alex madrid. this is the mayor's disability council. first, this meeting. >> clerk: all right. this is a virtual meeting. this meeting is broadcast to the public on sfgov tv. it is open captioned and sign languaged interpreted. the mayor's disability council holds nine public meetings yearly. they are generally held on the third friday of the month. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information or to request accommodations at

(415) 554-6789 or by e-mail at mod@sfgov.org. our next regular meeting will be on friday, february 20, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and now we will be doing the roll call. i will call the council members' names. [roll call]

and that is the end of roll call. >> chairman: thank you. and can you please read the reading and approval of the agenda? >> clerk: yes. one moment, please. okay. so for the agenda, we have the first item as welcome and roll

call. and we have the second item as reading and approval of the agenda. and the third item as public comment. the fourth item is the cochair report. the fifth item is wheelchair accessible vehicles deployment presented by austin heyworth. and then we have the report from the mayor's office on disability. then item seven is a break. item eight is access to sidewalks for people with disabilities which is a presentation by michael lennon and nicholas crawford from the

department of public works. item nine is regulation of e-scooters to increase safety of peds with disabilities. item ten is correspondence. item eleven is general public comment. and item 12 is council members to make announcements and item 13 is adjournment. >> chairman: thank you, are there any council members who have comments about the agenda? if you are -- >> chairman: we're going to approve the agenda. >> commissioner: yes second. >> commissioner: yes second. >> chairman: thank you. so we are moving to item number

three, public comment. >> clerk: okay. so we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well as after specific items on the m.d.c. agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes. if you want the council to respond to your comments following the meeting, please provide your contact information by e-mail message to mod@sfgov.org with the subject 'm.d.c. comment reply request.' members of the public can join the meeting as a zoo webinar participant and will be able to make public comment directly during the public comment periods. members of the public can join the webinar by using the webinar link. you can also join the webinar

using a telephone and dial in to (669) 900-6833 and the webinar id is 85419550368. if you join the webinar using a computer or■nñ and hit send. you can also type your comment into the q&a box and the clerk will read it for you. if you join by phone, dial star

nine when you want to be recognized and you will bem.d.s were accessible. send an e-mail to mdc@sfgov.org. please call (415) 919-9562 or send an e-mail to mod@sfgov.org. at this time, members of the public may address the council on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on this meeting agenda. with respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the council will be afforded when your item is reached in the meeting. each member of the public may address the council for up to

three minutes. the brown act forbids the council from taking action or discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda including these items raised at public comment. and so at this time, i see members of the public who have indicated that they want to make public comment and so i will go ahead and allow the first commenter. okay. member listed as 'anon' you've been permitted to speak. >> hi. i have a youtube channel where i hold various departments accountable for corruption such as this department and the mayor's office on disability. i'm here to speak out on the

unbelievable abandonment. during this absolutely atrocious pandemic and the violations of laws and rules that this body has committed. one of those was ruled last year, last summer after a year of requesting my own disability records, the department refused to provide them until the sunshine ordinance task force got involved and they ruled a unanimous decision that the mayor's office on disability had broken the law. mayor's office on disability broke the law on may 12th, 2020, when it deleted a public emergency covid-19 pandemic meeting. they subsequently deleted -- sorry. did not hold meetings in the first seven months of the pandemic as well. let's fast forward to what's been going on right now. i've been requesting for months and months for information on the home vaccine program for individuals that need a booster shot. many people right now need to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

this department could not be bothered with responding to my request despite numerous requests being made and as a result, i was not able to access the covid booster after six months of waiting. more over, it turned out the cdc said we could get boosters after five months, but did the m.o.d. or m.d.c. inform people of that? no. i haven't gotten any information of what's happening with covid-19 vaccination status and what's available in the city. the health department doesn't have anybody answering the god damn phone right now. we've got people trying to come in maskless and trying to spread covid-19. and we've got orkid sassouni and alex madrid to stop e-mailing them about

vaccinations. we are censored from the public from showing our faces which is also something i have been bringing up for years now and this department seems to have no problem with censoring the public in that way. these meetings are a sham, these bodies are a sham and you're failing the disability community. you are continuing to do it and i will publish as much as i can. my name is zack, you can check out my videos on youtube. please respond and e-mail to any of these things if you're the mayor's office on disability, or the m.d.c.. though i doubt you will, you will continue to ignore me as you do anything that has a slightest disagreement with your department. >> chairman: thank you for your comment. next public commenter. >> clerk: john marvel. you have been permitted to speak. >> caller: hi. i train companies on neurodiversity.

i wanted to speak to the absolute failure by the district attorney's office in matters regarding me as a disabled person. for the past two years, i have been trapped in a domestic abuse situation with a roommate who has targeted me and impoverished me for my disability. i am unable to move. he has been arrested six times and has been prosecuted four times, however, whenever i bring this up with the district attorney's office about my urgent need for safe housing, they victim blame me and tell me that i should move when as a disabled person that is impossible because he has impoverished me. additionally, one of the crimes my abuser is charged in, he has confessed in writing targeting me for my disability yes the district attorney refuses to

write a hate crime. despite writing about my disability and graffiti on the wall when he attacked me. every time i interact with the district attorney's office, i feel victim-blamed. i feel marginalized because of my disability. i have been refused accomodation requests and when i bring up the subject of disability and hate crime, it appears to be something that the office is wholly uninterested in and completely unaware of. i have spent 20 years working for the enactment of hate crimes legislation. i can tell you that our district attorney ranks amongst the very worst in california for prosecuting hate crimes. i don't know what else can be done. i have tried to get into homeless shelters, no beds are available. i have tried to get into abuse shelters. there's no abuse shelter in san francisco which accepts male clients. i have been trying to get

cognitive accommodations. but i have been completely dismayed at the lack of interest by this district attorney and prosecuting hate crimes against the disability community and assisting me as a disabled person and i would like for this and every relevant body to hold the district attorney's office to account. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your comment. next public comment, please. >> clerk: caller ending in 1003, you've been permitted to speak. >> caller: good afternoon, everybody. this is will raylin submitting a comment, general comment for accessible san francisco. accessible san francisco is an unincorporated nonprofit

association. the item that's not on the agenda today that i'd like to comment on is the pending legislation at the board of supervisors in order to delay enforcement of various city requirements and the shared spaces outdoor dining program. i submitted legislation which has been sponsored by supervisor peskin and i'm a resident of district three and i appreciate very much that supervisor peskin's legislation specifically excludes accessibility from this moratorium on enforcement. i think that was kind, that was wise. i imagine the city may have gotten some legal advice that it would be a really bad idea to pass an ordinance declaring that the city's not going to enforce a.d.a. for two years and so i don't know what the

possible pros and cons of the legislation is in terms of impact on the disability community on accessibility. so i just wanted to publicize that this is going on. maybe staff can comment on it. i think the idea that the city will be enforcing accessibility requirements, but not other requirements potentially, this is a good thing for accessibility, that it's the only thing being enforced. but maybe not. i'm not certain. i think that there are many of these outdoor dining areas that are not properly accessible as we know and i appreciate the city's working on that. i do think that some of them would require essentially reconstruction in order to become accessible. if you, for example, an

accessible table in and outdoor dining platform needs to have a level space. i mean, it's a clear cut a.d.a. and california building code requirement particularly beneficial for people who use manual wheelchairs that there cannot be more than a 2% slope at the table. you probably have noticed, there's a lot of hills in our city and there's two different ways that the construction has addressed that. some of them have kind of a terraced approach where they are able to create level areas and others go with the flow of the street, the level of the curb, they build flush to the curb. so the ones that are flush to the curb, on any street that has more than a 2% grade which is many streets here, there's not going to be any area on the

seating platform that is less than 2%. >> chairman: caller, your time is up. >> caller: okay. i'll close by saying i think there are some significant issues to be addressed and enforcement still and if this is not on the agenda today, i just wanted to mention it to you all again. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your comment. do we have another public commenter at this time? >> clerk: yes. carol, you've been permitted to talk. carol, you have been unmuted.

>> chairman: if you can see us or you can hear us, please say your comment at this time. >> caller: can you hear me? >> chairman: yes. >> caller: good. okay. i'm sorry. i said my name is carol and i actually work at paratransit, but i'm not here speaking on behalf of paratransit and i was kind of surprised to hear these other peoples comments because i too have a roommate that wants me to move so he can rent the room for the whole rent and not pay anything. i can't find anything. i've applied to over 130b.m.r. applications and got nothing. and meanwhile, walking around this city, i've fallen and cut my eye because d.p.w. put a

ramp in the side of the sidewalk and didn't put anything else to show that and i tripped right over the curb that had just been cut in. i just fell about a week ago down at 16th and mission because homeless people had trashed all over the sidewalk and i tripped and fell and hurt my neck and sat there in a pool of blood and no one helped me. the thing is, i work full-time and the only people you can usually find help for disabled people are places that are only available during the day. it would be nice if m.o.d. could do something to help. disabled people to find housing. do something to stop the permits of construction that all in the same area that tear up sidewalks and move the bus

from paratransit from two blocks away and it's been that way for three years and now they've put in these cobblestone sidewalks that are uneven and then planters that are holes with rocks in them where dogs are pooping right in front of our office. i don't understand it. i'll mention my activist group we're just starting is called the wash club and it stands for we are still here because it seems like no one knows that. and now, you know, when we need some help, we can't even seem to get sidewalks to walk on or truks trucks are double parked in front of paratransit so you can't even get into the office. i'm wondering who is supposed to watching for this stuff and why isn't there anyone. that's all. >> chairman: thank you for

your comment. are there any other public comment at this time? >> clerk: at this time, i do not see any other callers indicating they want to make public comment, however, i do want to note we received a question in the q&a box. the question says, can we comment after specific agenda items, for example, the sidewalk issue? and the answer provided in the q&a box is, yes. there will be opportunity to make public comment after specific agenda items. and, with that, that's the end of public comment. >> chairman: thank you. we are moving along to item number four which is an information item: cochair report. orkid, do you have any co-chair report at this time?

>> chairman: no. not at this time. >> chairman: i have one co-chair report which we had sent for housing department of san francisco and some questions that reraised for people with disabilities in the city. we sent that out and it's been public meetings. that is my co-chair report.

now, we are moving to item number five which is wheelchair accessible vehicles deployment. presentation by austin heyworth from uber technologies inc. welcome, austin. >> great. thank you, chair madrid and thank you everyone for having me. can everyone hear me okay? >> chairman: yes. >> great. i'm going to share my screen here. just a moment. great. so my name's austin heyworth. i lead our public affairs team at uber.

i've been here for about five and a half years and before that i worked for eight years in the california state legislature. i'm based up here in sacramento, but i'm a visitor of san francisco pretty frequently. i've spent a lot of time there. obviously, ride share started in san francisco. and i'm excited to talk about our efforts and our technological innovations on the accessibility front. i'm also joined by cameron hendrickson who is a consultant who works with uber particularly focused on outreach on our accessibility products throughout the state which is an obligation i'll talk about in a little bit here. but this is part of that function that's just simply getting the word out about the availability of these services. you know, in addition to this improving supply and reliability and also looking to find the right folks in demand of these products. so we'll talk about what our service looks like and how to

use it. sb 7 1776 and then i'll close t with a little bit about our public transit and ongoing efforts on that front and i'll open it up to q&a for anybody that has some followup questions. so accessibility means a lot in the context of uber. everyone is familiar with uber as a ride sharing business. we also have a really exciting health product now where we are hipa certified and do health plans where we're able to provide nonemergency medical transportation for anyone who's had to take an ambulance to a primary care provider, it can be very clumsy and expensive part of your care. all the privacy and health perspective where your doctor can order you a ride and be aware when you arrive that

works out for the provider as well as the patient. for those that have sight and auditory disabilities, there's options in the app. we use voice over technology and both ios and android. i'm going to focus most of the call on wheelchair accessible and those required to use a motorized wheelchair. we have a product called uber assist which manual wheelchairs have used for a long time where you have a specially trained driver that can help you from door-to-door service. but the focus has been fully equipped motorized vehicle vans which are a challenge because as many of you know that have used city provided paratransit, it's not at the level of reliability and convenience that you'd expect from uber. often times, you'd have to

order in advance and get a time slot from a to b. and so we've tried over the course of uber's ten years and cities throughout the country, different services and partnerships with public agencies like sfmta as well as with private providers like m.v. transit and currently in the san francisco bay area we partner with a company called tower. they own a fleet of wheelchair accessible vans. they have drivers that are specially trained and we subsidize that with supply orders on the app. we're really quite proud of the level of service that's happening in the bay area. it's certainly not perfect, but it's improved quite a bit over 2021. and supply hours on the app are as good as they've ever been. so we're excited about that.

what is wave. you've probably seen this. mostly vans that have a motorized lift that are need of the level of service. and just with the service looks like. you can expect response times in the 20 to 40 minute range which is about the norm which does allow for a level spontaneity. we also tend the price point at what our traditional uberx service is. of course, with a special vehicle and specially trained drivers, it does cost the business more on the supply side but it's a commitment we've made and long held that we're going to hold that to the type of price you experience with a traditional uberx trip. those normal trips across the seven by seven can be in the $10 to $15 to $20 range and we never have that priced beyond what it would be for a normal

toyota prius and the driver is specially trained and license to provide service to those in the accessibility community. for those that have an uber app, the screen shows the flow that would show up on your device. it works with ios, apple, or android. you'll see a traditional uberx pool and some other products and as you scroll down as you see here, the wave product is pegged at the same price as uberx. e.t.a.s may be different where a given vehicle may be a little farther away than other vehicles. but we are subsidizing, we're actually increasing the amount of vehicles on the road and so that e.t.a. and that reliability, both those metrics should be increasing because you're going to increasingly have drivers close to you and thus able to provide more reliable and more quick

service. i'm going to speak for a minute about sb1376, a piece of legislation i worked on with state representatives from san francisco from the time the author was senator jerry hill who represented san mateo and part of the south bay and really with the bay area in mind. he was aware and a lot of the folks on this call and throughout the disability community advocated for t.n.c.'s uber and lyft to really step up their game on this front. and we were happy with the end product because this creates a financial mechanism that's sustainable that subsidizes the funding for this concept with every single trip that happens in california. and so of course the pandemic has up ended a lot of this both for our accessibility services and normal services, but for every trip in california, $0.10 goes into a fund managed by the p.u.c. and then resubsidizes

with these wheelchair vehicles. it's generating tens and millions of dollars. uber and lyft are able to recoup our investments provided that we continue to improve on metrics. how many trips are completed when they're requested. even with normal vehicles if you're in a remote area it and remote time, there may not be a vehicle available at all times. that's just a challenge we face given that we don't control when and where drivers are at a given time. response time, the overall e.t.a., and the reliability. so completion rate, time, and overall availability. so we've increased on all three of those metrics throughout 2021. the bay area is one of our strongest markets. if you can imagine. but in los angeles and in the bay area, the twelve counties of the bay area right now, we're pretty pleased with the level of service available. and for those that haven't used it i encourage you to look

through the app. here's just a quick synopsis of the things i've covered. the ways in which we measure success through this program and continuously improving is actually a requirement of this program to recoup the investment. and so it's a sustainable program in which every trip on uber and lyft with traditional services is going to refund and support the growth of communities at a higher level. transit. i want to briefly touch on that. in some cases a total cease of services. uber's made investments throughout the country of trying to integrate with public

transit. you see and you can expect another level in a car. the you can open up your uber app and it will show you the price and expected time of arrival from the airport to the hotel if you take a vehicle or if you take the public transit fixed rail service and as you can imagine, fixed rail is not only going to get you more cheeply, but also in more circumstances. folks think with their budget and we want to make that choice immediately available and that dove tails as we're actually using the best needs in the community. of we've got many different public transit agencies all overlapping and so it's been a

challenge and really degrading this, but it's something we would be eager to partner with you all and emphasizing how this is a way of improving a to b available for all kinds of users. and, of course, i think you all know given the level of investment and the quality of the transit in the bay area, this is a way of increasing ridership by putting that option available at your finger tips. i think one people don't think of with uber is door to door, last mile services. so, you know, the b.a.r.t. oracle train can take you over from the east bay to parts of the city, but you may be half a mile from your destination. uber can help get you that last mile. so putting transit on the map is a way we see our services becoming complementary to the transit and getting people out of owning and operating their

own vehicles and the congestion that is unfortunately already coming back in the bay area. so i will stop there. i know i spoke quickly. i think the main message i want to leave you with is i would encourage you or anyone who may be in need of wheelchair accessible vehicle service check out the uber app. again, it's not perfect. we're still struggling with rebounding from the pandemic. and the labor challenges that many businesses are faced with. but we are investing seriously. there's an ongoing state law that requires us to make investments in this, but part of being successful is getting the word out and make sure those in need of demand of these services that it's a reliable option. i'll stop there. >> chairman: thank you, austin.

i'm going to ask if there are any questions. orkid, do you have questions for austin? >> chairman: oh, yes do i. >> chairman: go ahead. >> chairman: thank you for that opportunity and for sharing your slide show as well. i do have a friend who has multiple disabilities and she can't actually drive herself so she depends a lot on lyft and uber and this is how we sign in the deaf community on your chin, and so she told me there were a few instances where drivers would just quickly change the route on the way and that really instilled a lot of fear for us as a woman, as a deaf person, as a person with

multiple disabilities. she's unable to get out of the car. and so one problem that uber often has is that often times, the driver will just switch the route without recommendation and so you have no way of knowing that or knowing what's going on. so, yeah. it does increase anxiety and so it's a really great concern. i actually think this is a great program, it's a wonderful first step to progress towards at the same time we want to prioritize safety of the passenger, of the person who's in the car and especially when it's a woman, you know, when it's a route and you're already in the car, perhaps you're going to a hospital or there are different type of issues that can come up and i think it would be great to put a panic button as part of an option for uber to feel and ensure that

people feel safer. that's the end of my comment. >> thank you for the comment. one thing, uber has integrated an s.o.s. feature which if anyone does feel unsafe in a circumstance like that, you're able to alarm law enforcement. that's one thing that's safe about ride sharing is unlike other services or public transit, there is real awareness of who you're with and where you are at all times. so there's a running trail of evidence in which it creates inherent safety because it's really a bad place to commit a crime. we also have a 24/7 team of safety experts liaison law enforcement that are able to use that data that's generated by our services to look back and see what's happened here. also, our rating system, part of the way we promote sort of community safety is we encourage people to rate the rider and driver on both sides of the equation and if it's not

a perfect rating, we ask why and if there's a trend in any way, that's how we keep drivers that are not safe with passengers off the platform. some people think the ratings are for fun. we actually take it very seriously. if there's anything below a 5 rating, we ask why and if there's a trend there, we take action to promote safety. we simply don't want someone who has any sort of history of not providing what's felt to be safety service to be giving continued rides. i can send you more information on that if you'd like. but the s.o.s. button is something we're really proud of and the industry is putting into effect everywhere. >> chairman: good. >> thank you. first of all, austin, thank you for that information. it was a lot and you got through it quickly and i appreciate it. so but forgive me if i ask you

about something that you've already addressed because i may have missed it. quite honestly, while you were speaking, i was trying to schedule an uber wav for my 11-year-old daughter who's in a wheelchair and i wasn't able to do that. why am i not able schedule a wav ride like i can a nonwav ride? >> you should be able to schedule it in advance. i will look at that right away. the one thing i will say we are not allowed to transport minors unaccompanied. >> of course. she's not going anywhere by herself. >> so your question is why can't you preschedule a ride? my understanding is that you could and if that's not the case, i will talk to our product folks and figure out what's going on there. >>? okay. because i've noticed -- so i have a lot of experience with

wheelchair accessible vehicles through uber and lyft because of my daughter and, you know, i'm a 20+ year resident of san francisco and i think there's a particular need within a city for a service like that -- like this. often times families have one car instead of two maybe if they have a car. folks in the city rely on public transportation a lot more than you would outside of the city and uber and lyft and others like them are really kind of -- it's a modern mode of transportation. it's -- the default's almost around the world for a lot of people who can afford it.

and i guess what my broader point is is because it's the fact of the way people get around these modern times, folks in the disability community, folks who are reliant on wheelchairs whether they be motorized wheelchairs, foldable wheelchairs, i want to include a third category so uber understands, that third category of wheelchair that's not motorized, that's pushed by someone else like a parent, like a care giver and that wheelchair is also not foldable. like my daughter's chair, she can't control it herself, she requires somebody else to push it and it's a big heavy i think she's just one size down from

the adult wheelchair. so it's a small point, but i think it's an important one to know that there's also that custom per for your product: i want to make sure that uber understands and california public utilities commission and sfmta know that while it requires extra effort and extra money for companies like yours to provide this service for customers like my daughter and adults in wheelchairs, i'm almost insulted that it's a question of whether you should or if there's enough demand. i feel like it should be provided just like everybody else. uber and lyft aren't luxuries

anymore really they're not the exception. it's so many people around the world, this is how they get around and i want that for the disability community. i want that for my daughter and i want to be able to schedule one in advance, you know, my experience to date with your product has been -- it runs the gamut for how long i'm waiting for a ride. if my daughter is going to a doctor's appointment, i prefer to schedule it in advance because i know she has to be -- we don't have that kind of wiggle room. she needs to be there at a certain time and when i can't schedule it in advance, i call about an hour earlier than i really need it. so just the other day, i called for a lyft, i couldn't schedule that in advance either and i

think it's a new policy because i last year was able to schedule both of your companies wheelchair accessible vans in advance. regardless, i couldn't do it. i've been talking to them about why i can't and nobody's been able to explain to me why they've taken that away. i think it's curious it's also happening at uber. but so i can't call in advance for this ride that i'm trying to schedule for my daughter, so i call about an hour earlier than we need it to make sure that a car -- a van picks up my ride and they do and they get there within -- i think we waited 20 minutes and that's reasonable. you know, that's reasonable. we get there to the appointment an hour earl why are than we

need to be. so i just don't want it lost that the disabled community want to be able to use uber and lyft just like everybody else, on demand, be able to schedule it if we prefer or need it that way and i don't think it's asking for a lot that we have the ability to use your services just like people who don't require wheelchairs. okay. my last point and, alex orkid, if you'll forgive me. are we going to see what this

demand is before it's decided to be permanent? >> so the policy itself is ongoing. that is permanent. so it's collecting revenue that the t.n.c.'s can recoup if they continue to provide those services. if we do not provide these services, that money will go to someone else and so the funding mechanism is permanent. and that's exciting and existed up until two years ago. we certainly intend to provide services here barring some huge inexpected change of circumstances, we intend to provide this in perpetuity. the challenge shgts helen, has been the supply of these vehicles. there's the challenge that the public vehicles. we don't own the vehicles and we contract with a private provider. there's some uncertainty in terms of the ongoing availability of those, but for the time being, that revenue stream is going to continue to make it better than the way it

is today. >> can i ask the time frame you guys are gaging on because this is my worry and this is what i'm hearing from the drivers. you guys are looking at the demand in the last few years and we're coming up on two years of the pandemic and, again, i feel like so much of the issues that the disability community needs to advocate around is because folks on the other side who are making these decisions likely don't have someone with disabilities in their family and so they don't know the day-to-day of how to get around. so i'm telling you this because i'm assuming it's maybe folks just don't understand, but

people in wheelchairs and maybe i'll stop generalizing, but my daughter she's in a wheelchair and she is more medically vulnerable than the general population and i think that goes for a lot of people in wheelchairs, they're disproportionately more vulnerable. people with disabilities, they're going to be staying home a lot longer, a lot more strictly than the average person and i want uber and lyft to understand that, but please don't use these past two years exclusively or two years plus, right, the end of the pandemic isn't in sight yet. don't use that to gage demand. my family as a whole hasn't been going out as much and we're certainly keeping my daughter home a lot more than we would have because of her

medical vulnerability. so that's my last push. of course, i'd love to talk with you more about this forever, but please know and think of me, think of this body as a resource for you all. we really want to make this work and have it be successful and make it something that it doesn't feel like a burden for uber and lyft to provide. your drivers, my partner and i, we tip really well for those drivers when you guys show up because i've got to tell you, maybe i should have started off with this, the service is excellent. the service is excellent when we get it. the drivers are so careful with my daughter. they're so considerate, they drive really safely and please understand and this will be my last point i promise. please understand your company, by providing this service and i'm going to get a little choked up here, you are

improving the quality of life for not just my daughter, but lots of folks like her, getting folks within wheelchairs out into the community is not just about getting to doctors appointments and that's important, but you're allowing them to participate in their communities and their societies just like everybody else. you're giving them that freedom and their families that freedom. we don't have to scramble and freak out about how we're getting my daughter somewhere because we can all jump in the van, in the wheelchair accessible van like we would if she weren't in a wheelchair. so thank you for that and thank you for hearing me out. >> chairman: thank you, helen. >> thank you for the heart felt comments and your feedback about the nonfoldable wheelchair and the prescheduling ride i will

immediately take action on. but thank you for sharing. i know the services aren't perfect. i know that we're committed to improving them time over time. i think this is a good policy. and please do reach out. i will certainly use you as a resource, but i shared my e-mail. if you ever have any bit of feedback, please send it my way and i promise it will seen by the right folks. >> thank you. >> chairman: thank you. so are there any other council members who have questions? i'm going to call on each and every one of you. tiffany, questions? >> hi, austin. thank you so much for the presentation and i always appreciate hearing the questions and the commentary from our council members. i wanted to ask a question around training for the drivers

because as much as i appreciate all of the programs that uber has and everything that you presented today, i'm wondering how it is getting trickled down to the drivers because i have -- i've had a lot of friends with disabilities who might take a little bit more time to load a car or might have a service animal who have had difficulty with drivers just speeding off or cancelling their rides once they've seen the physical manifestations of our disability. i know there has been some back and forth between the drivers being independent contractors or not part of uber's responsibilities, but in a way they are an extension of the experience that riders have. so i was wondering what kind of training or what kind of conversations are happening at the driver level to create a level of compassion and

understanding and patience with riders with disabilities? >> that's a great question. as we're speaking about the specialized service of driving a wav vehicle, those drivers go through a specific training because there's a sub category of the traditional service. they receive i think it's like 45 hours of training before they're able to get licensed by that company we contract with. that includes all the safety protocols that come with using a motorized vehicle as well as, you know, the type of users in which they're going to serve. i think you're mostly referring to the traditional uberx service. you're right that, you know, utilizing a platform of independent contractors does present more challenges than if we were a traditional employer and would require more extensive training and there's more of an agent obligation. and it would like more like a traditional car service you see

today. being a real difference in the type of platform we operate. what we do is drivers on board they receive a training through the app that does outline our policies, it relates to nondiscrimination, it relates to service disabilities and what our policies are on that front. those things are not super elaborate, but they are pretty strict and to the point about what the expectations are as well as what is our 0 tolerance policies and i can share those with you as well so you can see and feel free to comment on what you think could be made more robust or better. and there's pretty strict enforcement. as i was mentioning earlier, there's obviously very clear cut criteria that would disqualify a driver or would require us to deplatform a driver, but there's also sort of the more soft signs of things or things reported by riders saying this person treated me a certain way or canceled on me.

we do use analytics to show if a person is cancelling for a certain reason, that's absolutely grounds to be taken off the platform. and so we have pretty clear cut criteria of what is acceptable behavior and we do enforce those things. so it's not a perfect answer, but, you know, it's something i can assure you we take very seriously. >> thank you for talking to that. and i also just wanted to highlight, i did a quick google search. about one in ten folks with disabilities are wheelchair users. and i know helen has experience for me someone who isn't a wheelchair user, i have a lot of friends who have crutcheses or walking sticks and are able to use the service, nine out of ten other disabled folks who aren't wheelchair users, i'd love to see if there's a way that we could take some of that 40 hours of training and also

provide that to some of the independent contact drivers as well. thank you. >> thanks for the feedback. >> chairman: thank you. council member ananya, do you have a question at this time? >> not at this time. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. council member gesean, do you have any questions at this time? >> i have none at this time. i feel like they were mostly asked by other members. >> chairman: thank you. before i go forward, i am

questioning austin about the $20 fee. have you guys considered giving the majority of people with disabilities are on fixed incomes. have you considered having a subsidized fee when it comes to giving people with a lyft van or wav van? and that's one question. the second question i have is that you mentioned about more rides with the uber app but

folks don't have -- so have you considered having a phone line when someone needs a ride or anything like that? the third thing and last question i have is i believe you mentioned that you guys and correct me if i'm wrong, you mentioned that you guys are using transportation as.

and i don't know if you guys noticed but every transportation has a ridiculous on not being personal drivers for disabilities. the reason i know that they used to have a contract for paratransit for san francisco and that's an issue and it's

concerning that we're using a company that's not really personal and are not caring about people with disabilities. >> so. i think there was three parts to the question. one was about a fixed fee for those that are on a fixed income or flatter fees, then it was about -- you asked about m.b. transit and what our partnerships look like with other providers. the phone service. my understanding is we still have a phone service available. you can call in. we've sort of innovated on that initially for seniors. those that may not have ever used a smartphone. i can forward that to the group here, but we do have a service in which you can make a phone call and somebody else orders the ride on your behalf and can

you get a text message notifying you. the wav service in general is heavily subsidized. i will say to holding it at the price is our best ever to subsidize and still have a sustainable product. there are as you may know, other groups -- other entities that have tried to provide this level of service in a given area and they have to curtail it because the economics are much more different than a traditional service because of the specially equipped vehicles that are necessary here. so for the subsidizization i'm sure is something we can consider with partnership entities. for example, i mentioned and i don't want to be so negative, but traditional paratransit agencies have struggled to provide more on demand levels of service. of the in boston, i know we've partnered with public agencies where we've been able to identify we can sort of share

the economics in a way that's more sustainable, but also create better utilization. by the fact we're not regulated locally, we're regulated at a state level in california, there's nothing stopping us for having them put their vehicles on our app in which we can ensure better utilization, but also better supply and more of a one stop shop for those seeking these services. and so i think we've also done the same with taxi. you know, taxi has specially equipped vehicles here that are frankly underutilized and don't have this level of tech overlay that has this on demand service.

>> chairman: the last comment or question, can you talk about how you guys in the hap with transportation. from my experience, the big -- >> i'm sorry. i'm not sure i got that. m.b. transit? >> chairman: yeah. >> i can't comment on that specifically. we really just use them for supply. our partnership is to supply the vehicles they own and put them on our platform. i know we had to move on to a new partner because the cost basis i think to a point that wasn't sustainable. so currently in the bay area, we partner with tower and my understanding based on the metrics that i've seen is it's going very well. and we hope to grow and expand to more turf in the bay area and make that service better in a way you can rely ton that

allows you to have a life style that it's going to be there in a reasonable amount of time as helen was mentioning earlier. >> chairman: another question is i heard that this problem is only from 9:00 to 6:00. is that continuing or are the hours changed? >> i believe it's available for longer than that. i know that we try to emphasize the supply peaks when the demand usually peaks. this has always been a challenge to have more reliable service at later hours. i actually don't know what the time cutoffs are if there are any, but i can follow up with you via e-mail and a justification for why that may be. >> chairman: great. and thank you.

now, i'll move to ask if any members have questions or comments at this time. >> clerk: i do not see any p.c.c. or macnumbers who've indicated. >> chairman: this is orkid. no comment from our end as well. >> chairman: you don't see anything at this time? >> clerk: for macor p.c.c. but there may be people who want to make public comment. >> chairman: thank you. for the staff, are there any

staff members who have questions at this time? >> hi, this be debbie caplan, acting director of the mayor's office on disability. i was expecting that you would spend more time talking about outreach to the disability community and my basic question is, i mean, to what extent does your outreach effort recognize that most people with disabilities won't be reached through disability organizations because they don't belong to disability organizations and that at some point, it's necessary to use regular public communication channels to reach people with disabilities and let people know about the existence of

uber wav. and so i'm curious to what extent you are letting people know not in a targeted way, but in a more general way. >> great question. and to be totally honest with you, i know this is something we need to improve upon. we've gone through community groups. traditional communication channels, but we're now entertaining the idea of doing grants to community groups to expand that effort because i think we're limited in our ability to do that without some partnerships and without other entities trusted in the community and may have broader reach than we do. and so, cameron, i don't know if you can touch on this at all, but we contract with a consulting firm that does this at a very professional level. they're fully tasked with doing this. it's sort of the entire reason the company works with them. it's to regularly stay on this. if you have advice, deborah, i

certainly would welcome that. that's part of the reason why we're doing this presentation is to start those conversations and create some sort of domino effect. obviously, i will say that the pandemic has set us back a little bit. there's been a real displacement, but now that things are trending in the right direction, it's never too late to start getting these things right. >> chairman: thank you. do we have any more comment on that? >> yeah. i would just make sure we're setting up speaking engagements like this and we're reaching out to leaders in the disability community and the pandemic has been an added challenge to this kind of outreach and engagement, but it's definitely something that we're ramping up and that as

hopefully the pandemic lessens, we're going to be getting into more than just virtual speaking opportunities and being able to connect and engage on multiple levels. >> chairman: thank you. david, do you have any questions? >> no. thank you. >> chairman: are there any other staff members who have questions? all right. i'm going to open it up to public comment. >> clerk: okay. so to begin, there were members of the public who wrote some questions in the q&a box during the presentation. the first question says, can you describe the partnership you mentioned with sfmta?

>> i was expressing willingness and the fact that we've had conversations with many of the advocates and the staff that work at sfmta threw the proceeding going on with the p.u.c. but there is no partnership in terms of actual supply, but as i was mentioning, you know, part of the way we see improving upon this issue is partnering with other private and public providers that already have these vehicles that are looking to have a sort of on demand platform that we call it consolidation. we're a mobility aggregator and so other means and other vehicles is where we're looking to go with this issue. so it's more of an expression of willingness by the sfmta. >> clerk: okay. the next question received in the question and answer box says, why are we not now hearing from representatives

from the ramp taxi services? i don't know if that's a question for m.o.d. or for the panelist. >> i'm not sure i can speak to that. the what i can say is we have spoken to a number of different taxi services in the bay area. some of these things got shelved when the pandemic hit. but they were reaching out to us. there's actually an incentive to do so under this access for all program about putting their wheelchair accessible vehicles that may have a yellow taxi onto our platform. that's an exciting possibility. if others have connections or suggestions on that front, we're certainly always willing to speak. >> chairman: i understand that

it's other sfmta. >> clerk: okay. we received another question for what is the best way to get in touch. if we have more questions we want to ask more directly. >> my e-mail was in the slide deck. i will drop it here in the chat. feel free to reach out to me any time. we also have an accessibility team that does this role globally that are true experts on this. i largely take their ideas and run with them. anyone who has anymore questions and talk in many more depth, i'm happy to do so. >> clerk: okay. and then i do see members of the public who have raised their hands and so, helen walsh, you've been permitted to unmute. >> can you hear me? did i unmute. >> clerk: yes. >> caller: okay. using voice over and i can't tell. a couple of questions here and

it's more or less about accessibility of the app. i'm a low vision and i use a screen reader and i often noticed that there is a layer that gets in front. i'm using an i phone when i'm on the go trying to use your services and the reading order doesn't make it easy to find a ride. it's very graphical. so i don't have a way of knowing because i don't have the visual acuity and then for my own safety, i can't rely on a license plate when i'm traveling alone to figure or a color of a car or a type of car basically to figure out where my ride is and i don't use wav. i have multiple disabilities and i think i'm sort of, i think it was orkid who brought this up as well as a few others is consideration to these areas, but the app is not

accessible and that's really the best way to gain access to your services and the inaccessibility of the app is what i'm challenged by using your services. are you going to further look into ensuring that the app and the way to communicate with lyft is also going to be a consideration here so people can independently and safely use your services? >> specifically, you're talking about validation of the vehicle and the vehicle picking you up and the one being ordered for you, sthaeshg? >> caller: i'm speaking of two things. the app itself is not accessible. it's reading order, for instance. i've had issues where i've had to ask a sighted person is there something interrupting. sometimes you have pop ups that interrupt my ability to be able to gain access quick and fluently to be able to order

the service and it is very frustrating that the app itself is not accessible enough for me to use a screen reader on. usually i'm using other sighted people to let me know why i can't access. because i'm on the go, i'm using a mobile device and most people are. on a computer it's different with the keyboard functions, but on a mobile device, it's not as accessible as it should be and that's the best way i could put it. and, yes, i'm also not able to use what you're queuing me to validate. i've walked into strangers' cars to figure out where the ride is and sometimes the ride never comes and that's perception and then i try again. >> and you are currently using the voice over services within the app? >> yeah. i'm using right on top of the

operating system i'm using voice over and it's a screen reader and the only thing i could say is either the reading order is off tagging, i mean, i can get into this because this is my area, but it would be very important to make sure that it's thought about being descriptive, not just visual all the time when a person is using the app and they have the same way to when the app changes or when you update that there's some sort of navigational system of that app to begin with that's easy. right now, there's pop-ups that get in my way. any time i open the app on the go, it's a pop-up and then i have to figure out where the closing thing, the x is to x it out and it's not first, it's last. >> chairman: thank you for your comment. i just want to remind for public comments, you need to.

if not, we can forward you all the public comment questions to you and then you can but you don't need to answer public comment questions. >> understood. thank you. and feel free to e-mail me. but i do appreciate the feedback and i'll pass that on. >> chairman: thank you. next public comment, please. >> clerk: yes. barry, you've been permitted to unmute. >> caller: yes. good afternoon. thank you for giving me the

opportunity to speak. i first want to say that public comment is not an opportunity for a back and forth communication unless the council member later ones and for clarification of what was said under public comment considering this is a public meeting with a publicly appointed -- with a mayoral appointed body. first, i want to say i'm very disturbed at the presenter's painting of taxis. extremely concerned. first, one of the other speakers says that there isn't access directly to ramp taxis. the ramp taxi drivers are given incentives for purchasing newer vehicles, given incentives for picking up the passengers, provide the services for a lot less expensive to the taxpayers and the and you can actually call a dispatcher and ask where

your vehicle is or have direct communication with the driver. also, so, therefore, anyone with hearing impairing or blind, they can have -- they can actually have someone to speak with to check on the status of their ride or their vehicle. in addition, we also are permitted because we are regulated by the city, fingerprinting, drug testing, etc., accountability electric way bills that we have access to the transit lanes. this third party service provider, they changed to tower. the transportation service before so the driver i believe may be unionized, i don't know, i can't remember, but they are compensated hansomly for their

service through the paratransit van program and they work with transdeb. so therefore the question is how well are these tower drivers paid and also ramp drivers are available in the evening. i'm very much concerned. also uber and lyft fought the participation of taxis in the program where they get subsidies yeah. we provide the service for far less cost. if you look at the submissions, the cost of the money they were going to take from that special fund was going to be far more exorbitant than what the taxis would be asking for under that new law and that program. so i appreciate it that you consider taxis as part of the service of providing ramp taxi

wheelchair service. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your comments. do we have another public comment? >> clerk: yes. marty, you've been permitted to unmute. >> caller: thank you very much. i came in late and just to go on with what barry said, i agree 100%. i just wanted to ask austin if the drivers that they use are certified drivers because all the cab drivers need to be certified before they make one pickup, they have to be trained to do this and this is the more important thing is their training and sensitivity of

drivers refusing to pick up people who are am butlatory in wheelchairs. there's a lot that goes on out here that has this, you know, the equation that, you know, i drive a cab and i'm on the p.c.c. and when i pick up a person in a wheelchair, sometimes that person is am butlatory and he's been refused by an uber or lyft driver and i pick him up and, you know, the sensitivity classes that should be given to every driver about their feelings about these people being picked up and having to wait in the cold for sometimes an hour at a time is is horrible. and that's basically what i want to put over that's right now. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your comments. do we have another public

comment at this time? >> clerk: there are no members of the public who are raising their hands indicating they want to make public comment. however, i do see a question that came in to the chat that says, how much user testing if any was with users with disabilities were conducted on these products and services? >> i know that we do do testing and we do lots of focus grouping. i'm not on the product team or the engineering team, so i can't attest to these specifically, but i'm sure i can get the answer to that question. >> chairman: thank you. >> clerk: and there's another member of the public who's raised their hand. so caller ending in 6663, you've been permitted to unmute. >> caller: yes. hi. this is michael levinson. i'm on the san mateo county paratransit council and i just wanted to respond to a couple of things from previous

comments. one was the person who was using the screen reader on the smartphone and couldn't tell the driver's license or car description. i have a ride service i use where i have to call up because i don't use a smartphone with apps and order a ride and what i have is instructions in there that the driver must call me or if you prefer text you and that's part of every driver's instructions so that, you know, somebody pulls up and, you don't know if it's a car you're supposed to get into or not. if they're not calling you, they're not your driver and that would be something that uber or this service would have to provide on request. it would require a systemic change if you want to call it that. and the other question i had for austin, i believe is when you do provide this alternative

service, i have a sight disability and you can call a number and have them reserve the ride for you. do you know if they're using the access for all funds to subsidize that? [please stand by]

class it's your offering more information. >> i'm done, thank you. >> thank you sorry about that . if there is any reason to respond to the public. is there any public comment? >> clerk: there are no more public comments at thistime . >> no more questions. >> clerk: i do notsee any other

questions at this time . >> i just want to say thank you so much for coming to us and i hope this is a conversation on accessibility and that we can improve our services for disability going forward. thank you very muchfor coming . >> thank you all for the opportunity. >> thank you. and now we move on to item number six, reports from the mayor's office ofdisability .

>> i think we are because this particular item we just heard wentlonger than we assumed , we will now take a 15 minute break if that's all right with you and i will just move my od report until after the next set of speakers. >> with a 10 minute break, is this a 10 minute break? >> i believe you scheduled it for 15minutes . >> it's 2:33 and we're going to take a break for 15 minutes and come back at 2:48.

i'll see youagain soon . >>. [music] ♪

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>> mayors, today is january 21, 2022. we are going to do item number eight, access to sidewalks. by nicholas alford, public department of public works.

>> my name is michael linen. i'm a manager with the san francisco public works euroof street use and mapping . and the my colleague nick will be doing the second part of th presentation with me at the bureau of urban forestry but thank you for having us . we will talk about some of those areas that have been opening up sidewalk maintenance andrepair that we're involved in and hopefully issue any questions that you may have . just does somebody have the presentationthat we submitted available ? >> do you want us toput it on a

date ? >> i think we have submitted the presentation. >> one moment. >> if you don't mind sharing your screen. >> nick, do you have that presentation available? >> i pulled it up, letme see if it will let me share . it says i don't have permission to screen share. >> chair: nicholas, let me give you permissionto share .

onemoment . ... [inaudible] thank you. >> go ahead might. >> as that slide shows this is a presentation we had initially given the land use and transportation committee in september so we are glad to be here to present to you as well. go to the next slide please.

so at bsm we do have a team of street inspectors and historically, we are a complaintdriven entity . and we have receivedbetween 1200 and 1500 complaints each month . they come from various sources. they come from 311, they come through the mayor's office of disability afforded to us for investigation and resolution and they can come through supervisors offices, our director's office but once we feel that we assign them inspectors, go out for sidewalk and roadwayinstructions . those service-level agreements and the time in which we responded to complaints is three business days and were roadway for sidewalk defects, we had somebody follow up and take the first action within five business days. and you can see in this photo below there are markings on the

sidewalks. that's usually an indication of one of our inspectors has been to the area and that they've identified the area of sidewalk that needs to be repaired and they will market with different colored paints indicating which entity is responsible. and those photos you see that greenpaint was used . that is indicating that it is the responsibility of the city to repair. one paint would be property owner's responsibility and then we have different colored paints that we use different identifying different utilities but the primary ones to indicate city responsibility of the property owner responsibility is green paint for the city and white paint for property owners. next slide please. so property owners, by municipal code are responsible for maintenance of the sidewal .

and most instances accept when the damages caused by city maintained trees asyou saw in the fire photos . when the damage is in an annual return, the damages related to utility or its ace special instance where the city maintained it and the example that we usually use is market street. and property owners are responsible to the curb line of the property. and when accepted street is involved so the city has not accepted it, for maintenance and repair the property owner responsibility extends to the midpoint of the road adjacent to their property. next slide please. so the timelines for making repairs, in most instances is a 45 day window.if everything moves quickly and it's a

minimum of 45 days. the initial notice that we post on the property and forms of property owner of or another entity of the need to make repairs provides 30days within which to commence the repairs . if we do a reinspection and determine that the underlying conditions have notbeen addressed . then we will issue a second notice providing 15 days to make repairs and after the 45 day mark if no action has been taken and no progress has been made towards making and then we can repair that location and try to refer to one of our city contractors forabatement . next slide please. so we will treat city agencies

or the city property in the same manner as private property owners so they are responsible for the maintenance and repair of the sidewalks adjacent to the city property and its own, it would be treated the same as property owners and private property owners. there is one kind ofqualifier that is with san francisco unified school district property they are a by state agency , be city is typically responsible for the repairs. we have partnered with sf usc to try to sharing in some instances. but ultimately, the city is responsible for making repairs adjacent to the school district properties. next slide. so this is a nonexhaustive but pretty lengthy list of admissible municipal codes and regulations . in some way regulates the use,

occupancy and maintenance or repair of the sidewalk . so i'm not going to go into much detail as far as a reference page but in follow-up we're happy to discuss any specific questions you may have about any of these other sections and how weenforce them andwhat policies are associated with them . next slide . so these are more geared towards the construction sites. again, a lot of these go but if there are particular questions we're happy to take it off-line and provide responses. so that first part was mostly out we respond and notify and respond tocomplaints . we are largely a reactive entity but we do have a

proactive arm to our operation. and that is the sidewalk inspectionand repair program . serv for short. this was funded back in 2007 when we first got off the ground and the intent of the program is to inspect and repairall the sidewalks in san francisco on a 25 year rolling basis . so this program handled all the repairs whether it's private property owners. they have the option of using the city contractor to make the repairs which again helped with cost savings and convenience of their properties. we also do repairs to private utility companies, city agencies and it's holistic so it entails tree trimming, sidewalk replacement. so the intent is to go through an area and address all of the

identified deficiencies on that block. annually in order to meet that 25 year goal we have to repair upwards of 200 blocks and 200,000 square feet of sidewalk area. [please stand by]

>> in the right of way, but also are responsible for repairing sidewalk damage caused by the street trees and we're doing that in a couple of different ways with in-house crew that does also through contracts and to date, we've done over a half million square feet of sidewalks that had tree related damage doing slicing with and that doesn't remove the root underneath that's causing the uplift issue. it does buy us time until we can return and make a full repair. so that's been a very cost effective solution in tandem with our other so we go out and

use look at the sidewalk damage and if they there's a lot of despite everything we've done, there are a lot of conditions that exist and when those get reported to us, it's helpful to make us aware of it and already know can respond to it. if it's really bad and if it's in the path of travel, that's something that we want to get to. if we have to focus on the path

of travel firgs. the other factor that we weigh is what proximity of schools or hospitals, senior centers, high those in relation to this. if there's an overlap of that, all of the criteria it scales down accordingly. so that approach we have of fully subtly working through repairs the methodology.

and we highlighted them in this color coded map to show where we've found the most uplift and where we've had that overlap with the other criteria like senior centers or other high pedestrian traffic. not surprisingly. >> chairman: one minute. nicholas, if you don't mind for some people. so the graphic describing shows key maps overlaid on a map of san francisco and the most

western part of the city is showing a lower priority and in the southeastern portion, it's a lighter portion and elevated priority level and then in the center of the city essentially mission, castro, noe, then up along market street going through a ferry building, there's a high priority corridor with a lot of sidewalk repair that is we're prioritizing and then continuing north through western edition chinatown up to those northern areas. but neighborhoods like sunset, the richmond district, sea cliff and a lot of pacific heights for instance are lower

in priority relatively speaking fewer and also less pedestrian traffic in those areas. so this highlights our to-do list, what we have to focus on. the same now there's cross hatching over the worst areas because our system we nicknameded the worst first and you can see we have knocked out all of those red and orange areas for two which are highlighted as up coming ones. those up coming ones in the inner sunset neighborhood and

one i think a little west of delores roughly if i had to guess. so this is a great sign of the progress that we're making. so that is my presentation, and mike and i are both available for any questions. thank you very much for having us. appreciate the opportunity having us talk about our programs. >> chairman: thank you michael and nicholas.

and now questions. orkid, do you have any questions? >> i'm coming from district nine. >> walking in that area, one of these red areas that you've noted, it has and it kind of looks like a lot that you can't walk through. and it's just pretty much impossible to walk through. on delores street, are it's really rough and ventura

street, oh, my goodness, it gets dark at night when you're walk home and translation a lot of rocks. i'm just wondering who is responsible for those camping sites? how do they take care of that? who cleans that up or does it just stay there because it's pretty messy. does anybody take care of the trash? and how about uplift with the tree. that's been going on for quite a long time now and i did notice there on the map there were some green areas and there haven't been any changes from start to finish. so my hope is that there will be more improchlts for that area, unfortunately, it does really bother me. i do walk that area daily and i notice it. i know it's not great, but i'm

wondering when that's going to be repaired. >> sure. the best way to get ahold of us is through 311 and you probably already reported it or perhaps multiple times and thank you for making us aware of that. so the -- there's no doubt that there's a lot of sidewalks to repair and even when we do make a fix, we come back a couple years later and it's uplifted again and we recognize that that is the nature of our work and we're ready for that. the good news is this is a program that never existed before and as we make progress on the tree related sidewalk

damage, it will be better than before. we'll get it to a baseline where it's been fixed and then we can revisit and keep repairing it. go ahead. >> i did want to add one thing. who is mostly responsible for taking care of cleaning the streets? because i noticed on ventura, there's some that are closed and it's been like that for awhile. and it's just been piling up and getting worse in that area. so i'm wondering who is responsible. i'm sure that can be difficult, but i did notice that there was a list of the property owners and that's one of their responsibilities on that. so who's responsible for taking care of that of that mess? who do we report that to?

who do we contact basically? >> so if you're talking about like cleanliness or litter or i guess biological waste issues on the sidewalk, i would definitely report to 311 and that's the best routing system because it gives you your tracking number that you can use to follow up on it. the property owners do have responsibility to maintain the sidewalk and remove litter from the sidewalks. so there's an outreach and enforcement division at the operation section for i think it's under the bureau of street environmental services and they do nuisance related enforcement regarding cleanliness, illegal dumping and they have patrols to be able to site the property

owners or the responsible parties for cleanliness and there is i guess the compounding factors, you mentioned the tents and the encampments, i think that's a larger issue than just the property owner, but i think it may be a little limited in what they can do. so it may take a more wholistic approach to addressing on a large scale, but i think starting with the 311 complaint and then following up is probably the best way to get it rolling and getting it to the operation division because then if it is a nuisance or hazardous condition, they can coordinate with the department of public health and other entities who are more involved in the day-to-day dealings with the encampments that are out

there. >> chairman: thank you. >> thank you. thank you for allowing us to have comments and i do use 311 and so basically i do have that design and i will keep that in mind regarding 311 and use that app if it works and dial 311. you're right. there are a lot of issues that do need to be taken care of and so hopefully it won't drag on. so thank you very much. i'll turn it over to the next if they have any more questions. >> chairman: we are going to go to other council members helen, do you have any questions? >> i don't at this time. thank you very much for both

presenters' time and information. much appreciated. >> chairman: ananya, do you have questions? >> i'm curious -- thank you for your presentation. i was wondering. i understand one of the issues in san francisco is programs are kind of an ongoing effort [inaudible] into compliance and as i understand, there are certain cases within which if there's construction happening at that intersection, then there are particular opportunities that are outlined in which the programs are then addressed. but the construction crews that are potentially going to be out there during the sidewalk repairs, is there anything like that crews are wondering what

else can be done across city departments where there may be other changes happening in the same area particularly relating to disability like the curb ramp program. >> so there is a curb ramp program. it's a specific project with project managers and staff who are focused specifically on upgrading and installing a.d.a. accessible curb ramps throughout the city. so they do coordinate and link up with some of the street scape improvements or some of the capital improvement work that's happening and then there is also utility excavators are working in the roadway. so if pg&e excavates and they go through a crosswalk or an

intersection where there are ramps that are not compliant or they're not up to standards, then in their permits, the city will condition them upgrading those ramps as part of the requirements for their permit. so they are being upgraded both through the city in a proactive and then on the private side, there is utility companies and other developers if they are vertical developers if it impacts the public right away, they are also being required to upgrade the curb ramps as part of their work scope. >> mike, i know nobody asked me to off any questions to you, but also the construction component if someone is working on the sidewalk, they need to

provide a safe path of travel and i know we have to do that when we're working on the sidewalk. >> correct. >> any time if there's a vertical development or a horizontal excavation that runs length wise of the street, they have to provide a minimum 4' path of travel around all the construction activity. so if they are closing the sidewalk fully, they are required to use the parking strip to provide an alternate path of travel and then it would require ramping on both ends to come off of the sidewalk and then back on to the sidewalk. so they do have to maintain the path of travel and if they are trying to shut it to pedestrian

access. that would allow them to close a transit lane whether it's for a sidewalk for pedestrians or vehicular transit lane. so there's an extra layer of oversight. >> thank you for that. the broader point there being accessibility as a resident, if i'm in a given area of disability for me. that area has to do with multiple -- that there are multiple disabilities to the extent those efforts can be coordinated, for example, if one component expects but the others are not, but there are still challenges in that area. but i appreciate learning about how that coordination is done. that would be something that would be great too. >> chairman: thank you. >> can i add one more thing? >> chairman: go ahead.

>> yeah. i think that sidewalk access encompasses a lot of things like tree branches can obstruct a path of travel and maintaining that clearance is part of our street tree sf program and also sidewalk landscaping when someone installs something at the base of a tree for instance, we have criteria to make sure that that is consent along that border edge of it and also have a path to the curb at an interval. so i think that permitting has been really helpful. but we did inherit a lot of already built infrastructure that is not compliant and we are fixing it like michael said

whenever we touch it, we want to make sure we put it back in a compliant way or doing the work. and also proactively going through things with the curb ramp program and replacing them with compliant curb ramps. both through contracts and also through our bureau of urban forestry crews are doing that work as well and going back to i think it was orkid's question, the sidewalk obstruction can be a serious safety issue of someone who's trying to pass through there and the whole sidewalk is blocked off for some reason and has trash or things like that and then it can divert folks out into the street which is certainly a safety issue and that we're trying to both

navigate that is challenging, but that's more of another part of our department. >> chairman: thank you. before i go on, i have a question. one is that if mike can touch on this report about the sidewalk if that's possible by the and you give them and then if they don't comply, the city

picks that project up. i'm just wondering why or what entity that is it supposed to be so the city has to pick it up and do it. am i understanding that right? >> if the property owner doesn't make the repairs, we have the opportunity to try to refer to our contractors for abatement. if we do end up making the repairs and it gets to the point where we have to refer it to our contractor, there are --

there's a first inspection fee that's assessed because we've had to go back out there so many timeses and we have to escalate it. the first inspection fee, i believe it's $320 or so at this point and then if we post it, we start prepping the site, if it actually gets to our contractor, they do the abatement work, there's the second inspection fee that's in the $450 range or so and then the property owners will be liable for the cost of repair that the full amount that it cost us to pay our contractor to make the repairs and if they fell to settle up and pay what they owe, we have the ability to submit a report to the board of supervisors and we can try to recoup the funds by liening the property and make the

moneys owed to the city as a special collection. >> chairman: thank you. the second question i have is i know that sidewalk accessibility comes with a different -- hold on, orkid. let me finish my question and there might be other stuff. okay. so my second question, i know that you are responsible sidewalk responsibility. and i just want to verify that.

>> yes. so my division over at the bureau street use and mapping, we are also on the front lines of shared spaces inspections or commercial occupancy. so it could be display merchandise, cafe tables and chairs, shared spaces. right now, there's a lot going on with shared spaces especially with the change from the pandemic program to the legislative long-term program and i think one of the major changes was the requirement that the structures provide a.d.a. seating and access into the structures. through the pandemic, it had been that if they provided an accessible scene on the sidewalk, it was considered as

part of the same footprint, but now it is where the structure needs to provide it and it's not okay if it's only on the sidewalk. so, yes, we are -- it's a big task and a lot of the structures out there have a lot of issues surrounding it and i think making the transition from temporary to permanent programs, you know is still getting its footing and being worked out at this point. >> chairman: this is the last comment i have is that is it on a complaint basis. and the last comment is that are you guys responsible for also making sure all of those

are accessible and the push button for the sidewalk is compliant of a.d.a. too? >> yes, we do verify like the accessibility. so it's on the sidewalk, the requirements for diverters and path of travel are enforced by our inspectors. we are now looking at the structures as the focus or the hot button issue right now. a lot of the timeses, the sidewalk accessibility issues when a restaurant or business is involved are addressed pretty quickly. they relocate tables or remove certain items set out a diverter to help direct traffic around seating areas. the structural basically some of it we tear down and have to

rebuild structures entirely is a larger undertaking and i think that's going to be a lot of our focus and it is both complaint based. we are responding to complaints, but we have also been doing interagency coordinated inspections with the fire department and sfmta to identify viability of certain structures and long-term use. so it's a mixture at this point of reactive and proactive for shared spaces. >> chairman: thank you. and, orkid, before i go back to you, i'm going to the staff first. are there any staff members who have questions at this time? >> yeah. this is debbie caplan acting director of m.o.d. do you have

data about how long it takes to close out requests you have for repairs on average? >> no. on average, it's i think it's very site specific and each instance is going to take on its own kind of life depending on the cooperation of the property owner or if they're a local versus a remote property owner. so i don't have a percentage or like an average of how long it takes. i think in general, the notices that we sent to the utility companies for like replacing their vaults or water boxes in the right of way are addressed more quickly than the notices

that we send to like the private property owners. i think that's going to be a product of the fact that the utility company's already set up to respond to those notices and they've already operationalized it where an absentee property owner or somebody like that, if they get the notice, they may not be familiar with it, they may not read it at first. so it doesn't necessarily get the process started or register as quickly as it does when we issue it to utility companies. >> okay. thank you. what about for the green paint. where the city for responsibility. >> yes. on the green paint for trees and the green paint can be worked at d.s.m. fix-up with contractors. we do pick-up city

responsibility work and then on nick's team, they have the cement truck which does a lot of city responsibility repairs each year and then they also have their concrete slicing contractors. there's between us reefing the 1,500 complaints, i don't know if nick has an idea of what's in a cement shop to do, but i would say that the ones that we identify as a high priority because they're in the path of travel or the uplift is significant to population, then those repairs are made pretty quickly in a timely manner, whereas if they're designated as a lower priority, then they won't -- i don't think they'll be addressed within like the 30

to 45 day window in most instances. >> and, i have one other question which had to do with notification back to the persons who filed the request or complaint. sometimes we don't have -- sometimes it's an anonymous request, but for those, where we do know the identity of the person who made the request or complaint, do you have any goals with respect to communicating back to that person recognizing receipts and then letting them know when the request has been dealt with and

responded to in terms of the repairs completed? >> yes. so when we receive the complaint, if the complainant says would like a call-back or prefers to be contacted by phone or would like an e-mail sent at such and such address, then the inspectors, when they make their first contact or they identify the issue, they will call or follow up with the complainants if it's requested in the complaint. if it's not requested and/or if it's just an anonymous complaint, the tracking number through 311 i think should provide the information as to when it made it to our shop, when like the first action was taken. we're working on the data sharing so that it can pick up

more of our actions taken at a more granular level. like if we did something and sent a notice and the complaint remains open, we want it to be visible that the complaint is not just sitting open because we haven't done anything with it. we've issued a notice within the waiting period for the 30 days or something else. we do have a tracking system internally and every time a complaint comes in, we create an internal request for action which is signed a unique identifier to the complaints and that is used to track the issue from beginning to conclusion and has all the inspection notes, photos, contacts or people to talk to is all uploaded into the one document for tracking. so i guess long way of say, yes, they will return the call

if somebodies and for a further response and there are additional measures of following up seeing where a complaint is in the process. >> okay. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other staff members who have questions? >> for the tree related sidewalk damage, the backlog is really enormous. i have about 5,000 outstanding requests and it takes us about a day to get each one repaired, it could be a couple of days. and 5,000 business days, we're way behind. so that's where we have to triage the highest priority ones and wait for them to do block by block where they can knock out hundreds of requests in a single block.

that is a much better approach, but we need to have our crew focusing on high priority ones so that we don't miss that and if there's a trip and fall, we should be mobilizing quickly and not waiting for our systematic approach to catch up with that. so it's a combination of both of those programs. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other staff members who have questions? none. okay. orkid, go ahead. make it quick, please. orkid, go ahead with your question. >> hi, this is orkid. can i ask my question now?

>> chairman: yes. that's why i'm calling you. >> it's real brief. i'll keep it short and simple. i've approached an issue if where there's an area that has especially like near a bus stop, if there's a really tough area, let's say there's a bus stop and when you get out of the bus, you can see that there's a lot of areas where there's uplift, who do i contact regarding that issue, i know 311. but it's been the same thing, i've never felt like that actually goes through or anything. i don't know who's responsible for that if it's illegal, there's a bunch of merchants there, people are selling things right when they're trying to get off the bus at the bus stop. who's response bible for the congestion there with the merchants because it seems impossible and i've been struggling with that and that's

like a daily issue. and you kind of have to step around everybody and it's hard to get out of the bus and navigate through the area. so that's just one thing i wanted to put out there. >> yeah. i think the sidewalk and the bus stops would be a i think it would be us or public works and identify the markings or defects and notify some in shop or with m.t.a. on addressing the issues. the merchants or the vendors who are i don't know if it's tied to like a brick and mortar or an actual business, then public works, we can go out and do our enforcements regarding display merchandise and occupancy where they're allowed to place things and all of those standards are like what

they're allowed to occupy are based off accessibility requirements so that's taken into account when we're permitting those things. the legal vendors or the unpermitted vendors is a more difficult issue to address. i think it was last year, maybe the year before, the state bill i think it was sb946 that was passed and seemed to limit the ability to regulate or the merchants or the vendors. so it was trying to reduce like barriers entry and so now i think the mayor just put out new legislation i think is tied

to the selling of stuff in the union plaza area, but there is legislation being worked on that's going to try to empower public works that's going to be able to try to address more meaningfully where these vendors can pop up and sell their things and then if they're selling stolen objects or things like that, we'll have to try to coordinate with sfpd to try to address the people when they're vending. of the. but at present, there isn't much we can do. if we have an inspector visit, we can ask them to keep the traffic clear or move along

usually that doesn't get a pleasant response, but that's kind of a struggle at this point. >> chairman: thank you. i think we need to move on. >> thank you. >> chairman: so at this time, i just want to remind for public comment you are not obligated to public on public comment. you don't need to answer any questions from the public. do we have any public comment. i'm going to open it up to public comment. do we have any public commentors at this time? >> clerk: i do not see any members of the public who have indicated that they want to

make public comment at this time. however, i do want to remind the public if you're using the zoom webinar platform, you can raise your hand to indicate that you want to make public comment either by pressing star nine. if you've dialed in on the phone or by using the raised hand icon within the zoom webinar platform. >> chairman: okay. we're going to wait for 30 seconds and then we've got to close this item. all right. thank you, mike lennon and nicholas crawford. i hope this is a new beginning

and i hope you guys in the near future. thank you for coming. >> thank you for having ugh. appreciate it. >> yes. thank you. i really appreciate it. >> chairman: thank you. so right now we are moving on to item number nine. it's an information item. it's regulation of e-scooters to increase safety of peds with disabilities. we have maddy ruvolo from san francisco m.t.a.. maddy, good to see you again. >> nice to see you again too. thanks, alex. as alex said, i'm maddy ruvolo. i'm on the accessible service

team at sfmta. i'm here today with my colleagues. and we all worked together along with some other colleagues on the scooters, the powered scooter share program. i'm going to start this presentation and phil who is our enforcement manager will say a little more about the enforcement piece. phil, are you able to share your screen? yes. i am. i just want to briefly introduce myself. i'm the enforcement and i'll handled the enforcement component of the presentation. >> great. thanks, phil. all right. so thank you everyone. as i said we're here today to discuss accessibility,

specifically scooter share. scooter share offers active loads of transportation for residents and visitors of san francisco as well as offer many potential benefits such as providing a low-cost mobility choice, first and last mile to support transit and ride shifts to cleaner access modes. i'm going to describe the images as we go. and so the image on this slide is a couple of scooter riders in a bike lane. let's go to the next slide. so while shared mobility services offer many potential benefits, i think we can agree they haven't achieved their full potential, there are many ongoing challenges which is what we're here to discuss including unsafe riding which is our biggest concern. improperly parking the devices which impacts the right of way.

equitable service. we want to make sure that riders are served across race, gender, and geographic diversity. our mission at sfmta is to maximize the benefits of shared mobilities while minimizing the challenges and while we've developed comprehensive frame work to the end. and our core regulatory goals. so here on this slide, we have an image of a couple of different brands of scooters locked to a bike rack. next slide, please. so i'd like to set a little bit of context for the current shared scooter program. so the scooter is stopped in san francisco in spring of 2018. before, there was a program in place, the board of supervisors granted sfmta the authority to

establish a permit program. we started with a pilot program in 2018 with two permittees at that time. there are lots of lessons learned. the pilot concluded in 2019 and the sfmta board established the regulatory frame work for the ongoing permit program. the current permit term began in july 2021 and i will discuss key permit requirements in the next few slides. the images on the slides is a collage of scooters some parked neatly and some parked all over the place on the sidewalk. let's go to the next slide. so our fiscal year 2022 fiscal program which began last july to share a little bit of an overview.

so it's a one-year program with an option to extend and in order to extend, the permittees must meet compliance metrics which we'll talk more about in a bit. there's currently a maximum of 5,500 scooters in service and this is not necessarily mean there are this many scooters on the streets at any given time, these are the combined for each of the permittee fleets. obviously, we're just over half of that right now. and hermitees must meet compliance matrix in order to increase their fleets. so in order to increase their fleet size, they're allowed request a fleet size and they may request an additional 500

devices per request. and so we have here photos of people riding the three different scooters and we have that line has 2,000 devices and scoot has 1,500 devices. we also have a brief program snapshot from july 2021. there were 1 million scooter trips during this time and we had approximately 5,000 improper parking citations and 4,000 complaints to 311. moving violations, so these are violations that are issued by sfpd and sfpd also warned 102 people. so they cited 15 from that. all right. let's move to the next slide. so some key requirements. the current program builds on

the lessons learn in the pilot in the 2019 term. sfmta has established and updated permit requirements to address concerns that we have and that we've spurred from the public. we've called out on the slide a handful of key requirement, but the actual requirements have over 70 detailed requirements and six appendixes. you can access online if you're interested in digging in to all the details. i've included the link here, so i think when the presentation gets shared, you should be able to click on the link on the side. so we require, you know, a number of different things including safety requirements, comprehensive device parking requirements, equity requirements, reporting. we also have a labor harbor section of the application which encourages direct employment of economically

disadvantaged san franciscos, the work force partners. the report on the city's first hiring program and subcontractor requirements and staffing agencies. one key change in this permit is that the director of transportation has the ability to suspend or revoke a permit based on violations that pose an ongoing risk to public health or safety. we also have distribution requirements which are in place to try to ensure that scooters are distributed citywide with special attention to key neighborhoods and as i will get into more in just a second, we have an adaptive program which transitions from a pilot program in the last permit to a

permanent program and we've required on the street sweep. and so the photo on this side and a lot of photos like this just a person in a bike lane riding a scooter. let's move to the next slide. so our permitted adaptive program. so in this current permit term, we are requiring at least 5% of a permittee's on street fleet to be adaptive devices and we define adaptive devices as a scooter with at least two of the three following items. three wheels and a basket. so you can see there's a photo here of an adapted scooter that has a seat and a basket and this is based on feedback we've received from members of the disability community. and these must be identifiable as an adapted device.

so permittees must track and adapt metrics monthly. we also have a complementary adaptive program which is a longer term rental program and also allows for a wider variety of devices so permittees were able to test out different adaptive devices to see how people respond. the other photo on this slide, we did an adaptive device demonstration with the access program in november and you can see there are folks here riding a couple of different adaptive devices some that have three wheels. and then i believe the last one, it's a little hard to tell, it has two wheels in the front of the device and one wheel in the back. and i should say that there are varying levels of compliance

with this program, but we are working with the permittees to bring them into compliance. let's move to the next slide. so as part of the permit application process, the promise that each permittee makes are incorporated into their permit. and so we have user education as one major commitment. so at the top of safety reminders and safety quizzes having on vehicle messaging, so you'll notice that scooters have a no sidewalk riding stencilled on them. there's a progressive discipline model where signs happen in increasing severity for improperly parked scooters and i'm sure folks are interested in this sidewalk

riding detection technology. to eliminate sidewalk riding and we are going to hold them to this commitment. let's move to the next slide. so in december, we had a sidewalk riding detection demonstration. i was in attendance along with many of my colleagues, sfmta staff and staff from other city departments including the port and supervisor peskin's office and each of the three permittees who've been in line presented their sidewalk riding detection technology and some of us got to try out this technology which essentially you would ride a scooter in the street or in the bike lane and it would behave normally and we would ride on the sidewalk and

some of the scooters would slow down or some had audible alerts we only saw this technology demonstrated in a controlled environment, but it was exciting to see progress on this issue. and we have photos here of the three different permittees from the demonstration. let's go to the next slide. so out of the demonstration, staff put together a list of best practices for sidewalk riding detection technology. we did see that different types of technology worked well, there were permittees using camera technology shgts advanced gps technology. there are different options

here and so we think there are different technological solutions that could work and we really appreciated the scooters that had an audible no sidewalk riding message when you road on to the sidewalk and we suggested that in addition to having that message in english that it's also on the scooters in other common languages spoken in san francisco. we recommended that the scooters be slowed down to between four and five miles per hour when they're on the sidewalk. you don't want them to abruptly stop because that could throw the rider off of the scooter and that could also impact other people on the sidewalk around them and hopefully they'll get the message that they need to get off the sidewalk. and to that end, we also want quick deceleration once they're on the sidewalk. we want it to happen pretty

quickly so right away they know they're not supposed to be on the sidewalk and also we appreciated, we tested one scooter that had a nonverbal chirping sound and we thought this was a good way and sort of a nonannoying, but still useful queue for other bike lane users to let them know that a scooter is present. and so here we have a couple other images of the walk riding demo. let's go to the next slide. and so recently, you may have heard the board of supervisors passed a resolution related to this topic and so they're urging sfmta to implement measures to significantly expand compliance pertaining to safe parking methods and probigs on riding bicycles and scooters on

sidewalks. and so here we have on the slide, a couple more photos of one of the access demonstrations and someone else riding a scooter on the street and so i will share how we are responding to this resolution. let's go to the next slide. so our next steps. so we already issued an updated policy directive at the end of december and this is in direct response to the board of supervisors resolution and it basically allows us to hold permittees accountable for the promises in their permit application, require sidewalk riding technology as a condition of fleet expansion or permit extension requirement. so as a reminder, the permit term expires at the end of june

but could be extendeded for another year. but with the commitments they made in their application and so we have these fleet extension and permit extension requirements include response time metrics. so, you know, if someone reports an issue to 311, how quickly is the permittee responding to that. citations for device, obviously, we want to see a lower number of citations per device and then also compliance with the adaptive program. so ensuring their commitments they made to the disability community. these are just some of them, there are more, but this is how we're proceeding and taking a really detailed look at the compliance metrics. and here we have a photo of two scooter riders riding side by

side. so let's go to the next slide. so one thing that i want to draw out a little bit more is this rider escalating discipline structure. so again we will hold permittees accountable to their safety parking plan. they submitted their permit applications, it then became incorporated and this includes progressive discipline such as warning signs, safety quizzes and revoking users who are repeat offenders of unsafe riding or unsafe parking. with that, i will turn our presentation over to my colleague, if philip cranna is going to talk more about enforcement. >> thank you for having me. i'm the enforcement and legal affairs manager.

i oversee enforcement of the powered scooter share program. on this slide, i apologize it's very text heavy, however, there's a lot of information on here. enforcement is conducted -- >> chairman: we cannot hear you. >> oh, you can't hear me. >> chairman: we cannot see you. >> oh, i'm sharing. do you need me to -- >> chairman: no go continue. sorry. continue. please. >> i can share the presentation, phil. if you prefer. >> sure. that works. i didn't account for me sharing. i apologize. >> just one second. >> chairman: sorry about that. >> i didn't think about it. i apologize. >> that's okay. i'm just going to move forward here. okay hopefully i'm able to share my screen. here you go. is that visible?

>> yes. >> great. >> thank you. so enforcement staff, the investigators are on staff generally seven days a week. they are authorized to issue parking citations directly to the companies for any devices that are improperly parked. proper and improper parking is defined by the parking guidelines which are incorporated in each of the permits. all of the permits and the parking guidelines are available on the sfmta website. we also further provided additional photograph samples so members of the public who use these devices are also educated on what is proper parking, and what is considered improper and also walking through accessible path of travels. in the process of citing the

company [ indiscernible ] it's best to receive a complaint or if they see an improperly parked device on the street, they have a smartphone app and the investigator takes a picture of the device and notifies the company. that respective company gets an automatic citation and fine. investigators are also authorized to request people [ indiscernible ] licensed properly park. transportation code requires that the [ indiscernible ] removed of the device within two hours. currently -- sorry. recently we integrated the citations with 311 so they're directly connected and all of these complaints and also citations are posted online on dash board. they're also currently in the

process of [ indiscernible ] citation directly to the company for improper riding [ indiscernible ] on the streets, we also use data to monitor compliance with the permit terms. we monitor activity. so as maddy mentioned [ indiscernible ] there's a tax per company. 1,500 [ indiscernible ] . we also have [ indiscernible ] neighborhoods that are under served in the bayview and have minimum coverage for those areas. companies also are required to [ indiscernible ] so if there are complaints received [ indiscernible ] additionally, we also have monthly and quarterly reports where each permittee needs to

provide data. and all of this feeds to the sales force which as i said are published online in dash board. next slide, please. i'm sorry. maddy, could you please go back. and there's a graphic on this slide which is a map of san francisco and it is -- the data is the parking citations and a citation creates a dot on the map. in bulk of san francisco has them peppered throughout it. however, the northeast corner, the embarcadero, fisherman's wharf area is very densely -- there's a dense amount of [ indiscernible ] thank you. next slide. as i mentioned, data is all

shared publicly on sfmta's website. there are complaint dash boards and various other data dash boards that we publish online. on the bottom left, there is a line graph of [ indiscernible ] in july and december 2021 where the number of trips versus the number of complaints. also, a line graph that complaints versus devices, so the -- >> i'm sorry, philip, to interrupt you, but you keep going in and out with the audio. >> i'm sorry. >> is there anything you can do? >> let me see if i can join on my phone. give me one moment. i'm going to -- i just --

>> phil, can you talk a little bit more so we can see the quality of your audio. >> there we go. can you hear me? >> chairman: yes. >> yeah, except for the echo.

>> chairman: maybe you can turn it down. >> we're still getting an echo, phil. did you try muting your computer so it's just your phone audio that we can hear? >> is that better? >> that sounds better. >> okay. you can hear me, correct? >> yes. >> all right. my desk top is muted and i'm on my phone. i apologize for any complications. where did you lose me last, i should say?

>> chairman: you can just continue. >> sure. on the bottom, we have two line graphs between july and december of 2021. on the left-hand side of the slide is scooter complaints versus trips and on the right-hand side is scooter complaints versus devices. a trip will be defined as basically a start and a stop. so, for example, if i were going to my house to 7-eleven i stop the trip and on the return back, i rent it again and stop the trip, that would be two trips. a device is the actual device that's on the street. so they are slightly different metrics. and the images on the slide are on the right-hand side is another image of the map of san francisco. this time it is complaints. and, again, similar to the citations, there are complaints

peppered throughout the majority of san francisco with the vast majority of those complaints coming in the northeast corridor along the embarcadero and fisherman's wharf. there's also the sfmta dash board shared mobility trips, shared mobility coverage and shared mobility trip and origin and destination. next slide, please. here's another data set about trips. this is two maps of strand that show trip origins by neighborhood and trip destinations. the exception being probably the center spine of the city which is quitehilly and i imagine e-scooters wouldn't have much use in the hills and similar to the citations and complaints, the highest use

would be in the northeast corridor of the city from soma along the embarcadero and up into fisherman's wharf. and we also have a line graph showing total trips and it is basically an arch with a decrease in december. historically nonpandemic years, we do see a decrease in december likely due to the weather. next slide, please. this slide is data regarding actual citations that were issued between july and december of 2021. one is a pie chart with all citations divided by permittees. 60% of those citations were issued to line. 37 to spin, and 3% to scoot.

lime received 55% of citations and scoot received 11%. next slide. as maddy mentioned, we are strengthening our permitting tools. we're working on systemic solutions. we're continuing community engagements. we are also looking as i mentioned rolling out citations directly to the company for improper riding that investigators witnessed and we are also considering increasing parking fines. they are currently $100 per violation up to $150 per violation. we are also looking at standardizing in-app safety messages and device markings.

currently, each permittee has a slightly similar yet slightly different method of marking and also the in-app messaging. next slide, please. with that, thank you very much for having us. maddy and i are here to answer questions. >> chairman: thank you. i'm going to open it up to my fellow council members. i see helen has a question. helen, go ahead. >> thank you, alex. hi, maddy. hi, philip. the thank you both very much for your presentation as always. i'm reassured when you hear you

both speak and especially you, maddy. philip, i know you've spoken before. maddy, we've seen you a few times before the m.d.c. and i've always reassured at how thoughtful your work is and your group's work is at sfmta and how hard you must work too. so that goes for both of you, especially you, maddy, again, because we've seen you so much more often. but so first of all thank you. the thank you for all the good work. maddy, you'll have to tell us how was it testing out the sidewalk sensors on the scooters? i was waiting for a picture of you or a video. >> first of all, thank you, helen. that's very kind of you to say.

and our group really -- we really appreciate our relationship with m.d.c. i think i speak on behalf of everyone that we really appreciate the feedback we receive from you all and just the opportunity to collaborate with you on making our city more accessible. i did ride the scooters. somewhere there are photos and videos of me. mysteriously, they did not make the presentation. but it was an interesting experience trying the different technology. my experience and the experience of several of my colleagues was that spin and scoot appeared to have at least within the context of the demonstration which is an important caveat viable technologies that did slow down when we went on the sidewalk. they had sort of different messages and slowed down to different speeds, but they both seemed like a good starting

place. you know, spin told us that they would be able to deploy their technology very quickly because of the technology they're using. scoot told us their technology involves mapping and they would need to do some on the ground mapping for the city and so that maybe a slightly longer time line is something we're going to be requesting more details from the permittees about. my experience with lime was that their technology sort of had sporadic results. technology moves quickly and so we're asking the permittees to share with us more detailed time lines about when they

anticipate they will be able to deploy this technology because, again, they all promised some type of sidewalk detection technology in their permits. so we do intend to hold them to that. >> that's good to hear because when this was first being discussed a lot of us instantly recalleded the shopping carts that if you get past the trader joe's parking lot block. and so similar technology be applied to the scooterses, but you had mentioned this in your presentation that it can't be that sudden stop or people will start flying. so thank you for that feedback about that because obviously that's an important issue

because we're less reliant on kind of manual or human enforcement. thank you both again. >> i just wanted to say that i think one thing that's helpful to know is just sort of you know for i think the shopping cart example is a useful comparison in that right we're both trying to sort of prevent a device from going in a particular place there's a static location and what we've learned with the it's a pretty

small distance between the scooter being in the bike lane and the scooter being on the sidewalk and so we want to make sure that's precise for all of the safety and other reasons. >> of course, yes. i appreciate it. it's a much more sophisticated problem to solve. but thank you for clarifying. >> chairman: thank you. now we'll move on to orkid. orkid, go ahead with your question. >> yes. i'll just get to the point. this is orkid here. adjusting my screen. orkid speaking, how a few suggestions. in the civic center area, often times, we come across the e bikes or the e-scooters that, you know, they'll come out

behind pedestrians really. i was reading an article specifically like 95% of injuries occur on that type of scooter, so therefore or in the u.k. and they also required that kind of licensing there. so, are you know, they require training and a test in order to allow people to use these scooters, but it seems like here people don't really care there's that much importance given to that, they're just free to ride to their leisure and we see that a lot in the civic center area and the financial area. if you're not aware they can

easily scare you or you can get into an accident. and so especially if they're trailing behind you really closely. so it's just something i think it's important that people start tracking also the behavior especially how sidewalks are building ramps and whether they can be driven on there and also considering accessibility issues there's so many different reasons to the purpose. there's an educational component to riders or setting up a licensing system in some way to reduce risky behavior. of the it's just an opinion i have. that's it. >> chairman: thank you, orkid. >> thank you, orkid. i really appreciate that comment. and so i think it's probably helpful to know that scooter riders are required to have a

driver's license. and so they are licensed in that sense and we do require in-app education around proper riding, proper parking, safety, all of these thingses, but also to your point, clearly, we're still seeing unsafe riding behavior and improper parking. and so then the question becomes, okay, we have tried some of these educational components and we'll continue to have educational components and to have these requirements for drivers, but then, you know, what else can we do to ensure the safety of pedestrians and also of the riders themselves and so i think that's one of the ways that we're hoping that the sidewalk riding detection technology will help with this because scooter riders are not

allowed to be on the sidewalk and if they have rented a scooter, then they have clicked through the app notifications that tell them they're not allowed to be on the sidewalk. all of the scooters be themselves have stencilses on them that say ''no sidewalk riding'' and so clearly even though they've been informed, people are still doing it and so this is where we're hoping that have been technology that fiscally slows somebody who's riding on the sidewalk. >> yes, that's my point. >> yeah. >> chairman: thank you. >> yeah. that is a challenge definitely, for example, what you just mentioned with pedestrians or people walking their dogs, you know, or maybe if it they have a seeing eye dog or an animal can get startled as well. i know that the community here and the city's working really hard on that, but they're just

-- it's an individual behavior that we see with riders. so i think the licensing is important, of course, but, you know, that's for cars. why don't we offer a licensing for the scooters. it's just an opinion. thank you for hearing me out. >> chairman: okay. tiffany, do you have any questions? >> i don't have any questions. thank you. thank you for the presentation. >> chairman: at this time, i have questions i know there are some community members what do

you guys do when that happens if someone was accidentally or a company like lime or whatever. that's one question. and the second question i have is that i know in the past, we always. i forgot if we implemented our past limitations on the speed of these