mr. reiskin, then director of dpw must have known, since they track of change orders.y have done next to nothing monitoring change orders. gao short order them to aggressively monitor change orders on this and all other capital improvement projects. if an independent audit reveals cost overruns from the central subway, the city family running city hall, including this subcommittee, will be remiss if it does not cancel this boondoggle immediately. before this project bankrupt's the general fund puts a discretionary budget. this committee should prohibit by ordinance use of certificates of participation on any central subway project cost overrun. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. operating engineers local 3. i am in support of this project and, you know, the words of the mta definitely out ways the words of the civil grand jury -- definitely out way -- definitely outweigh the words of the civil grand jury appeared to pose on something of this magnitude would be an insult of the intelligent minds that put something like this togethe

mr. ed reiskin admitted that we needed to fine-tune the services. ed is not very well versed with the transportation system, but he is a quick learner. he has done good things with dpw, 311. in the given circumstances, we need to support him, but i'm going back to the proposition that our hands are tied. people come here, a kind of a presentation, you folks can do nothing with the mta. >supervisor avalos: thank you. any other member of the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. supervisor chu? supervisor chu: thank you, everyone for patients. i want to thank the mta for your commitment. it is tough with any issue with the mta, considering our influence over the organization. however, i think these conversations are fruitful to help us better understand how to convey information to our constituents and convey information to the mta as well. i want to say thank you to the mta for a couple of things that did work. in terms of the nx service, we have heard nothing but positive things. they are able to get

mr. rice kin also mentioned -- reiskin also mentioned psych sling joy. do we feel happy we arrived home in one piece or is it just fun and safe together? the figures show that the netherlands, cycling in the netherlands is the safest transport mode in europe. if you compare to it, for example, italy, which is very dangerous for cyclists. we do fairly well. the explanation is, to my opinion, in the fact that we call safety by numbers. the more you get, the safer it is. and i'll show you the next slide to prove that. this is the bike share in the u. where the netherlands is extreme left and the u.k. is extreme right. and third is italy, for example. denmark is second next to the netherlands. if you compare that with safety numbers, you see that in the netherlands, where we cycle a lot, not too many people on bikes got killed and it's just the other way around in it italy and the u.k. where people do not cycle but get killed if they cycle. and somebody can come up with the arguments that we have a lot of good bicycle infrastructure in the netherlands. that'

mr. council general. everybody. it's great to see such a great crowd here for what for us is an extremely important event. my name is ed reiskin. i'm the transportation director here in san francisco and very pleased to welcome you all here this morning for what we expect will be a very lively and productive couple of days here in san francisco. the san francisco m.t.a. is the agency that's charged with implementing the city's transit first policy, which is about getting people out of their cars and into more sustainable modes of transportation, such as bikes, such as walking and transit in our great muni system. as someone who myself gets around the city often by bike, and i do that by choice, but more importantly, i'm given the charge of our agency to get folks out oaf their cars. i can't tell you how exciting it is for me to think all of the brain power and enthusiasm for cycling that's in this room are going to spend the next two days working with us to help us figure out how we can do every -- even better. although we've done a lot in terms of bicycling and increasing the mode of bicycling as a transportation of choice an

mr. milosevic. -- moscovich. >> good morning, chairman, supervisors. i have just a few points but i would like to make. i will try not to duplicate what has already been presented by ed reiskin and his staff from the mta, but it is worth spending a couple of minutes reviewing some of the facts related to the project, and also to honor your comment, supervisor campos, about the fact that the grand jury reports focuses in its recommendations away from the central subway. there are some interesting policy issues and i think should not be lost. first of all, it should be crystal clear to anybody who would entertain at this very late stage in the development path of this project, which as you heard has already entered the construction phase, that if this project were to be canceled, for example, there would be no way to redirect the funds that are expected to come to this project that early. -- federally. the funding process is pretty complex. it does not start the year you get the funds, it starts a decade before that, at the earliest. it involves not just the federal government, but a series of prior decisions at the regional level, where the metropolitan transportation commiss