators. we have addressed it, our on time performance is over 90% on the van service. that is with a five minute before and 15 minute after promised time, performance window. our drivers are delivering the on time performance. that means nine out of 10 rides are on time within that performance window. we expanded the dedicated fleet by 18. 18 new vehicles. we conducted the satisfaction survey for 2019. this is statistically

significant sample on the taxi side, van side, group transportation side and there was a overall 81% were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with our services, 90% satisfaction with the trip and the program. those are just a few things i want to mention. we did launch new incentives for ramp taxi operators who are transporting wheelchairs in ramp taxis to make the initiative more attractive for our drivers. i wanted to make those remarks. >> director davis. >> i want to say as we think about partnership with sfmta and muni what it looks like to make sure everyone is clear on that.

that sharing the clarifying remarks here may not change where or how community communicates that information to the people that they meet or they work with at the clinic. it is how they get truth in what they experienced versus what we say is on paper because a lot of times people take advantage of folks not having in hand. they are told something very different. that is why these things get perpetuated. they call and somebody says for whatever reason. i think there is a need to be in community and sharing and have the pieces of paper so people are not just doing it by word of mouth. >> we work with the sfmta staff on a relaunch of the website with more accurate information for riders.

we will continue to focus on those issues, commissioner. >> you do this under contract with sfmta? what is the length of that? >> it is five years. we are in year three on our way to year four. it does have a five year extension option. the maximum is 10 years. >> is this the first term of the first contract? >> no that was april of 2000. i have been here managing the sfmta paratransit program since april 1 of 2000. i have seniority. >> i am curious, what percent -- do you have a good sense of the users? >> generally. >> what is available to them. what percent of them use muni, do you know? >> i know that was a question in the survey.

i didn't bring all of the survey results. i can provide you that information from the survey. every year we survey our riders in a significant way. >> do you have a sense what percent of them have access to a mobile device? >> that is in the survey. we have been asking that since 2015. we have seen upward click. it is pretty impressive the wayne it has grown in terms of access. >> is the survey published? >> it is available through the m.t.a. they have executive summaries. >> is that on the website. >> i don't believe it is on the website but it is available. >> i would be interested to see that data. i wonder as i am hearing this, as i am talking about the fact not everyone has a mobile phone the fact you can get uber lift,

not sidecar any more but ride sharing. do you have any interface with ride sharing platforms? >> well, we have the flywheel app. >> which is a taxi. >> it is for taxi. we have relationships with taxis, not tncs. we have worked closely with the app developer to make it easy to use by riders in wheelchairs so they can access ramp taxis quickly. it is something they feel strongly about. we are always trying to improve that out. >> are they able to pay seamless? >> you would present your debit card to pay for the trip. >> do you have a sense of what

premium is paid for a tax see as opposed to using it. >> those are your lifts and ubers. >> transportation network companies, tnc. actually the paratransit rainedder that uses the app did not have to pay. it is totally free to end user. they will not pay extra because they e-hailed a taxer. >> if one did, taxis are more expensive than tnc, correct. >> it depends. they don't have search pricing and so forth. it depends. i don't think a study is done on that yet. >> maybe since you have users who have access to technology you are working towards

incorporating the payment module into the technology. >> that would be the next step. >> there are carpool opportunities available through the app as well and that may be away for someone with extra time to get somewhere with a card or voucher to open up opportunities to people assuming they have the device that aren't open today. >> whenever we go back to vouchers. everything is now electronic with the card. that gives us a lot of data that is very helpful in terms of planning. if the m.t.a. says they want to install a speed bump between this block and this block on this street, can you tell us how many paratransit riders are using that particular block? we can tell them how many taxi riders are using that particular

block. the card is the way to go because it gives us a lot of data. >> i recognize this as maybe outside of your area of responsibility. since you love the app and are making it more accessible for people with transit constraints, i am curious if there is any contemplation the functionality to request a taxi with a car seat. >> car seat? >> yes. >> like a child car seat? >> no, we hadden contemplated it. when we get feedback from our riders that is not something we have heard. i will look into it. >> if you work with populations that have a large cohort of expecting mothers. access to a car seat is in high

demand. >> i need to go look at this. if i remember the rider policies for paratransit, we do tell the riders if they are traveling with the child they provide the car seat and the drivers will assist with setting it up. >> commissioner compton. >> i have more of a comment about the tnc. they are largely unregulated because they are personal cars they generally are not accessible. that is a major drawback with them. that is something we need to be cognizant of, it is a problem, in addition to their vetting processes, limited background checking, etc. it is not advisable to include

them at this stage. i am glad you are doing flywheel. >> thank you. other questions for the speaker? thank you for joining us and thank you for stepping up. >> thank you, commissioners. >> director davis. >> i wanted to piggyback on the commissioner's comments. there is a working groom with supporting, i don't know if you want to say it quickly. to clarify the challenges and concerns with the tnc or ride share apps. >> mayor's office on disability and sfmta are currently engaged in rule making process with california public utilities on the tnc access for all act,

which is mandating wheelchair accessible transportation by 2024 across the state of san francisco. in san francisco uber has a pilot contract with the vehicles through a provider. lyft has a similar program. as they are trying to lay the groundwork for equity around uber and lift transit. the ride costs are the same as the standard uber cost right now. we are in a very engagable making process providing comments to the c p.u.c. to regulated to help give guidance on how best to implement this by

2024. >> thank you. that is the end of the list of speakers on the agenda. i have a number of speaker cards. i will go through this now. any other representatives of organizations that had been invited to speak but haven't yet come up. okay. erin good man again. >> good evening, commissioners. i did work on the san francisco housing authority and sunnydale project and that was one of the prime issues we pushed with sfmta is the future vision for

connectivity especially in 10, 7 where it is going. i was on balboa park for a couple terms. we looking at city college. before that it was the 19th avenue transit planning issues. we have just seen sfmta start back up the initial stuff on the connection. i hope this committee can get out of the weeds of smaller issues and look at the bigger issues of transportation planning in the city because there was back in 2000 i will give you maps to circulate between you. this was in 2000, sf chronicle an article by the 30 year plan where we would be in 30 years. we are at 2019 and nowhere near a sufficient network from the transit riders to suffice for

the amount of people boarding these trains in the future. there were maps in 2016 in the san francisco subway vision. there was a transit exsubsidy which talk about the areas that need transit connect activity. i worked on the sunnydale facility that came in under budget on time which was great. there were also others that we helped start working on. there are definite solid moves that can occur from sfmta to get people to hospitals. there are links and loops that can occur on bus transit. it could go south and connect to is t line. there are ways to link the major hospitals. sf general, c.p.m.c. so that people have more direct access to these areas quicker.

we are not just relying on agreements. we have some actual hard track being laid. when we have new lrvs there is track they run on. we hope you can look at that as you get out of the weeds to get a more bird's eye view of transportation issues. >> next eileen spoken. >> coalition for san francisco neighborhoods here on my own behalf. the great light rail vehicles have been inse service for over0 years. they are easily accessible in the tunnel they are not easily accessible in the neighborhoods. when the m.t.a. was working to design the new lrvs they both

have the opportunity to fix these equity issues. both of them failed to do so. had most respects the cars are the same. by using the same basic design the m.t.a. will be locks us into another 20 years of the same equity issues. more than two years ago the community urged the m.t.a. to move forward with low floor lrvs. they are easier for seniors to board and some manufacturers have on board wheelchair ramps to create wheelchair access system ride. the m.t.a. is in phase two of procurement. i urge you to insist they use this opportunity to address exissues for seniors and disaged

by purchasing low floor lrvs. another equity issue is elimination of lrv stop in the neighborhood. on tara vim, they have eliminated a significant number of stops to create equity issues for seniors. they need to walk additional blocks to catch the lrv. in district four they have the entire city. when the m.t.a. eliminates stops, it impacts certain communities disproportionatesly. thank you. >> angelina ro romano. >> good evening, commissioners i

am a school social worker and immigrant supports and immigration program. i want to thank you for holding this hearing on transit equity. my tram is charged with supporting refugee and immigrant students, we are committed to racial equity. i want to state that we know our black students and families are disproportionately impacted. especially because of the use of criminalizing enforcement issues on the transit an and those goig across town to the northwest section of san francisco. we believe the needs of black youth are strengthened.

i will talk in the next minute or so. we found the system for obtaining the cards is inequitable leading to true and see and harassment. the clipper card is easy to fill out. it asks for nothing but verification of age and signature. it is still difficult to access assuming they know about it. particularly for the newcomer families they don't know this the an option. it takes weeks for the cards to be approved and mailed to their addresses. they have to choose to not go to school or risk getting ticketed by sfmta. i get calls stating families are worried about free clipper and public charge. caregivers keep little ones home because they have no bus fare

for school. if you don't have bus fare you can get a ticketed. undocumented families are afraid they are on a list when they hand over their passports to sfmta. i have heard about sfmta officials. while i am sure it is rare but it happened. asking for immigration paperwork and searching back pats. some encourage people to carry red cards to school to give it to officials. it is traditionally for ice agents. i have suggestions. to get the clipper cardses that we distribute and hand the paperwork over for approval. for the sfmta officials not to be able to question without a caregiver. caregivers get passes when transporting young people.

make muni free-for-all. thank you. >> james johnson. >> i am james johns sana regular guy. i have a quick story. i will start with and i have a video of something that is horrible i was assaulted by a muni bus driver multiple times. i was coming from my drug program which was requirement for me. under insurance if you had any prior substance abuse and you need something orthopedic or serious surgery you have to do a vetting process, a drug program and stay clean and sober six months or a year. i had to do a year. i was coming from the drug program would not be allowed to get on the bus. the bus driver pulled in front

of two poles. she seen me coming out of the building i am rolling up. you have to catch up with the bus there is no place to stop. when i said can i get on? she would have to power down and let the ramp down she said, no, you can't. >> a week later at 1:30 p.m. she zook off. i called three one one. i field with the 311 process. it has to be flawed. i called, told them i was just assaulted by a bus driver. the bus driver took off and did not wait for a supervisor. i have four instances where i called and i have the reports

right here. >> same bus line and same everything, then this happens. >> it is only 47 seconds. >> can i ride the bus, ma'am? i am handicapped. >> that is assault, ma'am, ma'am, that is an assault. i am not moving my arms to take this bus out of commission. >> so anyway now this is a video prior to it so you know it wasn't phony. it has been happening.

>> the bus will be coming at 1:30 p.m. the driver will allow me on the bus and i will have to report it. >> i am asking you a question. i am handicapped, you have no reason to deny me. are you going to allow me on the bus, ma'am? i am handicapped. i need to go home. can i get on the bus, yes or no? can i get on the bus, ma'am? >> you have handicapped seats available. yes or no? can i get on the bus, ma'am? [ inaudible ] >> this went on for another

minute. she did not allow me on the bus. she had to take it out of service because she closed it on my arm. this is all of those people they got off the bus and i was spat upon by three people. she heard the people in the back gettingetting royaled up. she said get your bus out of the way and spat on me. i waited. i filed a report. i have seen her since. that is what they did and that is what happened to me. i would say the 311 does not work. they should have immediately contacted me. i was assaulted. the door was closed on my arm. i did file charges on this officer. i have that report, too. >> i am not sure if you shared

them. >> everybody has got them. >> thank you. i have lisa lynn cost. >> thank you, commissioners. i am a san francisco resident and daily municipal neap rider. during the day i ran b magic. we serve the community of bayview hunters point. i am not a transportation expert. we worked on two occasions with the two transportation authorities in san francisco. that is the sfmta on a project that was an 18 month project and most recently with the bayview community-based transportation project. specifically, the participator

rebudget process recently. >> that being shade, bayview has five main lines 19, 54 and 29 and t line. for the four bus lines bayview happens to be the end of the line for those four bus lines. as up mentioned, commissioner sweet when you are at the end of the line most lightly it is not on time. we experience that a lot on the bayview particularly on the 19, 54 and the 29. also was mentioned similar to the hill it is photography issues which creates isolated community. the shuttle program was targets

seniors and young people. as well as unreliability of muni on the evenings starting as early as 43. if i need to come downtown to get here by 530 i have to leave before 430. you have to wait half an hour to 45 minutes. this happens on most of the bus lines. the project we are involved with is infrastructure. we the house community meetings throughout the last fiscal year about the service issues. unfortunately, the part we were part of did not address the service issues, it was not part of the grant for that yo budget. some solutions more bus shelters to have the arrival times for

muni. also, at the very least improving service, not having people wait 45 minutes to half hour. you might have to wait five or 10 minutes. if they were on time they wouldn't need the waits because they would follow the schedule that is provided. thank you very much. >> robin crop. >> if you want to leave your recommendations, we can take them directly. certainly, we do want to get that information to the right place. thank you. go ahead.

restart the clock, please. >> san francisco resident and now with save muni. i want to talk about two issues tonight. first is julie's discussion of drivings. i want to say i had a driver on the bus who told us he had no break for 8 hours. the bus wanted to bring food. he says i am on camera i can't eat. >> i spoke with someone and he said wrong the driver could have taken a break to get food. i want to ask julie. i want to know if the drivers are getting communication about rights that they could take a brace. the whole bus was concerned he was heavy. they are not getting bathroom breaks and not enough time to eat food. are the labor laws being nolled or if this is a deterrent.

i know you were concerned about having enough drivers for your force. thank you for your report. >> i want to do my other feedback. for my second issue, i am a disabled person using paratransit and mini rail. some of us do use the muni also. it has not been accessible to me because i can't ride on the bench. i can't ride half of the buses there is no forward faces seat in the boarding area. there is no accessible seat for me. i would like a representtro fitting of all is the buses so we have a shirt for them. second we are looking at railcar

design for the next 30 years. it is important to have enough seats for the disabilities or the plans as they stand with only a couple of seats planned for the next 50 cars. they are going to eliminate us and injury us because i can a survey of 100 people last fall and 400 last month in muni station and i heard a lot of disabilities. these folks are going side ways. many are comfortable. i heard about 30 reasons from disabled people why they need the forward seat. >> this is a very important issue about access for our city. i would like your help.

they all need to approach the city together. >> edward right. >> i want to thank the members of the public here today and sharing their insights and thoughts on this issue. i am primarily here to listen. i wasn't planning on speaking. i did want to share our thinking on this. for transportation we are thrilled to see this discussion with this commission and i would like to thank the commission for doing that. it is not a public good. it is also a human right. we see that in our district. our constituents are diverse. we have the highest portion of

seniors and schools in the city in our district. we know that we have the largest section of above ground light rail service in our dippings triact that experiences the highest number of switch backs of any line in the system. to shed light on this, the number one topic we hear about from constituents is muni. that is because people rely on pit. that is how they get to their jobs and access their livelihoods. when we talk about equity, reliability and service, it is important to keep in context what that means to people. it is the difference to making it to work on time. it is sometimes the difference

between deeping your job or not. it is really does make a difference in people's lives. i wanted to share be that with you and i want to highlight a topic brought up by cat carter of did he havof the effort to ae support. supervisor mar is a father. he has a 13 year-old daughter. she tried to take the 29 to school but after repeated attempts to get on the bus she found out it was too crowded every time she tries. thank you.

>> edna james and michael perkins. if you want to speak, we have another card. that is great. owe are near the end of the car. >> i am president of my community action organization. i am a nurse at the community center. i wrote this in may of 2014. to the transportation. it hasn't changed. i want to say that the young man who witnessed leaving him at the sign. they did this to another handicapped individual. i was sitting in my car and he had gotten up on the ramp at arch and randolph street. he was turned this way not in front of the car. the bus man just speeded across

him and left him there. it was cold and everything. i felt so bad for that senior who was in the wheelchair that he had to it is up there for the next 15 minutes. i said in my car until the next bus came. she moved so fast and i made a complaint. they don't respond. you call 311 and get a message, a voice message. we looked at the message and blaugh blaugh blaugh and that is it. this is a complaint i really made on behalf of this mantanting there. the other thing we had a problem going under ground with the m train and eliminating the

symptom for an overhead bridge. don't think about it. we have to fight that. the small houses around there was not built to go to the foundation. you would put a lot of homes would be shaken, you know, for that. it wasn't built for you to go undergrounds. we could not stand the vibration there. stop for the intersection at beverly. when it comes across 19th avenue. you have the seniors tieing to come from the timber church were there. other bega school then they are coming for sergeant.

it is three ways and that is the muni stop and that is not good. it provides sitting benches at lake view and mount vernon. this is not done. i am saying that is all i want to say. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> i want to encourage ms. james to give her list to the transit director to give it to ms.kerish ball if you could do that, that would be great. i want to thank the members of the public for all of the

community work and effort that you are doing. thank you. >> next is michael perkins. then we will take a break. i work with the community cent center. everybody has mitt most of my list i will cut this short. i do have some seniors that used to visit the center. basically they do not have the transportation to get there. most of them live on the hit also. -- the hills. the buses can't get up the hills because of the steep grades on the streep. if it is possible maybe you want to look into purchasing paratransit type vehicles to

clear the corners so those seniors living on the steam grades can make it on down to their appointments or anything eselse they may need to do. thank you for your time. >> thank you for being here tonight. the last cashed is david hooper. >> good evening. i serve as did president of the new mission terrace improvement association and on district 11 council with ms. jameses who is right 99% of the time. there was an extended outreach to bring the information to the community if district 11 and to talk about the transit equity. my immediate neighborhood does okay. it depends on the j, k, m.

and the 49, 49 and what i see is district sheila. people mu don't have smartphones who are not in that world, who don't twit are knots included in any of this. it is apparent if supervisor moore can take his daughter to lowell because the 29 line is not working that is great. that is the exception people have to take their children to school on public transit. we have has as many as we did 50 years ago. it is for people raised somewhere went away to college.

they ride the schoolters, too uber and take lift. they have no experience at muni. their kids will not have a customer base. unless we do something and figure out a way to address the new apartments near the reservoy other side of the freeway. wwe will be raised. i work for the post office i started working as an paymentter. i retired at central control. it is apparent that some things can be excluded when the huge metal down happened. these have dressable.

when i started it took me what three months before i got full pay. that was a great contract. they got rid of had it expended to five years. it is difficult to get operators. you charge them $3 per day near the division, that is $700 each year out of their pocket. i think we can do better. it is realizing some people are not connected to this vibrant economy. >> that is all the cards i have. we will not end the meeting as we usually do, however, i will

note at this point there is a note that the next discussion of transit at the hrc meeting might be october 10th. i am thing. i think everyone for staying here and to the staff for staffing this. maybe we should have time for more robust discussion. as evidenced by the fact we have muni through the whole meeting. let's discuss that offline and do this in a way that is going to yield th to improve equity in transit in san francisco. i know for some people they would look forward to join us on the tenth. i suspect it won't be a meeting

focused on transit is. we will get back through the same channels when staff figures that out. >> i want to acknowledge and thank s.f.m.t.a. i appreciate that brittany and cathy. i want to thank kathy for her out reach and engagement. we will follow up to see what is the best daytime for the next meeting. thank you all. >> thank you everyone. good night. >> this is a reminde,

2019 and the time is 5 p.m item 1, roll call. [roll call]