ny data that 20 additional spaces will solve the problem? i'm not really convinced that this is a solution. >> i think -- >> 200 something employees. maybe a couple people get to park and the rest are still circling. >> we're not trying to solve the problem, but provide a guaranteed parking space for every employee, which is kind of what they had before. we're trying to provide more parking availability, so that employees, who don't take transit who don't, you know, as a result of the parking crunch they're in, you know, have some options. but we're specifically not trying to create one for one-on-one parking replacements or anything like that. so yeah. it will still be tight. >> i hear you on the circling and being late for work. that's very stressful. i just wonder if like a valet all sorts of parking apps that will take your car and figure out a parking space. i don't think the 20 additional

spaces solve that problem. i don't see this as a solution. >> i will say about the parking apps they've gone away the restaurants used to use them. so few people drive to short-term places any more. all of those companies went out of business. >> yeah. >> there are garages and there is off-street parking further away in the residential areas that we do get complaints about employees parking in. you know, this is not the only parking supply. again we're trying to meet d.e.m., not even halfway, but trying to. >> i will make a motion to approve and just reiterate i do think this is kind of using that on-street parking that's got cars parked in the highest, best use on that street. and it's a reminder that all of the work we're doing to make biking walking and taking the bus has a big impact. because people who do store their personal cars on our streets personal cars that let's all remember spend 97% of their life parked, and now we're

going to be displacing some of those cars for the employee parking. so it's just a good reminder that we need to all keep working towards making other options the easiest thing to do. i'll make a motion to approve. >> is there a second? >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> opposition? do we want to do roll call? >> i'll vote no. >> we'll -- it's 3-3 i guess. we'll have to -- we'll put this at the end of the agenda. >> who voted opposed? >> we need to call the roll. >> director borden? >> i vote yes. aye. >> director brinkman? >> aye. >> director eaken? >> no. >> director heminger? >> no. >> director hubky? >> aye. >> torres no. the item fails adoption. >> so do you want to -- should we, a as a board would it be helpful to have d.e.m. come and

table this for another meeting or take it up at the end of the agenda should director heinicke want to weigh in? >> i just think in this particular instance for this particular item, in addition to kind of like longer-term policies around this, i think it would be really helpful, it would be great to see better justification for why we need these 20 spaces, you know more data to director eaken's point. maybe some more, you know alternatives to consider time-limited things, time limitations on these spaces to address the issue of employees coming in on off-hours. that sort of thing. i think that would maybe address some of the concerns here, at least in the short-term and then obviously longer term looking at the issue and more holistically. >> okay. directors, do we have an opinion about whether or not -- i do think that it would be helpful to hear from d.e.m. >> might also be nice to give chair heinicke a chance to weigh in on this. >> right. i think -- >> yes.

>> he's absolutely on his way. we can go either direction. we can take it up at the end of the meeting. i do think that we have to think about how we do deal with requests as a city agency of other city agencies and how we interact and let them know what our policies are or not. >> yep. i think my preference would be to come back with d.e.m. and more about the questions asked here. we didn't provide as much information in a full calendar item as i guess we should have. i would prefer to bring it back to a future discussion, if up to me. >> madam chair, it would be appropriate to to rescind the vote and continue to a future meeting. >> motion to rescind the vote? >> second. >> all in favor. >> aye. >> any opposed? >> the motion not only to rescind the vote, but continue the item. >> madam chair, could i just ask tom. will you have time when you bring this back to give us sort

of the broader look at the city or is that something more appropriate for this four-day workshop we're going to have in january? >> yeah. [laughter] >> turned into four days. >> if it was at the next meeting -- >> said i believe earlier that you've been negotiating with this department for a year. it sounds to me like it's not necessarily, you know, front burner urgent. >> if you'd prefer to have a citywide discussion. >> look i just think it would be better -- it would be more in context for us. because it may be that we've got a bigger issue to discuss here than 20 spaces with one department. >> i would think if it took a year it wasn't because we weren't negotiating with 20 25. right. i think that -- i mean, we should have a larger policy conversation about this issue it would be great to have -- i guess maybe we should encourage departments when they have

things like this to, you know to provide some basic data around what the need, right. and what they're doing in other kind of t.d.m. strategies. and then separately, which we won't have for that meeting is talk about what is our priority in those cases when we have to make decisions about agencies needing additional parking and how that is allocated. >> okay. >> clerk: madam chair, it's not for the next meeting. but i think staff could at a future meeting, coming to you soon. probably not at the workshops, since that's a budget-focused. i think it would be appropriate for staff to come back for that larger policy conversation and bring d.e.m. to the meeting. >> great. director torres. >> point of order. council, i know in the legislature we have what's called put a call on a vote that lasts until the end of that particular meeting in case there's a member that wishes to record his or her vote, before

the measure is dealt with. do we have that procedure here or against city ordinances? >> we've never used that as a procedure. >> but we could? >> but you could. you could have -- >> not for this issue. i'm just thinking in the future. let's say a member is out they'll call in i'll be right there, you could hold off. >> that could certainly be arranged, at the discretion of the presiding officer any motion could be postponed until the end of the meeting. >> okay. >> great. sounded like the board for this issue wanted some more details. and director maguire also felt that it might be more useful. i do believe we owe it to the d.e.m. because we've had the robust conversation to explain their point of view, especially if you spend the year talking about it. with that i guess we'll move on to our regular calendar. okay. the regular calendar. item 11 is approving 15-month

page street bikeway improvement pilot project. on page street, adding a peak period right-hundred only except muni lane on haight street for one block making environment review findings and approving related parking and traffic and mode of of course -- modifications. i have a brief presentation for you this afternoon to go over the pilot project. and this being a pilot, the evaluation effort. along with a little bit of additional background and overview of the outreach that we've done. so initially just a little bit of background. page street is a lot of things. but it is for us a principle bike route in san francisco that connects golden gate park with market street. and, in fact, in the morning commute, we actually have bike riders outnumbering car drivers

on most days. despite the fact that the street is also grown into a very significant conduit of freeway traffic. people trying to get on to the boulevard and the freeway. it's also an important walking street for neighborhood destinations. and for students of john river elementary school. they actually walk down to the park several times a week, down page street and through the intersection of page and buchanan. so our agency has been working over the past several years to make traffic safety improvements on this street, in particular on these four blocks, including that center-running bike lane, that runs down the middle of the street, that formalizes the practice whereby bike riders going around vehicled cued to get on to the freeway. it really formalized something that people kind of naturally do on the street. last summer this board also approved pedestrian safety improvements on this stretch. that includes bull mounts, raised intersection at page and buchanan where the john muir

students would be walking through. but in the outreach, with page street neighbors and people in the surrounding neighborhood, over the past two three years we've also been talking about getting at the core issue of people icing this neighborhood street to get on to the freeway. and so that's why we're here today is to speak to that particular effort. so as i mentioned, despite the work that we've done, issues do remain on page street. so we do still see cueing on the street, in the eastbound direction it's not unusual to see people blocking up three blocks from octavia and webster and beyond. things have gotten worse in the westbound direction so this is people coming off of golf street and backing up on to golf street. again to get on to the freeway. we have so much traffic in the neighborhood, as the population pass grown and t.n.c. traffic has picked up. so community members have asked us and more recently supervisor brown's office asked to us take a look at developing what we think would be the best proposal

to pilot some of these changes. as a whole when you talk about traffic circulation and neighborhood like this it can be very difficult to model traffic changes at so many different intersections. that's why the approach that we've taken, with this project, to develop a pilot with a robust evaluation plan, so that we can test these out and be nimble to adjust things as we need to. so a lot going on here. i'll walk you through the specific pilot proposal on the following slides. i want to mention the goal with this project is to reinforce the modal hierarchy we have on the three streets. page street we like to say is the premiere bicycling street. haight we want to prioritize street and together with foul, oak is suppose to be the street that carries vehicular traffic east and west throughout the city. currently we have just a lot of traffic on all three of these streets and tough conditions for people walking bicycling, taking transit. so again i'll walk you through all of the detail.

for this particular pilot effort, to get these changes would restrict all traffic on page street from getting on to the freeway. so it would no longer be an access route on to the freeway. so zooming in a little bit on to page street, we have several things going on here. the first item is that we would convert the block of page street from octavia, one block up to laguna. in the eastbound direction, you would not be able to use page to get on to the freeway. we would convert 20 parking spaces on the south side of that street into a protected bike lane. we would also put an uphill bike lane in lieu of the center bike lane. as we're seeing more and more people actually use this to get westbound in the evening in particular e-bikes come online and e-bikes hopefully soon return to the bike shift system. three blocks upstream of octavia boulevard, producing a traffic diverter at webster. the em at -- they're walking to the

park every day this block faces a paid street, where a lot of loading activity happens. this is where the school buses pick up and drop off students. we really wanted to make sure we're protecting protecting that block, in addition to providing other benefits for page street. of course, the other direction. we're also in the westbound direction we would be restricting westbound left turns and westbound through traffic on page street at octavia boulevard. and so that would allow for local traffic only. so essentially for the four blocks from golf up to webster we would significantly reduce traffic volumes and really return these to the neighborhood streets that they have been. a few years ago we put in a

expert-running transit lane that allows muni buses to get past the cued vehicle to serve market street more directly. we're still seeing congestion extend past the western limit of that center-running transit lane. sometimes farther than even webster street. as part of this pilot proposal we're looking to convert the parking on the south side of haight street into a right-turn-only muni lane. that would allow muni buses to do to move into the curbside lane, bypass the traffic, serve the last bus stop before market street at buchanan transition into the existing center-running lane to market street. also to mitigate against shifting of traffic prohibit the turn at webster on to haight street. that's just getting ahead of something that we might expect to see. as i mentioned under the page street neighbor way we've been talking with the neighbors about

diversion and traffic issues on and around page street for several years. suffice to say we've engaged hundreds of people who live, work and travel through the area. more specifically pivoting to this pilot effort we started in the summer. so that's what you see here listed out before you today. and i won't go into all of the details of the things that we've done. but i'll point out a few that are particularly helpful. we wanted to engage students of john muir elementary school many of whom who don't speak english at poem. we translated materials into spanish and chinese. we look forward to doing that more. i'll mention in a moment of how we see the pilot effort. we found that to be effective. we did have a very successful open house. we reached a lot of people in one evening. but i think more useful for me was having these office hours these coffee chats over the past few weeks with folks. it was helpful to have longer one-on-one discussions with constituents and take a step back and let the neighbors hear the issues, talk amongst

themselves. we found that very helpful. changes that the outreach has informed. initially proposing a 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. restriction on haight street to support transit. we slowed down to speak with neighbors and merchants as well on haight street. and hearing that it's incredibly important to have parking access for customers particularly in the midday hours and into the afternoon. so the proposal you see before you today are restrictions for parking on haight street the a.m. and the p.m. peak hours when transit service is highest. and we have the highest number of riders. we've been working with our curb management team to develop expansions to residential permit parking in the neighborhood. so that will be coming before the board next month. there's several blocks that i can point these out to you if you have questions on it, that are currently unregulated. so these would join area s or area q. that helps to offset a little bit of parking lost on page street.

as well parking permits are available to business owners. i would also say that a two-hour time limit supports a lot of business activity. it kind of stirs the pot a little bit on the curb. it allows people to have some time to park do a little bit of business or go eat a little bit of food and then frees up the parking space up for somebody else lastly, we were very much able to vet and further develop our evaluation plan. this being a 15-month pilot. we wanted to make sure that we were looking at the right things. and so i won't go into all of these pieces on the evaluation plan. but suffice to say we're looking into a dozen different metrics from cueing on the streets, safety issues like blocking intersections, blocking crosswalks, transit travel time violations in the muni red lane, compliance issues all together. so this is definitely something that, you know is the crux of this effort, not just implementing the changes, knowing what success looks like.

we would be able to implement sometime in 2020 and two evaluation periods. one in the spring another one in the fall. there's a promise to come back to this board four months after the full implementation of the pilot, to provide some initial feedback on what we're seeing on the streets and, you know, what the feedback has been from the community. should mention on the last slide as well, we would like to combine the hard data we're looking at with the public perception survey. so looking into some of the metrics, getting a snapshot different points of time how things are functioning. so the people can tell us what they're experiencing on a day-to-day basis on their streets. i know a lot of folks have taken time out of their afternoons. i'll step to the side and make myself available for questions. >> director torres, you would like to ask a question now. >> i received many letters, through our website regarding the fact that and comments that i've had specifically with mayoral staff, that many times you all or your staff don't get

back to these employees -- these people. they think they're going to have an input to your eyes and ears, you never get back to them. not you the department never gets back to them and issues the plans without their input. some of these people didn't know about this pilot project until september. and now we're looking at -- right now we're looking at november. when you say the streets are clogged, i know they're clogged. for me to get to the airport, i drive my electric car to the airport. it is impossible to get on to the freeway because the entrance from market to the freeway that right turn has been prohibited. why can't we put a streetlight there. protect the bicyclist and allow accessibility, which would relieve the congestion on the streets. i have seen how dangerous it is in the mornings with the elementary school when i do drive to the airport, with those children in jeopardy. so i aplaid you what you've been doing. but, at the same time i just really want to make you sensitive to the fact that these merchants are barely surviving.

and these residents need our support. and if we can do it that would be great. the bottom line they're offering to me at least in the letter that i received that we'll go with a 7:00 a.m. to 10. can you relieve us from 3:00 until 6:00. did you provide that as an amendment or still in the pilot project? >> the proposal that's currently before you would have an a.m. and a p.m. peak restriction. i would allow my transit colleagues to speak. >> i asked you a direct question. >> 3:00 until 6:00 p.m.? >> yes. >> it includes both 7:00 until 10:00 and 3:00 until 6:00. >> you didn't accommodate the merchants, at least halfway on the 3:00 until 6:00? >> the original proposal was a 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and so the proposal that we brought to the board today is a a.m. and p.m. peak, when transit ridership. >> you didn't run that by the merchants? >> we had a single meeting and a constituent -- subsequent

meeting to share about the pilot. one in probably september and one a month later october november. >> it's lacking coordination and feedback. that's all. thank you. >> i guess one point. people did ask for the ridership numbers for the 6 and 7. could you provide that data. >> yeah, we have that. 20,000 riders on the 6 and 7 together. it doesn't rise to the level of what's called the muni rapid service. but very close. it's very important line for the agency. >> are there other questions from the directors before i open to the public comment. with ha it, i'm opening that to public comment. those who have -- do we have cards? >> clerk: yes, madam chair, we have cards from approximately 22 people. >> wonderful. >> sarah bucker, followed by warren lays and then guy barry are the first three speakers. >> vice chair if i may i'm here representing district 5 supervisor vallie brown. >> my apologies. >> not at all.

she wanted to be here. juan carlos, i'm a legislative aide to supervisor vallie brown. she asked me to come up and read a letter into the record. she hoped to be here, because of the board meeting that's currently happening she couldn't be at both -- in both places at once. we're deeply supportive of the pilot project proposed. she was a part of those meetings with merchants and at multiple meetings with stakeholders at hale street and page street. we are satisfied and have been frankly impressed with sfmta's public process. you know it's hard to get out to everyone. but ultimately the process has felt sort of collaborative strong, this is a pilot. if there are issues that arise during the course of the pilot by its very nature, we're in a position to make changes. and so having said that if i may, i'll read a short letter

into the record. i'm happy to answer any questions. dear chair, vice chair and sfmta board of directors, since demolition of the central freeway, page street and haight street have seen dramatic increases in automobile congestion as motorists search for alternative routes to the freeway. as a result the threats to the safety of activists and pedestrians have increased and public transit along haight street is often delayed. sfmta has been working to improve conditions on page street for several years. and i have been a part of much of that work. downhill center running bike lane was added to aid bike riders in navigating around rain gardens and a raised intersection at page and buchanan are coming next year. yet automobile cueing on page street to octavia continues to be a threat to pedestrians and bicyclists in district 5 traveling along or crossing page

street. earlier this year, i asked sfmta staff to explore building upon past improvements with an eye towards directly tackling freeway-bound cueing on page street. i pushed sfmta staff to think big, which resulted in the pilot project of traffic diversion before us today. these measures will eliminate freeway access on page street and prioritize people walking and bicycling on this neighborhood street which connects parks, john muir elementary and other community resources. i'm happy to have guided sfmta in developing a comprehensive evaluation plan and in community outreach. the evaluation plan includes the study of traffic safety vehicle circulation, transit travel time, and other concerns. and i'm pleased that sfmta agreed to include a neighborhood survey to round out the evaluation as a component of the pilot. i support this pilot on page street and respectfully ask sfmta -- the sfmta board to approve it.

and i also want to make an additional ask that sfmta staff develop a plan to take the next steps of studying 8th street and that this board issue a directive to staff to do so. thank you very much. and may i enter this letter into the record? >> thank you very much. >> all right. >> clerk: sarah warren lays, guy barry. first three speakers. >> hello. my name is sarah bucker. iive will at 153 page street just a couple doors from octavia boulevard. and every day i witness the chaos that is pedestrians, activists, cars and trucks trying to navigate an intersection that has become an unintended freeway on-ramp. as the mother of a high schooler and a middle schooler, who both ride their bikes through the neighborhood and the city i

view the current situation as unsafe and untenable. the anger of motorists got so bad, a neighbor created april fool's signs, ta encourages drivers to take a breath and lay off the horn and they worked, for a little while. [laughter] for more lasting solution, the proposed pilot to alter page street traffic patterns including prohibiting turns is a good place to start. the work should not end there. the m.t.a. needs to prioritize safety for pedestrians and cyclists if we want more people to take more of their trips without the use of their cars. traffic through our neighborhood in particular and the city as a whole must be looked at holistically. changes to traffic-flow patterns on page street will inevitably result in the way the drivers use surrounding streets. it will take time for people to modify their habits to access the freeway in different ways. some current backups may actually get better, since fewer cars turning on to octavia at page street will mean that more space for vehicles making the

turn from oak street will be available. but it is possible that there may be unintended consequences as well. [bell dings] during the 15-month pilot the m.t.a. must continue to assess and address the traffic, safety and noise issues on octavia boulevard. those of us who lived in hayes valley for decades remember when the freeway sliced through the neighborhood, casting a heavy shadow on the residents below. we fought hard to create a vibrant neighborhood. we're not quite there yet. but let's keep working on it. >> thank you. [ please stand by ]

- this made the neighborhood increasingly unsafe. vehicles force pedestrian to walk into the intersection illegal left turns resulted in many near-misseses. angry and frustrated honking and screaming is a regular occurrence making it difficult for many residents in the area. pollution from the hundreds of cars has made it unhealthy for us in the neighborhood as well especially

for the many children and elderly who live there. our children and streets have been particle laden. we have to wash our streets more and more. it used to have four access points of my access to market street was closed. changes to page and haight street has slowed traffic down, exacerbating the situation. the current proposal calls for closing yet another access point to octavia, blocking eastbound traffic laguna to octavia. >> thank you. next speaker. warren followed by marcell and then patrick schultz. >> to continue the comments based on at least a hundred of the residents in the lower haight area this closure will cause an already unsafe and inlivable situation

on haight street and surrounding neighborhoods to become much worse. our neighborhood residents have not been adequately informed of the proposed changes until recently, august and september. and though the board decision was delayed to hear more of the residents' concerns, no changes have been made to the proposal or suggestions that would address those very serious concerns. the closure of page street without serious and urgent changes to haight street will result in a dangerous situation in our neighborhood which is already dangerous. the goals of the page street are laudable. but the changes are being implemented in such a -- a way it is not taking into consideration the needs of the surrounding neighborhoods. we asked the board to make changes to the proposal for you address it to address those concerns. we ask part of the program that closes page street eastbound to be postponed or severely limited until

an impact closure is fully examined or we ask the pilot be dramatically reduced from the 15 or 18 months it is now to a maximum of three months with concurrent weekly survey of the impacted neighborhoods nearby. and a systemic study of the impact on the neighborhood. we ask the board immediately direct relevant departments to conduct a study of the traffic and situation on haight street and surrounding neighborhoods and recommend changes to quickly alleviate an already dangerous and unlivable situation. thank you. >> next speaker please >> marcell patrick, kendall. >> can i use the overhead, please? >> this is currently looking uphill page street completely dominated by a car parking lane, a car travel lane a car travel

lane, double parked car and another car parking line. so drivers asking for more driving. my name is marcell. i'm a sf resident and a student at uc berkeley and member of the bike coalition. the design of our street convey the value systems of our government and transit agency. given that, too much of san francisco values drivers above all other travelers, including cyclists, transit riders and pedestrians. we are a city with ambush climate mitigation goals yet a road network that makes it frightening for many to cycle. this is not just the case for major highways or state-operated roads but in our densest neighborhoods by our schools, parks and public services. before you today is an opportunity to take a bold step in favor of sustainable transportation. it will make cycling safer to riders of all ages and experience

levels. i applaud the director's statement on building with children in mind. page street runs along an elementary school. there's no better way for our students to develop sustainable transportation habits for life than the ability to bike to school safe. the amount of children who have walked to school in the united states has dropped significantly. we are asking for you to approve this project without delay. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> patrick, kendall, rod. >> i'm switching with my brother. i'm rod schultz. i'm a resident at 188th street. i have two young children that were born in that house and this neighborhood has become a disaster when it comes to traffic and backup. the traffic being proposed seems like and feels like an overreach. it is far too long. it is going to take all the traffic that mark spoke about and force it onto haight street. there is no solution for what is proposed

right now. as was brought up earlier everybody in the haight street corridor kind of looks to a day where bikes and pedestrians are the top of the pedestrian food chain or travel food chain. some aspects of this project are pushing it into that direction and that is fantastic but the aftermath of what's going to happen to that intersection and the amount of traffic and buildup that is going to create chaos in that area is not acceptable. the length of this project has to be reduced. the observeability of the project must be brought up on a weekly basis. i urge everybody to have coffee at the crosswalk once a week. we'll bring the coffee. you can tell me what you think about these changes. because the changes are going to be catastrophic and destroy our neighborhood for the people to cycle through our neighborhood.

>> next speaker please. >> kendall. okay. >> hi, i'm kendall. i live on the 300 block of haight between webster and buchanan. i bike to work every day down haight and do cal tran via 14th. this project first of all as a bicyclist i'm not going to be able to get to this bikeway because there are no left turns allowed anywhere east of where i live. so there are a lot of problems in the return direction as well. there's no left turn from buchanan onto haight. and if i'm coming down webster there's no left turn allowed onto haight either. so that basically makes our house into an island. we can't -- the detours to ride legally

around this area are lengthy and they involve a lot of climbing. we are on the top of the hill. so anything that pushes us a different direction means climbing back up from different directions. so it looks like we are going to see a lot of the problems we've seen on page get diverted to our block. and we are going to have parking restrictions, tow aways, traffic, three lanes of traffic longer crossing distances a range of behaviors that are going to emerge as people run down the bus lane and try to cut in and do other things do all the stuff we have seen low lower down on haight. so i oppose this part of the project. i like the transit priority. i like the bike priority, obviously.

but it looks like it's going to turn our block on to a freeway onramp, really. we have no parking buffer by our house. we step off the curb and get hit by a bus. i really like we are just kind of shoving the problem under the rug. >> thank you. i'm sorry. your time is up. >> thanks. >> patrick schultz david michelle, miriam goldman and then brian ruber. are any of those laidies or gentlemen here? >> he's left >> doesn't have to be exactly in order. >> miriam goldman, brian r you are ber. -- >> i live on upper haight between page and oak so page is my go-to street when i'm riding downtown.

i've had obviously sufficient opportunity to appreciate what others have adequately described as chaos in lower haight especially during the rush hours. i do support the long pilot. but i think a number of speakers, i'm surprised to say, pleased to say who support the general goal also seem to have reasonable concerns about the length of the project before its effects are reevaluated. i am going to support the current project but i think that maybe you should reconsider as a 12-month or something like that. we know traffic patterns vary with seasons so i don't think three months makes a lot of sense. and i think i really want to say i have a lot of empathy for the folks who live in the neighborhood, the riders as well as the drivers. nobody likes to be parked by a traffic experiment, which this is.

but i believe i'm hearing everyone saying this congestion which is essentially the outcome of octavia parkway and the freeway entrances that existed before the '89 quake, this is an overall district issue that this is going to be part of the solution and it's pretty obvious it's not the entire solution. so i urge you to support it. but i would like to suggest you consider a somewhat shorter test period. it seems to me lots more can be learned in order to mitigate possible problems on haight street the people have been talking about. i want to thank you very much for your attention. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> miriam goldman brian ruben, kristin lecky, raphael >> hi, i'm miriam goldman.

i'm a ucff ph.d. student and i go on haight street every day to get to ucff mission bay. i have almost been hit on the street many times. i bike early in the morning. a protective bike lane would keep me safe as a bike rider who rides there every day. i really really support this. i live on page street. this is the best way i have to get to work. please support this. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> brian ruben. kristin raphaela elizabeth. >> good afternoon. my name is brian ruben. i live at 1162 page street. i'm going to keep this brief. i love living on page street. i love how opulent it is, and most importantly i love how easy it is for me to get to school every day using page street. and for this reason, it really hurts

my heart every day to just wonder if this is going to be it, if this is going to be the day that some car decides to make a right turn without signaling and that's it. and sitting here and listening to several of the concerns that residents particularly in the haight neighborhood, have raised, i really do encourage the board also to consider these concerns in moving forward with this proposal but at the end of the day this proposal would not only go a long way in making me safe but along with many of the other countless bikers who use page every day in order to get to work and to school. and i really appreciate the commitment that the board has shown to public safety and i encourage you to follow through with that value and pass this measure. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> kristin raphaela, elizabeth, rowan. >> good afternoon, directors.

animy name is kristin and i'm the community organizer on staff with the san francisco bicycle coalition. i'm here on behalf of our 10,000 plus members to stress our strong support for the pilot. the project before you brings necessary improvements on page street that neighbors, elected officials and advocates have continuously asked for over the past five plus years. when you have the supervisor of this district both neighborhood associations that this project cuts through bicycle and pedestrian advocates in full support and nearly 100 letters of full support from neighbors, some of which i will scan and send there's no way this shouldn't move forward today. if this doesn't constitute public will, i don't know what will. this is a true pilot that can be easily moved. we know there will be design tweaks given the difficult traffic circulation issues we are dealing with. we look forward to having follow-ups

with staff during the pilot implementation to better understand the impacts and benefits. i want to acknowledge that we have heard from neighbors and merchants that they have concerns around parking restrictions and congestion on haight street as well. i would ask the board to direct staff to look toward creative solutions to these concerns. if we could install a similar traffic diverter at octavia i'm positive we would get the transit and business-friendly street that neighbors and merchants are asking you for today. since 2015 the sfmta collected data, interviewed stakeholders and hosted open houses. it's time we end this slow planning process and get this in the ground now. what we are asking you for today is to take the necessary action to improve the safety of those walking and biking on page street. i look forward to the approval of this project. thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker please.

raphaela, elizabeth, rowan, jessica. >> good afternoon, directors. my name is raphael. i'm an antitrust economic researcher. i live on page street. and i take this street to work every single day downtown. as everyone as mentioned, i don't need to repeat it here, it's a freeway onramp simply put. cars back up three to five blocks. we are at constant risk of cars pulling out and hitting us, pedestrian children, it's a no-brainer that this needs to move forward. oak street, it's meant to be an onramp, page street, it's not. i don't think it needs to stop at page street as the director mentioned. if we want to mirror some of our behaviors to cities like copen hagen where we have a a friendly direction toward bicyclists, it needs to start here and expand to other places in our city. this is a good place to start for prioritizing the safety of

bicyclists and pedestrians. in terms of the time span of the pilot, i believe 15 months is an appropriate length. if we shorten it to three, six or 12 we begin to lose the integrity of the data and measurement of trying to figure out is this appropriate or not are we observing seasonal swings, are we observing a short time frame phenomenon. we need the right amount of data to observe if this is the right decision for the neighborhood or not. i echo the sentiments of those who live on haight street and are worried if we are going to be pushing traffic onto that street. but this shouldn't start on page and end there. we need to expand the safety directives and expand on the haight street as well. thank you. >> elizabeth followed by rowan jessica and richard johnson. >> i'm elizabeth. i'm a ten-year resident and a small

street facing rent-controlled apartment on buchanan. when i moved into the neighborhood i referred to it as the sleepy end of lower haight. with years of construction projects on my street, gps maps and uber, my street has become congested. it's not uncommon for traffic to be backed up outside my windows as drivers try to avoid the octavia entrance to the freeway. the page street freeway access becomes closed with the goal of using oak or haight as the main access points. it's unrealistic to think drivers will remain on these streets rather than choosing alternate routes. i think it's a good thing to get the ability to get around the city without use of the car and i agree page is a disaster zone. but the reality is people do drive cars and especially the people who live farther west and they need to pass through this

neighborhood to get to the freeway. i feel for the people who live on page and haight. the streets are overly crowded. i don't want my neighborhood to become overly congested as well. these restrictions of no turning are going to force traffic to come to my direction to get to the alternate route to avoid the octavia entrance. i never received any information with an opportunity to give input on the condition of my neighborhood before the plank developed and up for approval. i think it was september the first time i saw a sign on the street post walking toward page street and didn't receive anything in the mail. i never received any surveys to share my experience during the planning stages of the project. so as far as i know we haven't been included. it's been mainly page street focused for the issues they face there. so the things i would ask is we have to include people from my neighborhood to see what happens and also 15 months feels like a

very long pilot. >> rowan jessica, richard janelle. >> good afternoon, board of directors. rowan, a cyclist in san francisco. i'm in strong support of this project. i'm happy to see that when i first heard of this project it was just going to be a traffic diverter in front of the elementary and that was it and some bike lane upgrades and since then the staff realized the root of the problem is the fact you can use page to get to octavia and the solution is to get it impossible and then the traffic will go away. they have now done this and i applaud them for this. i'm excited by this project. i would like to express my disappointment about three things. one is some of the neighbors speaking here who either don't or do but do recognize but don't express the need that the chaos they are talking about already happens

on page and some of what we pushed around i find it interesting that there doesn't seem to be a recognition that it's just moving chaos around, which is not great, we should also close traffic on haight probably to get to octavia but this is not creating new problems. it's moving problems around. let's recognize that. this is not coming from nowhere. i would like to express my disappointment that we are proposing to build another unprotected bike lane on page. that bike lane for one block is great so congratulations for approving 0.1 miles of bike lane but it could be 0.5 if the three blocks uphill were also protected. and that's a bit of prioritization that i would like there that i'm disappointed with. and the prioritization of muni on haight street i'm disappointed to hear that was even parking off hours to begin with, it's not

just another red lane. it's disappointing to have it watered down further. haight is an important bus route. there should be a red line there. thank you. >> jessica richard, janelle and then scott. >> good afternoon. my name is jessica. i live on the 500 block of haight street. and i strongly support the age street bikeway improvements. i walk and bike every day on page street going first down haight to make a left on buchanan to page. i don't see anything about the project that would prevent me from talking the route that i would already take. the main thing of having page neat street not be a freeway onramp right now is usable only by experienced cyclists. i bike with my kid to school. he usually using the on street bike infrastructure with me. he's five. he uses it all the way to school except on page street, he is

allowed to be on the sidewalk and i'm not so i'm in the middle with a lane of traffic and a lane of parking separating me from him for three blocks. i would fully support making it westbound only for buses but i think page street is a good priority to have, just when i was working fliering for this meeting, it's just striking how many bicyclists are using it. and they are just being pushed into this tiny space for the benefit -- for people to not really be able to get on octavia street. like five cars can get from page street onto octavia at each light cycle. it doesn't make sense. and also to put a plug in for the pedestrian improvements around john mayor, i'm planning to send my kid to school there next year. there's a crossing guard at page and

webster. there isn't one at page at buchanan and constantly in the mornings while kids are trying to get to school, there's cars in the crosswalk. there's kids whose heads don't go over the hood of the cars walking behind the cars in the crosswalk. >> richard johnson janelle wong scott nicky. >> hi, my name is richard johnson. i've lived at the epicentre of this since 1990. when i moved there the greatest threat as a pedestrian was being mugged or the high crime that's there. now it's when i walk out my door i'm a pedestrian and it's the fact of being on guard of being hit by a car or a bike. i'm in favor of what's going on here. but what i would like to say for a caveats are to me the very simple and i've been asking this for about a decade, we need to

take out the right turns and left turns at both page and haight and do a traffic study that shows that that would effectively move more traffic through our neighborhood because what's happening now is cars are cueing to the lights and the lights are pretty much ineffective because 30 to 40 percent of the light is wasted for traffic to move through. and the other is air quality which i've been bringing up for a long time as someone who walks through the neighborhood and has to stop at the stop signs and stoplight it has become measurably, and if i understand, we are actually a hot spot for the city of san francisco. i bring this up on a frequent basis. they say that's a dp environmental issue. and i think they need to look at that. the other issue in this is that of the winners here, it's pretty much cars are still being able to do what they've been able to

do. there's no promotion of getting the drivers out of their cars. and also you might scapegoat uber lyft but it's the consumers that are the ones instead of walking or biking. and kudos to the bikes, i enjoy seeing the bikes coming down the hill. i envision this as an improvement. as someone who has worked in the neighborhood, also from an mta staff point when they say they can't enforce i and other community members have -- >> your time is up. >> it's frustrating we've gone through so many meetings. one staff says they can't do it because of enforcement there's a community and police issue. >> everybody gets the same amount of time. i'm sorry. janelle, scott, nicky, adam. >> good afternoon directors. my name is janelle and i've been a

resident of san francisco since 2000. i've been riding page street on my bicycle since before the bike lane existed. it was my primary route. i supported the middle bike lane that was painted to legalize cyclist behavior of passing cars on the left. here is why the project is safer and better. in its current state i will not i repeat i will not allow by 13-year-old or 10-year-old boys to ride down that infrastructure. when i ride it with them, we go from the west side of the city we take the wiggle to the mostly protected bike lane of market street in the hopes of more protected. i encourage you to approve this project in its entirety as it is planned and presented to you today. the project will make it safer, faster, quieter with less polluted streets for most of the vulnerable users of our streets in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you.

next speaker. >> scott nicky adam cat. >> hi. scott feeny. i've been riding my bike on paige street for five-years, about as long as as the planning has been going on. i want to express my strong support for the improvements in the downhill direction eastbound. i think it's going to feel a lot safer to be riding down the hill with that protected bike lane with traffic getting diverted of my so i strongly support that and urge you to move that forward. within the context of my strong support for that overall project i would like to express some disappointment with the westbound uphill treatment. this is when i first moved to san francisco i lived in ashbury heights and this was my route downtown. i would come up page street. now i live in mission but i use page to get to ocean beach

haight, et cetera. the problem is those three blocks of page when you are going up the hill are very scary because not only is it a moderately steep hill, but also you are very exposed. you could be hit by a door opening. you could be hit by a double parked car will you tell the jurying forward or someone passing you very close -- lurching forward or someone passing you very close. while i welcome the existence of a bike lane going uphill, i would like to see that be a protected bike lane all the way up the hill so when you are going up that hill you can take your time you can be safe and feel protected. i don't think that the bike lane between the moving cars and the parked cars is going to be adequate in the uphill direction to remove those conflicts. and although it will require -- and this is why mta staff told me they don't want to do that, because it would require taking out more parking. but there is a lot of parking almost

every other street on ivy roads laguna. we just want one safe bike route from market. >> next speakers. >> good afternoon. my name is nicky cooper. i am the owner of a place on haight street. we are san san francisco's first legacy business. my parents opened the business in '77. i took over in 2006. i'm here to represent san francisco's small business community and the death of san francisco's small business community. i am more than a headline on hood line when you see your favorite neighborhood restaurant close. this is the face of the dying small business community. this is the face of the marginalized small business community.

the treatment of sfmta towards us in my opinion has been deplorable. we didn't know the merchants and neighbors of haight street didn't know about this until september. i'm the one that called the meeting with sfmta in september. i was told that there would be a follow-up meeting to go over our suggestions that would be implemented in the proposal. that was not going to happen. i've been called a second meeting. i was told i was going to get ridership numbers after the second meeting. that never happened. so i am for the protection of bikers. i think everyone is here. we don't want to see another death. however i am also for the sustainability of san francisco's small business community. i would like to see the restrictions from three to six removed during this pilot program to give us time to see how we can work together but not just jump off the edge of the ship and say you know what, this is how it's going to be and then our businesses

suffer in the meantime. so i'm just asking for compromise for the small business community and merchants of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> adam, cat ben jason. >> doesn't have to come up in order. >> hi. i'm cat carter, san francisco transit riders. i want to thank staff for trying to mitigate impacts on muni for a bicycle project. i do support the project. i always support pilots because we can assess in realtime what the impacts are and we have a chance to alter things if they don't work. we do have one of the slowest transit systems in the country. we can't let it get any slower which is what is happening as congestion increases, which everybody is talking about today. and i also don't think i need tell you from your earlier