San Francisco County Transportation Authority - Regular Meeting

Mike, is it working?

Yeah, there it is. OK. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the April 28, 2026 regular meeting of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority Board. I am Commissioner Mira Melgar, chair of this board. Our vice chair is Danny Sautter. Welcome, colleagues. The clerk today is Amy Sayoung. And I would also like to acknowledge Eugene Libadia at SFGov TV for staffing this meeting. Madam Clerk, please call the roll and then make your announcements.

Commissioner Chan. Chan absent. Commissioner Chen. Chen present. Commissioner Dorsey. Dorsey absent. Commissioner Fielder. Fielder absent. Commissioner Mahmood. Mahmood present. Commissioner Mandelman.

Present.

Mandelman present. Chair Malgar. Present. Melgor present. Vice Chair Sautter? Present. Sautter present. Commissioner Sherrill? Present. Sherrill present. Commissioner Walton? Present. Walton present. Commissioner Wong? Present. Wong present. Chair, we have quorum. I'd also like to recognize that Commissioner Dorsey has entered. The Transportation Authority welcomes your attendance here in person at the Legislative Chamber, room 250, second floor of City Hall. When you can't be here, the proceedings are streaming live at sfgovtv.org or airing on SF Cable Channel 26 or 78. Written public comment may be submitted by sending an email to clerk at sfcta.org or by emailing Mailing comments via U.S. Postal Service to SFCTA 1455 Market Street, 22nd Floor, San Francisco, California 94103. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. At this time, I'd like to excuse Commissioners Chan and Fielder from this meeting. And before calling the next item as chair, I'd like to invoke Rule 3.26 from the Rules of Order to limit total public comment per item to 30 minutes for today's meeting. Each speaker will have two minutes to speak on any given item. Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Item 2, Chartered Report. This is an information item.

Thank you, colleagues. This month, I would like to begin by recognizing our major transit operators, Uni, BART, and Caltrain, which all saw record riderships during the month of March. BART saw its highest monthly weekday in single-day ridership figures since the pandemic, with March 2026 ridership 20% higher. than March 2025. Caltrain's March 26 weekly ridership is also up almost 30% from last March. Weekday ridership for SFMTA has now reached 79% of pre-pandemic levels, while weekend ridership has almost reached full recovery at 99% of pre-pandemic levels. These ridership gains reflect a tremendous effort each operator is making on service delivery and customer experience from coordinating transfers to working together on fares and wayfinding. Each is also focused on maintenance and the use of onboard personnel and ambassadors to support passengers. At the same time, each transit system has presented difficult budget scenarios to their boards, outlining potential cost reductions, revenue enhancements, and service cuts for the coming fiscal year as state and federal funds run out. Stabilizing transit funding is crucial for riders, the city, and the region, and strong transit is foundational to achieving our climate goals. And speaking of that, congratulations to SF Environment and Mayor Lurie on the release of the 2026 Climate Action Plan last week when we celebrated Earth Day and Climate Week. As with prior plans, the 2026 Climate Action Plan establishes ambitious goals for the transportation sectors, which accounts for 45% of the city's emissions. This includes electrifying all light duty vehicles and reducing vehicle miles traveled per capita by 30% from 2019 levels by 2040. The Transportation Authority looks forward to continuing to be a strong partner in helping to implement the plan's recommended strategies and investments. From greening our fleets and city canopy to funding transit, bicycling, pedestrian capital improvements and vehicle electrification projects. Partnership is key to achieving our climate goals, especially as our travel survey data shows that there has been an uptick in private vehicle travel and mode shares since the pandemic. That is why it's critical to keep pressing forward on all our short and long-term multimodal strategies in the climate action plan, in our own countywide transportation plan, and the Bay Area plan. This includes advancing the portal, the downtown rail extension for Caltrain, and future high-speed rail led by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which is seeking state transit grant funds next month and regional support from MTC for that application. My thanks to the staff and colleagues at MTC, California Transportation Commission for their consideration of our requests and for their partnership for this critical investment for regional and statewide connectivity. With that, I conclude my remarks. If there's no other questions or comments from colleagues, let's open this up for public comment, please.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak on item two, the chair's report? There is not.

Welcome, executive director.

I can't see it.

I'm sorry. I'm just having a little technical difficulties here. No? There we go. OK, thank you.

Okay, please call item number three. Thank you, Chair. Item three, Executive Director's Report. This is an information item.

Good morning, Chair Malgar and Commissioners. Today I'll begin with an update from the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is seeking comments on its 2026 business plan. We have been joining SFMTA, SF Planning, and the region in providing feedback to the authority, and this week, SFMTA Planning and myself are jointly submitting comments to the authority to talk about their proposals for the coming years. In the past, there had been a valley-to-valley strategy from the Central Valley to the Silicon Valley Bay Area, and they have a bit stepped away from that, trying to focus now on completing its Central Valley segment and perhaps moving south. San Francisco's feedback on the business plan focuses on the imperative for continued state investment in the high-speed rail systems bookend projects, that is to say the Northern California and Southern California connections in Northern California, of course, including the portal, which will bring high-speed rail trains into the basement of Salesforce Transit Center. We wish to also thank Senator Scott Weiner for speaking in support of the portal at yesterday's California State Transportation Committee hearing regarding high-speed rail. We have also coordinated our input on these joint benefit partner agency comments across the Bay Area with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, Caltrain, MTC, and others. The High Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors will consider comments tomorrow at its regular meeting in Sacramento. So we'll keep you posted on those developments. We also want to thank Caltrans for completing the I-80 eastbound construction work and the 19th Avenue repaving work, the first of three weekend closures for 19th Avenue last weekend and the prior weekend. These were all full weekend closures that proceeded fairly smoothly and even completed and opened the facilities early in both cases on Sunday morning before the Monday scheduled opening. We, again, thank Caltrans for its extensive outreach and thorough coordination with SFMTA, BART, Caltrain, excuse me, BART, Caltrain, also Public Works and ourselves. It was great to see BART reporting record ridership that weekend, two weekends ago, to help pick up that demand and thank them for their extra efforts in the case of the I-80 closure. In a few weeks, we'll see more work on 19th Avenue to resurface the pavement, and we really again thank everyone for their patience, the public for their patience, as we get that important work done. SF Bay Ferry, the Bay Ferry tour that was on April 14th was a pleasure. I joined regional officials for WIDA's Bay Ferry tour. annual program highlighting its electrification program and expansion programs. Today you have on your agenda the Mission Bay ferry landing, which we're happy to help fund, and the initial expansion plans do include Treasure Island, Mission Bay, followed by Berkeley and Redwood City. That is all funding dependent. And so we are pleased to support the regional ferry effort. Congratulations also to Bay Ferry for record high ridership in March and a 98% passenger satisfaction rating. So fantastic support from the public for all their efforts. Turning to the Climate Action Plan, again, I want to echo Chair's congratulations and appreciations for SF Environment and the city's release of the Climate Action Plan. Our agency has been providing technical support for the emission projections and analyses and continue to help with funding a number of initiatives, capital and otherwise, to help encourage achievement of those ambitious goals. Moving on, ER Taylor Earth Day was a pleasure last week where two planners, Nikki Chen and Aaron Schlichter, participated for us with the Earth Day School community at ER Taylor, and we were pleased to participate in all types of activities to promote cycling and walking, and note that we will be having Bike and Roll Week coming up next week. I'll be attending as well on the 6th, a number of programs for that fun activity, and look forward to continuing Earth Day and Climate Week activities into next month and throughout the year. In terms of some outreach updates, Brotherhood Way team engaged with the community on their safety and circulation plan, completing the third round of outreach in April. Senior Transportation Planner David Long shared community feedback from the prior round, as well as near-term and long-term improvements. that are being developed for three phases, as well as a vision for potentially realigning Brotherhood Way. The community was very clear, though, that they want to see more action-oriented near and medium-term projects recommended, so we'll be taking their feedback back to the office and come back to you all later this summer and fall with a final report. In parallel, the West Side Network study team also launched a second round of outreach, and our San Francisco transportation plan survey is open to the public. So we held a couple of online and in-person town halls across the city and are doing direct outreach to community-based organizations and neighborhood groups who can certainly call our teams and ask for a presentation. If your group would like a presentation, please contact us at sfcta.org slash westside or give our office a call. We'll be happy to send some folks out. We did hold two multilingual virtual town halls in April and are reaching out to over 200 community-based organizations as well as community leaders. And again, the survey for the San Francisco transportation is up and open through May 15th. On a separate related call for project, we are pleased to share that the One Bay Area Cycle 4 County Program Call for Projects, which is a funding program, is out for public input. This Call for Projects was released on April 17th, and up to $48.7 million is available through the county program that MTC sponsoring across the region. Our county will be making recommendations to MTC through this board's action later this fall. The One Bay Area grant program is an every four year program that directs federal funding to projects and programs that advance implementation of Plan Bay Area and our countywide plan. As the congestion management agency for San Francisco, we will be nominating projects for consideration that MTC will then act upon later this year in October. MTC will evaluate our nominations, and hopefully we will be able to announce those results this fall. Now moving to project delivery, the pavement renovation number 68 project was substantially completed by Public Works, and this included renovating of 38 blocks and construction and retrofit of 140 curb ramps in districts one, five, seven, 10, and 11. We were pleased to provide 1.8 million in Prop L funds for that project. Thank you to Public Works. The Traffic Signal Hardware Replacement Fiscal 24 project was also completed by SFMTA, which is Traffic Signal Hardware Replacement, with 500,000 in Prop L sales tax funds. This includes controller cabinet signals and rectangular rapid flashing beacons for pedestrians that had exceeded or were nearing the end of their useful life. in districts one, two, three, four, seven, nine, 10, and 11. This effort will help ensure MTA's critical safety assets are maintained in a state of good repair, improving safety for all road users. And then finally, the Folsom streetscape, eighth to 11th segment was open for use. So thank you to SFMTA for that work, which is highly anticipated. The project features a two-way protected bikeway with buffers separating bicyclists from drivers, a muni boarding island, and two-stage turn box at 11th Street. I believe that's for cyclists. So remaining work from 2nd to 8th Street is anticipated by the end of 2026, and we are proud to support the project with Prop K sales tax funds. Finally, turning to management and administration updates, our Transportation Authority staff attended Northern California Owner's Night event on April 23rd. This is an event for contractors and consultants. We and many other participating agencies gathered at the MTC offices. This event was hosted by the Northern California Chapter of the Construction Management Association of America, Bay Bridge Chapter of American Council of Engineering Companies, and Build-It. appreciate these opportunities to get information out about our upcoming procurements and business opportunities, particularly for local small and disadvantaged business enterprises. And then one last update. I was very pleased to join President Mandelman and peninsula officials, community members, and elected officials at San Mateo's Progress Seminar in Sonoma earlier this month. This is the annual gathering spearheaded by SAMSEDA, which is sort of the San Mateo Chamber Organization, as together with business, government, labor, and education groups, Major topic this year was addressing our transit funding crisis, and so we were pleased to also attend panels with Bart Caltrain and Sam Tran's GMs and management officials discussing the regional funding measure, as well as the accountability and efficiency provisions of the legislation that enables the measures to go forward this fall. And, of course, the agencies all discussed the consequence of not being able to secure those critical funds. So it was really educational and important to have conversations about that, as well as housing and a number of other topics. So I appreciated that opportunity and thank SAMHSA and its partners for including us.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Director Chang. I don't see anyone on the roster with questions or comments, so let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak on item three, the executive director's report? There's not.

Okay, public comment on this item is now closed. Colleagues, we now have, oh, let's call item number four, please.

Item four, approve the minutes of April 14th, 2026 meeting. This is an action item.

We have to approve these minutes from April 14. So let's go to public comment. I don't see any questions or concerns from my colleagues.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak on item 4, the minutes?

There is not. A public comment is now closed. May I have a motion, please, colleagues, by Walton, seconded by Chen?

Please call the roll, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Chair. On the motion to approve the minutes, item four, Commissioner Chin. Chen, aye. Commissioner Dorsey? Aye. Dorsey, aye. Commissioner Mahmood? Aye. Mahmood, aye. Commissioner Mandelman? Aye. Mandelman, aye. Chair Melgar? Aye. Melgar, aye. Vice Chair Sautter? Aye. Sautter, aye. Commissioner Sherrill? Aye. Sherrill, aye. Commissioner Walton? Aye. Walton, aye. Commissioner Wong? Aye. Wong, aye. There are nine ayes. The minutes are approved.

OK. Thank you. That motion passes. Let's go to our next item, please, Madam Clerk.

Items 5 through 10 comprise the consent agenda. Staff is not planning to present on these items but are available for questions.

Okay, thank you. There's no questions or comments from my colleagues or to look at any specific part of the consent agenda, and we don't need public comment since we had these last time. May I have a motion and a second, please, colleagues? Moved by Dorsey, seconded by Sauter. Madam Clerk, I think we can do that same house, same call. Yes, Chair. Hey that motion passes Let's go to the next item.

Please madam clerk item 11 introduction of new items.

This is an information item Okay, I don't see anyone on the roster with new items introduced so let's go to the next item please Item 12 public comment.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak on item 12? I And there is your two minutes.

I would just like to.

Just a moment. Your two minutes begins now.

Okay. I'm not sure this is on item 12. That's why I'm hesitating. OK. Good morning, everyone. My name is David Ruda. I am a resident of the Richmond district. I've been a lawyer in San Francisco and a native San Francisco resident. Family's been here since the 1890s. Lived one block from Park Presidio Boulevard for the last 30 years. Today we have the amazing completion of the Tunnel Tops project on Doyle Drive. And that project proved that San Francisco can replace a dangerous crumbling freeway with a world-class parkway that heals the landscape and integrates divided landmarks in this city. I'm here to ask that you now turn your attention to the second branch of Doyle Drive of that same artery, which is the Park Presidio Boulevard. And I'm asking for a feasibility study to consider the undergrounding of portions or all of Park Presidio Boulevard in the Richmond District. While the tunnel tops reconnected the main post to the bay, Park Presidio remains a high-speed barrier that severs our neighborhood and the Presidio's ecology. It's not just an aesthetic issue, it's a life safety crisis. Park Presidio is a fixture on the high-injury network that Mayor Lurie has identified for study this year. Just this year, we've seen the consequence of mere surface-level design at the Fulton Street bus shelter crash. Also in 2025 and 26, city police identified the Park Presidio Bypass.

Thank you for your comment. You may submit the rest of your comment in writing. Yes. Great. Thank you so much. There are no other public commenters. OK. Public comment is now closed. Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Item 13, adjournment.

We are adjourned. Thank you.