the trail they walk and they don't get killed. i seep close calls than i need the blinking lights and the thick lines and put some also all over the mc clarin park. jerry garcia nothing not even cut outs and there is [inaudible] okay if you go to the big park i mean they call at this time group picnic your there is no line. >> thank you. are there public comment at this time. >> i don't see other members of public indicating they want to make comment at this time. >> again, approximate trisha thank you for coming today and i hope this is first time first and come more to come [inaudible] and please let us know if you are have more updates [inaudible]. >> thank you for the opportunity. >> thank you. >> now we are on item time councilmembers have opportunity to take a break. for minutes now it is 2:35. we will come back in minutes which is -- 2:50, i believe? again. we are taking a break. we are coming become at 2:50 members cochair for san francisco mayor's on disability today is september of 23. and welcome back to the break now we are proceeding to item 8. which is the increasing [inaudible] rate and paratransit taxi fare. and presentation from for give me. -- um -- admissible mta. welcome [inaudible]. >> thank you. i'm forest barns i planner at the sfmta and taxi access mobility services division. and i'm here today to discuss will a proposed taxi meter increase. and the ways that might be changing for -- all riders and the paratransit program. if i could have my colleague brady -- pull up the presentation this would be helpful. >> yea. >> one of the hosts give me screen sharing, please. one moment. no worries. go ahead i believe you are a host now. thank you y. thank you. all right. can you seat presentation? yea. thank you. go ahead, forest. so go to the next slide. so, i want to talk about today why is it that the sfmta prosecute posing to raise the taxi meter rate. taxi meter rate has not been increased since 2011. and the rate increase goes to the driver and since 2011 inflation in the bay area has been 45% and it hen upon even higher for transportation and fuel and in particular. we locked at increasing fuel surcharge or other increases to ensure drivers can still ford to live on the wages they make from driving -- we decide today is time to raise the rates over all. so -- concern, had our taxi meter rates are 3 opinion 50 for the first mile or flag drop. each fifth of a mile after is 557s and each minute of wit nothing traffic or delayed time is 55 cents. we are proposing to increase these rates to 4.15 to start a trip. 65 cents per fifth of a mile and minute of delayed time. that come out to an 18% next over all. which is still less than inflation. some of the characteristic over all for the median trip the first 5 months of the year. you see the vast majority. total component of the final fare the customer pays is distance. next slide. so. as you see that changes are for short, medium and long trips. trips less than 2 miles the job is 44% of the total cost. and for long trip its is upon even higher percentage didn't. the reason why i'm showing the slide is because we have considered in other jurisdictions they only raised the flag determine or other fees and we unfairly short trips and for our paratransit debit card users in this program. >> i wanted give you a come parrison for a 5 mile trip in an finish that is 19 dollars now and tell be 4 unsubsidized trip 24 dollars in the future which is higher than other cities and the u.s. but the same time so is the cost of living here. next slide. other jurisdictions in the past few months have raised fees and so trips surcharges considered boy staff. you see houston, seattle, las vegas and chicago all did a flat trip surcharge. next slide. while other cities raised the base drop and toronto and new york. and then other cities like mont roll and los angeles increased fares across the board. which based on the last time san francisco raised rates and based on various equity considerations we decided it would be good to raise all of the fares at the same rate. forest this is nicole can you explain for the group what base drop is and a flag drop again, please. go back to the initial that one. and so everyone knows and i continue is taxi terminology. a flag drop is the initial fee that you pay to get into the cab just to start the trip at all. and then after that there is distance and time. you can other cities have different names for it. but you request consider flag drop and base fee to be equal costs. >> thank you for reiterating this again. why yes and the other thing not jurisdictions are fuel surcharges. which -- we believed would become per minute innocent if not an over all change in the fare structure was appropriate. we also looked at time of day or how long trips are structured. and we are not supposing other fare ref structure but may consider this in the future. as of now, drivers are really hurting -- with the increase in costs and inflation over all that is why we are propose to raise 18% now and to look in the future and see what might be other changes to the fare structure at a future date. so. here is an update graded cost impact for a typical unsubsidized trip. the median trip you have your current flag drop. distance and wait time and tip. that will cost the median 16 and 4 cents. proposed new cost are subsidized 80% by the sfmta. and additional low -- the proposal we would increase the a lotment that could request. confidentialing the median paratransit taxi trip. the propose the increase is 15 upon 99 and the rider share after taking the subsidy is 3.20. this will impact paratransit taking taxis next slide. and additional low the sfmta would increase the allotment for paratransit riders and the essential trip card program and min tain the ratio, which i mentioned before 80% of the trip was paid by the sfmta and 20 percent boy the rider. and so this is a quick over vow about 15% of all taxi trips were pid for out of the paratransit debit card program. in the last year. on to the next slide. so out reach and feedback we conducted we have gone to the sfmta citizens advisory council the taxi industry out reach meeting we of course talked to the drivers and taxi worker's alliance. meeting with the paratransit and [inaudible] and at the paratransit coordinating council the multimodal advisory committee and as you see here at the mayor's disability council, we have reached out to the board of supervisors offices and checked and the -- feedback we got was from the groups. that the increase was reasonable and compared to inflation. and that -- taxi drivers are in need of a raise in 2011. next slide. so just for a quick note the approval process for this proposed change now we're getting feedback and taking comments which you e mill to us at sftaxi @sfmta.com must approved by the sfmta board. it says late fall meeting i would say now we are hoping a board meeting of mid october. to take to the mt aboard approximate rate change 30 days after that board approval should the board have to staff resolution and -- that would start in mid november. so -- i wanted to make everyone aware of this proposal and take time to answer any questions that anyone might have. thank you. >> thank you. >> now opening up to councilmember questions. are there -- [inaudible] >> next for this presentation. it seems reasonable. right? i get it. i don't know if you can answer this but i noticed that -- transportation network companies like uber and lyft are starting to charge a premium if you reserve or order a car in advanced. do taxis do that? do you know if taxis do the same? >> for taxis there is there is an amount you pay based on the meter rate. generally. and the um -- the -- the calling dispatch ahead to arrange a roadway should not cost you additional fees. >> okay. should not, you don't know for sure. have you heard this from the companies it used to be the same amount now they are charging more for scheduled rides. >> i have not heard of that with uber and lyft. but i certainly believe you that is happening. and per the taxi rate, it is based on that your pick up spot or in the app it is liability of the taxi arrived. and it should be based on what the meter rate these flag drop distance time fees we discussed. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you for your help and presentation and for the out reach have you done to the other community and stake holders. >> thank you. >> are there councilmembers with questions? at this time? >> this is shari. >> go ahead. >> i need to voice an opinion ofir don't feel had is reasonable. i feel this 18% is quite burdensome for riders with disabilities. i don't know anybody who receives social security disability who received an 18% increase in their s sd i18% increase in that time frame. yea. inflation is -- off the charts right now. if you compare anything to inflation, you can say, that that is a reasonable increase. and rationalize it that way. um -- not everybody used paratransitit or has the taxi voucher available. and using paratransit is not always an i can -- go into -- if you like -- because some of them are not pleasant. riding paratransit is not always -- a pleasant -- adventure. for that reason really cannot use paratransit for their purposes. so to say that you know, subsidizes the trip 80%, well in order to do that you node to endure a lot of -- you need a lot of patience and -- have plenty of time to take a trip on paper transbecause you could take a 5 mile trip and going 20 miles or 30 miles out of your way in order to do that 5 mile trip. sfmta will fork out more monetch who will take the fall or why is that going to go. um -- i just feel like the disability community is going to be the one hurt the most. that is quite a hike -- and so i'm opposed to that. thank you. >> thank you. are there councilmembers ask questions? at this time? i have a question taking to the staff. i see no cost [inaudible] paratransit is an issue and sometimes if someone paid -- 10 dollars and during added about -- 50 or so dollars in the cost. please confirm that so now -- increase of pay, how you could see raising that after [inaudible] because of not in case of 18% less start from that concept. >> yea. so you are correct about the car like the 10 dollars to the 40 dollars. as we said. the way it would work is that the total amount of funds that you can put on the card and you sfmta will match will increase. you have been request a higher allotment. and do you know how much is that? um -- i wish i had my colleague jonathan to answer that question. but it is like at least 18% more to make up for the increased cost. and -- so -- wield still maintain that 20% to 80% subsidy ratio and then -- increase the total amount that you put on your card with that. >> all right. and then the second question i have is how many percentage of people prior to answer paratransit are -- because i'm speaking on my experience. i use paratransit and i have a taxi if i want to but i don't use it. as much because every time i call the taxi, the time i wanted. do you have a percentage of the people that use paratransit are utilizing that service and with that, like -- if someone is using that, are they plenty of raising the fare of paratransit? moving forward? >> okay. so we are a few points when one of we hear about the taxis. not being available at the times people need that is unfortunate and -- part of that is that during earlier in covid, drivers stopped driving. that was an issue before. and in terms of how many paratransit users use taxis i don't have that off the top of my head available. we know it is a popular service and that previously last year it was up to 25% of all taxi trips were paid for with sfmta and debit card. so i can say like as a percentage of total taxi trip its is a popular and -- um -- this program does generally -- help with that with the -- with this paratransit routes. >> yea. i don't that number. >> i'm sorry to disappoint you can -- contradicting yourself that a lot of people use and a lot of this is popular. that a lot of people complain about not getting rides. so you could think to yourself but i'm wanting to point out that i would suggest looking into improving the service of the taxi before quiet first. thank you very much and we are going to ask the staff if there is a questions for the staff. >> i hear you i guess i will say the program is very popular and people wish that it worked better. >> thank you. >> that's. and -- then additionally -- yea. we hear you about the issues of service and part of the request to increase the fare is that drivers are have not had a raise in 11 years and made less and so -- part of that is that they are just not as many drivers and -- you might know there is labor shortages for drivers. throughout the industry and so like part of the increase is to ensure that drivers can make a living wage and they there are more of them. thank you for your comments. >> thank you. >> i'm going to comment on a portion. >> yea. i didn't want to step over you alex is that all? we are going to the staff. >> great. thank you, forest and for being here and to the council and to our presenters i recognize that our paratransit and taxi colleagues are not here but encouraged the council for the questions that forest has not been able to provide with specific upon answers want to follow up with a letter or a request and i think that would be happy to get information. toward that ends. so i would encourage the council to follow up on this and i would say a couple of things. one, being that

Related Keywords

Houston , Texas , United States , Toronto , Ontario , Canada , Chicago , Illinois , Jerry Garcia , Los Angeles ,