switchbacks are a very big issue. they are a confusing issue. it is like attaching the same two wires. it is something that you're never going to be able to get away from. supervisor avalos: you are an operator, so if you could go a little further? >> thanks. there are other things that go on with the 14 lines. there are so many old folks, and the equipment is in need of a lot of help, so when you have folks that are continually breaking down, and they get turned down because of safety violations by the operator, that is going to take it out of service and get a late start out of the yard, and the sleekness, especially, it is like being on a rail system, having that kind of system is inherently filled with delays. better coaches, better equipment out there, and as far as education goes, educating the public, i can tell you that people do not normally listen to the announcements on the bus. you try to tell them, and i made numerous announcements when i'm going to make a switch back, and i do not speak spanish and chinese, but i have a lot of engl

as far as the number at 30th and church, in switchbacks is try to make the switchback so that it has the least impact on the number of riders and 30th and church is as far as we can go other than balboa itself and turn trains. if you turn them at 16th or 22nd, but it would inconvenience more teem. people. so if we have to switchback, turning them at 30th benefits more riders and impacts the least number of people. and in these cases, what we're talking about, these are not scheduled switchbacks but switchbacks as a result of a service problem. supervisor avalos: i'm just concerned that as we are -- a system where this is a common occurrence means that i have no real leverage in my district to encourage people to get out of their cars and to use muni. i want to to that desperately. i want to make sure that people are getting out in their cars less and using muni more, using transit as much as possible but when these numbers in up, that's impossible for me to do. it's impossible for me to speak about muni being a reliable service and something people should use rather than their cars t

and i have been on switchbacks. when they switchback at 30th street you have to get off. usually you are not told until the stop is coming up. then you have to pile out. many times it has been raining when you have to pile out. there is no bus stop with an overhead there to protect you from the rain. so, you know, you are just standing out there. usually there are a lot of people standing out there. several times i have even just walked down to mission street to catch a mission street bus to get home. last friday i was on a switchback at glen park. when i got on at 16th and church it said balboa station. and then when he announced it was just before randall he announced it. so i went up to ask him. he said i just got told i had to switchback. that is his answer. when i got on at 16th and church it said balboa to church. so i thought we were going all of the way up. luckily a train did come five minutes afterwards and took us out the rest of the way, but that was the first time i was on a switch back. usually you stand out there 15 minutes and beyond. thank you. >> good af

historic trend of switchbacks on the line. -- and the historic trend. supervisor avalos: think you. i have called this meeting to get the status on the 14 line. during my time as supervisor, i have heard a lot about the line turning back as it gets further back from downtown, especially past silver ave. frequently, it gets turned back. it has been an issue. we have had a report back from mr. hailey back in early february. i want to make sure we are getting a handle on things. we want to call the mta back to see what kind of response the department is having on trying to prevent that from happening, and the microphone is yours. l'equipe. -- thank you. i think you want to go to this next microphone. this one is -- there you go. >> how is this? supervisor avalos: madam clerk, we can turn this other microphone on? i was not sure if you're going b

j church line, switchback issues on the 14 line. one of the statistics that came out of yesterday's hearing relative to the g-8 church was that if its offer and return back at 30th and church, and a statistic they gave was 348 times between january and march. sending a letter of inquiry to the mta to just break that down, exactly when those switchbacks are occurring. during peak time, or non-peak time, and have that data provided to us. it was not quite as broken down as i would have liked it yesterday. that is all. thank you. supervisor chiu: colleagues, today, and i am introducing a drafting requests related to our payroll tax and stock options. as we all know, there was a recent control report that identified our city's practice of taxing stock options as a factor for why certain businesses consider locating outside of san francisco. as someone who helped to found a technology company in my previous life, and i think we have all heard from previous tech leaders about how our treatment of stock options could lead companies to leav

and i have been on switchbacks. when they switchback at 30th street you have to get off. usually you are not told until the stop is coming up. then you have to pile out. many times it has been raining when you have to pile out. there is no bus stop with an overhead there to protect you from the rain. so, you know, you are just standing out there. usually there are a lot of people standing out there. several times i have even just walked down to mission street to catch a mission street bus to catch a mission street bus to get ho

he said i just got told i had to switchback. that is his answer. when i got on at 16th and church it said balboa to church. so i thought we were going all of the way up. luckily a train did come five minutes afterwards and took us out the rest of the way, but that was the first time i was on a switch back. usually you stand out there 15 minutes and beyond. thank you. >> good afternoon supervisors. i just wanted to thank you for calling this hearing. i am glad i came. it was very educational. i think i look at my role on the mta board as the board not only sets policy and strategy but we are also there to support the staff when they do things to implement these strategies and policies. i want to thank you for coming to do this presentation. it was very valuable. as the transit effectiveness project continues to be worked upon and rolled out there are a lot of things that can help the reliability and the timing of all of our muni lines. not all of them will be easy and painless. and i remind myself of that when i think of stop consolidation and i thi

supervisor avalos: that is where the decisions are made on switchbacks? >> yes. another key to service travel time improvements is congestion management. in addition to developing the travel time reduction proposals, we have also pursued complementary projects, designed to reduce the amount of time people spend looking for parking. as well as a project that provides dedicated space for vehicles. on the infrastructure vehicle liabilities side, we have structured the state of the repair capital program to focus on state of good repair issues. the key accomplishment was the st. francis circle last summer. we are also working on the rehabilitation program for critical vehicles. finally, as indicated, one of the legacies of this project was to be more data focused and we have been in the past. during the planning process we had passenger comments on 10% of the vehicles, giving us better information than we had in the past. was challenging to make sure that the vehicles got on the right route each day. we wanted a larger data size. 30%, implementing the deployment plan

turnbacks and that is, because i sit up front, i sometimes hear central control tell an operator to switchback, but neither central control nor the operator ever asks, they never ask, does anybody in a wheelchair need the ramp? so i've been on street cars that were turned back at glen park where there is no ramp. that means if somebody was on there, they would have to dead head back to san jose randall, get off, across, and head back again. i've been on street cars where after we were all forced to get off on glen park on a sunday morning, i had to wait 43 minutes, not five minutes. central control needs to ask those questions. the expectations people all in wheelchairs board up front. if something happened in the subway, they could be in the back and hidden. that communication is lacking. commissioner wiener: thank you. >> my name is janet tarlove. i own a business in glen park and glen park is particularly well served by public transportation. the exception is the link between b.a.r.t. and the other buses in the area and the j church, the station at that location is very unsafe and inaccessi