MAAC April 20, 2006, minutes

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MUNI ACCESSIBILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (MAAC)
ONE SOUTH VAN NESS, 3RD FLOOR SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103
PHONE (415) 701-4485 FAX (415) 701-4728 TTY (415) 701-4730
www.sfmuni.com/maac

Minutes of April 20, 2006

Members Present:

Rae Chamberlain, Leslie Clark (Vice Chair), Janet Copriviza, Ed Evans (Chair), Paul Fichera, Melvin Galloway, Barbara George (JLMB), Ed Harley (Secretary), Jeanne Lynch, Jewel McGinnis, Bruce Morgan, Arden Wheeler,

Absent:

Bruce Oka (Excused), Vernon Smith (Excused)

Accessible Services Staff Present:

Jamie Osborne, Annette Williams, Marina Villena

Guests:

Francisco Alfaro, Ana Aureoles, Jim Campbell (MTA), Martha Cowan, Bob Franklin (BART), Oliver Gajda (MTA), Barbara Kolesar (Muni Marketing), Edward Mason, Bob Planthold

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order at 1:08PM.

Introductions:

Introductions were made in lieu of a roll call.

Reading and approval of agenda:

The agenda was approved as presented.

Approval of the minutes of March 2006 MAAC meeting:

The minutes were approved as presented.

Report from the Chair:

MAAC Chair, Ed Evans indicated that he sees many problems with Muni. He was passed up twice by the bus over the past weekend. He also experienced problems with elevators.

Jim Campbell, Muni Service Planning: Update on Digital Voice Announcement System (DVAS)

Jim Campbell gave a progress update on his work with the DVAS. He discussed DVAS volume standardization issues. He suggested that if MAAC members witness instances of DVAS volume levels being to low, they should contact Accessible Services with the specific vehicle number. Mr. Campbell noted that Muni has experienced many complaints with the external announcement volume levels. He also reported that kneeling vehicles generate loud noises that often mask the external announcements.

Mr. Campbell requested comments and questions from MAAC members:

• Ed Evans – Are all new rubber tire vehicles being purchased with DVAS?

• Ed Evans – Is it possible to have announcements in Chinese and Spanish?

• Bob Planthold – When the blower is on it masks the audible announcements. Designated stops may be called out prior to the designated intersection. This happens too often.

• Les Clark – Why don’t DVAS announcements indicate connecting bus lines at transfer points?

• Ed Harley – From time to time you only hear the routine announcements and not the stops. Why is that?

• Paco Alfaro – Why doesn’t the J-Line make announcements when it is on the surface?

• Ed Evans – Are the operators required to call out the light rail vehicle stops?

• Jewell McGinnis – Is the driver required to call out designated stops when asked?

• Jeanne Lynch – On the number 2 Clement, I cannot hear any announcements. Why don’t I ever hear the stops being called?

• Paul Fichera – Thank you to Jewell McGinnis for making sure that the vehicle identification numbers are listed in Raised Letters and Braille.

• Ed Evans – Can there be an exterior announcement requesting that riders allow Seniors and People with Disabilities to board first?

• Arden Wheeler – It doesn’t make any difference if you have an announcement or not… People are going to board the bus.

Mr. Campbell reported that not all stops have announcements programmed and that he is working to include all stops in the DVAS database. He also noted that stops will not be announced if operators forget to reset the bus head sign and direction, or if the DVAS navigation system isn’t functioning correctly. He suggested that riders should ask the operator to correct the DVAS if they notice that the stops are not being announced.

Based upon MAAC comments, Mr. Campbell suggested a demonstration project that could assess the effectiveness of multi-lingual announcement of reserved seating messages.

Oliver Gajda: Exploration of bicycles on MUNI LRVs

Oliver Gajda reintroduced himself to the committee as the Assistant Bicycle Program Manager with MTA Planning. He discussed the history of the exploration of bicycle access on MUNI Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) and passed out field notes from the February 28th demonstration session, where bicycle access on a LRV was simulated.

Mr. Gajda reported that based upon the field notes, a survey was created by students from SFSU’s urban studies program. He requested that MAAC members read the survey and complete it to give Muni their feedback on the prospect of allowing bicycles on LRVs.

Mr. Gajda speculated that the demonstration will be moving forward in “May or June.” The demonstration will happen in a fairly confined time (30-45 days) and will involve a small group (20 to 30 people) of cyclists accessing the system during prearranged times (outside of peak commute hours). The cyclists that are allowed to bring their bicycles onboard the vehicle will be required to identify themselves by wearing a bright orange vest. Mr. Gajda reported that initially, the demonstration will only occur on the K line section that is above ground past West Portal.

As the demonstration project proceeds, it will be assessed by MTA and the Muni community. If the results are favorable, then it may be expanded to other lines outside the K. Mr. Gajda emphasized that throughout the duration of the project, there are no intentions to either “put bicycles on vehicles in the Muni underground,” or “allow bicycles during peak hours of 7:00AM to 9:00AM and 4:00PM to 6:00PM.”

Mr. Gajda handed out a draft policy for folding and non-folding bikes and read the policy to the committee. He requested additional comments questions from MAAC members:

• Ed Evans – Most people are worried about the securement of the bicycles on the trains. They don’t want to be hit by flying objects. Could you add something to the draft policy that indicates that bicyclists have to be responsible and in full control of their bikes at all times?

• Bob Planthold – On this draft policy, you have a pre-selected group. I worry how valid are the conclusions that you can draw, because they are almost emotionally committed to doing the right thing… You will have to be very specific as to the times that riders with bicycles will be required to leave the light rail vehicles.

• Jeanne Lynch – It was my understanding that our committee is in place to protect the elderly, the disabled the low vision people, people in wheelchairs and whatever. I would like to know why Muni is coming up with this issue (and catering to a certain coalition group) that allows bicycles to do what they want to do on the buses and on the trains and what have you.

• Ed Evans – The bicyclists in this city are not following the rules at this time… We need a concerted effort to address these pedestrian safety issues.

• Paul Fichera – I don’t think that this is the time appropriate to discuss general pedestrian safety issues. I think that you should do as a group is to invite the departments that are supposed to deal with these issues to discuss them with this committee.

• Edward Mason – What is your vision regarding where the person with the bicycle will actually occupy the space on the vehicle? Once they board, where will they stand and what will they do?

Mr. Gajda acknowledged that there are a lot of concerns. He indicated that the policy that he has shared with MAAC is a draft policy for a pilot project and that it would need to be approved by the MTA board to become an official policy. If there was a recommendation from MAAC then it would be used by the MTA board to help guide their decision.

After discussion and additional comments by MAAC members, a motion was made to strongly oppose both the survey and the demonstration project. The motion was seconded and called to question. It passed unanimously with one abstention.

MAAC Elections for 2006 Members

Jamie Osborne, Muni Fixed-route Accessibility Coordinator, reported that the following new members were recommended:

• Vernon Smith

• Paul Fichera

A motion was made to include the new members into MAAC. The motion was seconded and carried by the committee.

Melvin Galloway Birthday Celebration

Jamie Osborne made an announcement recognizing that Mr. Melvin Galloway’s 49th Birthday that passed on April 18th. The committee proceeded to sing “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Galloway and enjoy a piece of celebratory birthday cake. Merriment was immediately commenced by the committee.

Update on Muni Fast Pass / BART access issues

Jamie Osborne responded to questions that had risen in the March 16, 2006 MAAC meeting regarding the use of the Muni Lifeline ($35), Senior ($10) and Disabled ($10) FastPasses on BART in San Francisco. At the present time, these passes cannot be used on BART. The Muni $45 FastPass is the only pass that enables the user to ride BART for free in San Francisco.

Muni and BART have previously attempted to find a middle ground on the discrepancy. The reasons for no agreement are varied but come down to the following:

• BART does not want to give San Francisco residents “Special treatment” or a discount that BART riders outside of San Francisco do not enjoy.

• Muni’s sticker-based Disabled FastPass provides no mechanism for BART to monitor how often the pass is being used.

• BART’s station equipment and agents could not discern if the user of the Senior / Disabled FastPass was in fact a Senior or a person with a disability.

• Muni was not willing to pass on a substantial fare increase to its riders.

Comments and questions from MAAC members and guests were solicited:

• Ed Evans - Many seniors and disabled people feel that if they cannot use the Muni FastPass for unlimited access to BART in San Francisco, then able bodied people shouldn’t be able to use it either.

• Paul Fichera – Muni has always been: “Okay, let’s do it.”

• Bob Planthold – I think that what we’ve been hearing are urban legends and not true. The Muni FastPass with BART access was started as a convenience to people in the early 80’s. This is an old contract. Both systems are to blame for the stalemate.

• Paul Fichera – We need to have the people involved in this issue attend MAAC.

Bob Franklin, a BART board member an advocate for BART Muni FastPass equality, provided his perspective on the issue. He asked the committee:

• Would you be willing to pay more than $10?

• What is a fair price?

He explained that BART is not trying to sock it to Muni. They are trying to agree upon a number. Mr. Franklin explained that there is a current BART / Muni contract (expired in January 2006) that needs to be renegotiated. He suggested to MAAC that these negotiations provided a window to address this issue and that MAAC should put this issue on the radar of BART General Manager, Tom Margro and Muni Executive Director / CEO, Nathaniel Ford.

The discussion was suspended until appropriate representatives from BART and Muni are able to join the committee and provide clarity on this issue.

Update on “Full bus wrap” advertisements

Jamie Osborne, Ed Evans and Les Clark discussed a short meeting that they had attended with Steve Shinn of CBS Outdoor advertising. CBS Outdoor has a new style of bus-wrap material that they are interested in using on Muni buses.

Bus wrap material is created by the 3M corporation. It has tiny holes that allow light to pass through it so that people from the inside of a bus may see the outside when the bus’ windows are completely covered.

Historically, bus wrap material has holes that are 1.5 millimeters in diameter. The new wrap that CBS Outdoor is proposing will use holes that are 2.0 millimeters in diameter. Theoretically, wrap materials with larger holes should be easier to see through than with small holes.

In the past, MAAC has been against full-bus wrapping. Members of the low vision community have complained that bus wrapping makes it impossible to see outside the bus. They have requested that buses that have wrap advertising do not cover the front side windows of the bus. Leaving the front windows un-obscured by advertising provides people with low vision the opportunity to better see the bus’ surroundings.

Although, demanding these modifications to the design of the advertisements provides a greater level of accessibility for Muni’s riders with visual disabilities, it could reduce Muni’s revenue if an advertising company is not flexible with their designs. During the meeting with CBS Outdoor, Steve Shinn reported that if they could not completely cover the vehicle with their proposed design, then they would choose not to advertise on Muni buses at all.

CBS Outdoor will completely cover a single vehicle with the new style wrapping and allow MAAC to assess the visibility of the new material. Muni’s current contract allows only twenty vehicles to have wrap advertisements.

The issue was further discussed amongst MAAC members. Les Clark reported that he was frustrated because MAAC had fought so hard to “Unwrap the vehicles.” He understood that Muni would possibly lose revenue, but he felt that the needs of the passenger also needed to be considered. Annette Williams agreed with Mr. Clark. She reminded the committee that they were previously “Moving away from covering the front windows with advertisements.”

Ed Evans suggested that the buses that were being wrapped should only be those with Digital Voice Announcement Systems, so that people with low vision could hear when their stop is approaching. He is worried that Muni fares (and the prices of Disabled FastPasses) will be increased if Muni doesn’t capitalize on all revenue sources.

MAAC will be notified when the bus is prepared by CBS Outdoor and a viewing of the new bus wrap material will be scheduled.

Update on services for Deaf-Blind passengers

Jamie Osborne presented the progress of the Deaf-Blind working group. He demonstrated the rider assistance card template and discussed the procedures that are being developed to assist riders who are Deaf and Blind.

Comments and questions were received from MAAC members:

• Ed Evans – Could we change the language of this card so that it can be used by people that are Blind?

• Ana Aureoles – Could this card be used by people who have speech and language disabilities?

• Paul Fichera – The union needs to be involved in this process.

Update on San Francisco city legislation banning smoking at bus, trolley and light rail stops

Jamie Osborne reported that this legislature had passed the board of supervisors and was awaiting Mayor Gavin Newsome’s signature. The mayor has 10 days to sign it into law. He read a copy of the legislature that was distributed to MAAC from the office of supervisor Fiona Ma.

Public Comments:

• Ana Aureoles reported that there is a problem with teenagers and others who are sitting in the seats reserved for people with disabilities and seniors. What should I do when I’m threatened by a passenger?

• Annette Williams wanted to let everyone know about the DOT notice for proposed rulemaking that would allow a person with a disability to bring a Segway Scooter on public transit vehicles if the scooter was used as a mobility aid to compensate for their disability. She distributed literature regarding the DOT NPRM.

ADA Complaints:

MUNI Accessible Services staff presented February and March ADA complaint data to the MAAC committee.

Items for Next Agenda:

1. Ed Evans requested that ADA complaint codes be discussed and that someone from Muni training to address how operators respond to ADA complaints.

2. Arden Wheeler has seen increasing safety problems with automobile traffic at California and Hyde Streets. He would like a representative from Muni Cable Cars and from DPW Traffic Engineering to discuss implementing more appropriate signage.

Announcements:

Jeanne Lynch reported to the committee regarding The Institute on Aging (IOA) plans to develop a senior living and health center at the site of the old Coronet Theater (on 3575 Geary). This project was unanimously approved by the SF Planning Commission on April 6. IOA will begin to ready the site for construction in late 2006.

Adjournment:

At 3:12PM, the meeting adjourned to the next regularly scheduled meeting of Thursday, May 18th, 2006, at 1:00PM.

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