such a critical role in launching this program, speaking of partners, i would like to now, introduce, jes ge vice mayor and the sam transvice chair, and he was elected in 2009 and currently serving as vice mayor. and as a council member, he has focus on the economic development as well as on the high speed rail and the rail corridor partnership, and additionally, mr. g is the chairman of the san francisco airport roundtable and the congestion and the relief alliance and was recently selected to serve as the vice president of the board of directors for san trans. [ applause ] >> councilman, thank you very much for that warm introduction and welcome. like so many of us, we all wear many hats and that is the vice mayor and the vice chair for the directors of san transand many of us said, through these regional partnerships like this one, we can find solutions towards the twin goals of increasing the public transit usage and reducing the congestion on the roads and already, in the county alone, the cal train, the shuttles and all of those together, last year we gave over 45 million rides in the