Transcripts For SFGTV 20150327

Going home but they were very crowded in the afternoon when kids were going home from school so it took a long time and i really, really appreciate it so much, and actually the data that shows how much less crowded the buses are is really remarkable, and also i really i do want us to Pay Attention to which is kind of surprising to me, the data about how kids are getting to school, who is using what Transportation Systems and other ways to get to school. It is amazing how many what percentage of kids come to school by car, so i am hoping that were figuring out ways to sort of market our Transportation Services more so that we can encourage more families to use the Public Transportation system, and thats an area they would like us to collaboratively work on because its information we can get out to our families. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner mendoza and fewer. Thank you. So i am excited that one of the conversations that we have been having was around having mta as part of the prop c and what were trying to build in regard to policies for young people and their families so this will be an opportunity to go forward with a lot of the recommendations that youve already mentioned, and i am just curious on the current process of communications, and i am asking because in particular because we have a school, a Charter School that is getting moved from potrero hill over to the bay view and theres conversations around how to we communicate to you guys that theres now going to be 300 new students coming into the bay view and when we look at the routes that come through and i think its the 44 and the 54, how do we communicate to you this is happening, one . And secondly, how we can engage the ambassadors during the peak times . Because we have young people coming from multiple zip codes and coming into the top of the hill, so i am curious how that can get sorted through, and i ive had conversations with director reiskin and i sent him over a heat map to show where the kids are coming from. I dont know if you saw that yet. We did. I think it gets to the first part here which is identifying a single point of contact, so as things like that change that you dont have to go to ed reiskin to make sure that were coordinating with the school. We did have an opportunity for the school. Sue lu went out and talked with the principal about their program. The 44 and the 54 do go right by the site, but theyre also going to be providing some shuttles to third street and glen park and what we agreed to do was to be there in the fall and then support the school as those changes will allow, but i think a key is a single point of contact. A lot of information that we get now is through principals and them reaching out. Commissioner fewer. Yes thank you. So this presentation actually answered many, many questions so thanks for this update. Its very appreciated. So this last week i met with some students from Lincoln High School and as wanting to find out because they have i think for a couple years have been looking at great impact of the impact that muni has had on the transportation of schools to their school around reliability. Also students have so i wanted to mention some things and some of the things they mentioned actually were being addressed already so that is great but they wanted to also say that they seem to have a difference of opinion around the need for increased transportation. They felt that as High School Students the need for transportation to school they need more buses there then rather than after school and after school kids disperse to many areas. They hang out with friends, stay at schools with sports and clubs and activities after school but to get to School Everyone must be there at the same time so theyre saying many times buses pass them up. Every single student has been late for school multiple times because of muni and they say its the over crowding. Buses will not pick emup if its too crowded and students gave a recommendation for racks and the barack backpacks and they said what isnt on the list and i thought i would mention it. So the 48 apparently serves many schools and not just Public Schools so its greatly impacted so those students on a 48 and also the 44 they say its a constant problem but they also mention the 29 and it serves so many schools on the route and they dont often get picked up but i see its being addressed here but the 48 service ends it doesnt run after 9 00 a. M. And not before 3 00 p. M. Now i never heard of that frankly and i am not familiar with the route but they said the 48 so if you want to get to school late you cant take the 48 because it doesnt run and they Early Release and yet theyre out before 3 00 p. M. So they wanted me to bring that issue to you also. Everyone that i spoke to, students, they all ride the bus two and from school so that is very good, but one student got a ride but it was very rare. Most felt safe on the bus but they have also had phones taken. They have witnessed some violence on the buses, but and lets see what else did they say. They seem to see less of the transit enforcers ever since we had free muni for youth and i am wondering about that. Are students getting less tickets for not having a validation of having paid so that was a question i wanted to ask you. Well, i love talking to kids because you get these very practical suggestions. The 48 its probably as close to a school route that we have because its intended to go from west portal to third street and during school hours we extend it to the beach, and its our only route that does that and one of our recommendations that came out of the transit effectiveness project and the system study it would be simpler and mobility benefit if it extended to the beach all day long and its not in the two year budget but its something we will bring to the board in the next two year budget. With that being said extending it so that were able to serve early school let outs thats a tweak that we could definitely look at, so i will get the through the staff i will get the Contact Information for that particular school and we can look at the start times because those adjustments are often relatively easy for us to make. The routes that you identified we are increasing, so the 28 in the morning were slipping a few extra trips just because of that school activity, but over the next 12 months were looking to increase service substantially along the 19th avenue corridor and make the 28 limited which is now at odd school times and all day route and extend it to the mission so we have new connections that we dont have today. Okay thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor campos oh no, i am sorry. Commissioner walton and then supervisor campos. Thank you supervisor kim. Just a quick question for my clarification because i am sure i thought you said school troopers or buses cant carry students because of federal regulations and resources. Because we receive money from the federal Transit Administration we cannot be the Yellow School bus so we cannot deliver service that is not public and by public they mean available to all potential customers and restricted to just students, but we do start routes as i said at the school so the students benefit from them and then other customers as the students exit then theres room for other customers to hop on. Great. Thank you. Thank you madam president. Thank you to staff for the presentation. Its great to see the members of the board of education here in city hall and to all of the youth and the staff from sfusd. Thank you for being here. Just a quick question following up on the issue of for instance oconnell and [inaudible] so right now what is the point of contact if there is a change in location, assignment of a school . How does that work . Lets say as of today Going Forward how would that communication happen between the School District and muni . So what were recommending is that we identify a single point of contact. What typically happens now is the principal reaches out either to myself and suzanne in the Schedules Department or sue lu who is known to the principals and has that relationship. Do. Do we know who the point of contact is or is it being worked out . For the short term its candace but we will identify somebody who more longterm can maintain those relationships. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you supervisor campos and thank you. I was really very impressed by the presentation and how data rich sfmta is. It was great to get all of the information and i know you didnt have a lot of time to do that so i appreciate the work. This is really a first step. We want to ensure that the dialogue and collaboration continues because i think there is a lot of work that all of our agencies can be doing together to make sure that were providing the best Transportation System possible for our students and having said that at this time before we may have other presenters speak i want to be sensitive to the time. We have many members of the public to speak and i would like to open Public Comment at this time and leave time for more discussion and questions after that. Thank you. So at this time opening up for Public Comment if you would like to speak please line up and approach the microphone. Yes and while folks are lining up commissioner mendoza wanted to make some additional points. Thank you. I just wanted to thank the director of facilities and david golden and nick director of sustainability who are here today and both acknowledged that we need Better Communications with mta so as the Board Members direct them to find the appropriate point person so you have a connection at the School District but i wanted to thank them for being here. Thank you. Please approach the mic. Good afternoon board of supervisors. I aman drew and attend Lowell School and for the past six years i have been riding muni to get in and out of my school. I first rode the one california from mission to chinatown and the bus drove students from my school and from Washington School and prisido and ucsf and the communicate i spend everyday during middle school was two hours and now i am waking up every morning at 6 00 a. M. To go catch the 3045 or another or k line to go across the city to lowe and i notice there are students from ccsf, sf state, balboa, mercy and [inaudible] all riding the same bus with mean and muni is our school bus. We all need to go to school around like 8 00 a. M. And sometimes theres like you know, sometimes i will like sometimes i would miss it just a few minutes before and its 30 minutes before the first class and i check the timer and its 16 minutes before the next one and those are the only those two lines are the only way to get to school, and i feel that the metro station should like make the k line more abundant and reliable for like the sake of the early school riders, early student riders and i hope improving transit lines and finding exploring for more dedicated transit lines that get us to School Without the anxiety of being tardy. Thank you. Can i ask a follow up question so on a good day when you catch the buses on time how long does it take to get from chinatown to lowell . Roughly 35 minutes. Like traffic its heavily influenced by traffic and the metro is it just goes straight and really fast. So on a good day from home to school takes 35 minutes . Yes. And on a day where you missed usually the one bus at a certain time and once you get off of the 8x and you can catch it and sometimes miss it by a few seconds and you have to wait a long time. And how long is the commute on a bad day . About 50 minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good afternoon board of supervisors. My name is david is im also a student at Lowell Lowell high school and i live in Visitacion Valley and everyday i go to the school and transfer at balboa park to take the 29 but the thing with the 29 it serves many high schools want for example it goes. [inaudible] high school and balboa and lincoln and colleges and city college and [inaudible] and [inaudible] valley middle school. Every time i take the morning buses i always have skip at least one bus pass me by to at least get on the bus because after that many buses come by and i dont really have time to get on a crowded i cant get on a crowded bus because many times bus drivers will skip you or push you out because they dont want you behind the yellow line so there is an issue with equity here and the 29 is serving many schools here but the time to stop isnt enough because the run time is eight to 10 minutes and that time isnt enough because most of the students really want to take the bus at a certain time to get to school. For us at lowell we get to school around 730 or 725 and get to school at the time and many take it at balboa park so we dont have enough time to take it and another issue when we go home from school we at lowell we have all of the other schools before us and we get off at 330 and two schools being very crowded so i want you guys to please increase the amount of buses running in the morning and the afternoon to help increase the amount of ridership and ensure that we get to home and school on time. Thank you. Thank you. Hello everyone. I am stephanie and i am a youth leader at ccdc so there are many bus routes that bring students to school, but then the problem is how long it takes for students to get to school because there are bus stops where it takes students a long time for them to get there, and then have to wait for a long time, especially those from Excelsior Bay view and other districts and during that time there might be buses that are crowded, so then they will skip the stop, and the students have to wait more. Also there are students have to take multiple of transits just to get to school which takes a long time, and then they might be late to class which takes a way their education time, so i think there should be muni should find a way to provide services so that students can get to school on time. Thank you. Thank you. If i can just ask a couple more questions. If you could speak specifically to certain lines that you would like to increase service on or mention how long it takes to get to school on average on a good day or longer day . I think that the 30 should have more bus lines because there are many people from chinatown who needs to ride the bus, and i dont take the bus because i can just walk to school. Thank you. Hello everyone. I am david yee and i go to Galileo High School and i live in Visitacion Valley, so on an average school day i take the 8bx and the 30 to school and most of my problems come from the 8bx that comes in the morning so i take the first one everyday. The first one comes at 650 and i am not sure what happened here but it used to come earlier around 640 and gradually it started coming later and later and this causes a lot of crowdedness and over population, and this causes a lot of issues as well. Things like people forced to be on the stairs and extremely dangerous and probably not [inaudible], so also the first 8bx that comes around 650 now is rather consistent but the second one can have , well the intervals arent consistent at all. For example the second bus can come five minutes after the first bus or 20 minutes after and of course this will cause problems and my second issue is that i have noticed this mainly on the 30 bus going to school and leaving school, so buses that arent crowded can appear crowded because of people that crowd around the steps, so theres a lot of people standing at a certain area and makes the bus seem crowded but in reality in the back and the middle there is plenty of space, and bus drivers often try to tell everyone to get to the rear but this doesnt work and this is where i see the addition of the on bus enforcement helpful. Thank you. Thank you. And when the timer goes off always feel free to finish our sentence. I know its alarming but please feel free to finish the sentence after the bell rings. My name is david. I live in bay view and i attend Galileo High School. So as you can guys can probably understand the location of where i live and the school that i attend is almost half a city apart, and takes me very long to go to my school. Thats not the biggest problem here. Every morning i have to leave my house around 615 even though the bus stop is practically right in front of my house i still have to leave my house very early due to the fact that i have to take the t. I have two routes. I can take the t and then the 30 on Market Street or i can take the t and switch to 8bx and then the 30 and both routes are really unreliable. The talways th the timer i dont know what to say. It says 10 minutes but really it comes five minutes later, so even when i leave my house earlier than i really should, and i need im a high school student. I need my sleep and if says its coming at that time. Thank you. If i can ask you how long it takes on the best and slowest days . On the best day and i leave my house and there is a t there and i dont have to wait that long for the 30 it will take me 40 to 45 minutes to go to school early. Commissioner fewer has a question as well. Yes, i wanted to know because of muni when youre late for school what happens when you tell them youre late because of muni . Well, i cant tell them anything. I just go into class. Dont you need a tardy pass or something. No. I think thats only if i dont know. I have never been that late, but you start at 615, but i am wondering what so thats okay. I was just wondering what a School Policy is with students that arrive late to school and theyre late for class what response the teachers have and how sympathetic are the schools are to the situation. Thats all. Thank you for sharing. My teachers dont really care. They see me enter a class and youre here. Thats it. Okay. Theyre probably really glad to see you. Thanks. What is the start time for you . 8 00 oclock. 8 00 oclock. Thank you. Good afternoon board of supervisors. I am steven chang from the Bay View District and i currently attend Galileo High School. Personally when i take the bus to school it usually takes around 10 minutes to wait for the bus if one leaves and for the 54 its very inconsistent and usually takes around 20 to 30 minutes. Thats why when i come home from school i usually have to walk back home, so the inconsistency of the 54 really like makes the time for me to get home longer. Besides that i see a cluster of buses every time i go to school or go somewhere because when i go somewhere i see that the time waiting for the bus is around 10 minutes, and when the 10 minutes end i see that there are four or five buses coming together, and that was very strange for me because i always like i never see the people even when i get off the bus from that stop i never seen that before. More over the t its i take it during from 630 to 650 and it usually theres usually isnt that many, so i would like more ts from 630 to 650 since thats when most people are coming or going to school. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hello sfmta boards. I am andy and a youth leader from ccdc. I take the 30 to Galileo High School. By the time i get on the bus its usually packed with seniors that buy groceries and students that go to marina and francisco and galileo. Oftentimes there is a lack of buses which explains why it is densely populated. The bus can cause problems. I used to go to Presidio Middle School and by the time i leave school and get on the one california its packed with seniors and students that go to