SEC. 8A.100. PREAMBLE.

(a) An effective, efficient, and safe transportation system is vital for San Francisco to achieve its goals for quality of life, environmental sustainability, public health, social justice, and economic growth. The Municipal Transportation Agency must manage San Francisco's transportation system which includes automobile, freight, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian networks to help the City meet those goals. Through this measure, the voters seek to provide the Municipal Transportation Agency with improved resources and expanded independence and authority in order to create a transportation system that is among the best in the world.

(b) This article requires the Municipal Transportation Agency to develop clear, meaningful and quantifiable measures of its performance and goals and to regularly publicize those standards. This article also recognizes that the workers of the Municipal Transportation Agency are vital to the success of the Agency and to achieving the improvements voters seek. Therefore, it authorizes incentives for excellence and requires accountability for both managers and employees.

(c) Specifically, San Francisco residents require:

1. Reliable, safe, timely, frequent, and convenient transit service to all neighborhoods;

2. A reduction in breakdowns, delays, over-crowding, preventable accidents;

3. Clean and comfortable transit vehicles and stations, operated by competent, courteous, and well trained employees;

4. Support and accommodation of the special transportation needs of the elderly and the disabled;

5. Protection from crime and inappropriate passenger behavior on the Municipal Railway;

6. Responsive, efficient, and accountable management;

7. Roads that are not gridlocked with congestion;

8. A safe and comprehensive network of bicycle lanes;

9. A safe and inviting environment for pedestrians;

10. Efficient movement of goods and deliveries;

11. A transportation sector that promotes environmental sustainability and does not contribute to global warming; and

12. A well-managed and well-coordinated transportation system that contributes to a livable urban environment.

Through this measure, the voters seek to provide the transportation system with the resources, independence and focus necessary to achieve these goals.

(d) The voters find that one of the impediments to achieving these goals in the past has been that responsibility for transportation has been diffused throughout City government. Accordingly, this Article places within the Municipal Transportation Agency the powers and duties relating to transit now vested in other departments, boards, and commissions of the City and County. This Article further requires that, to the extent other City and County agencies provide services to the Municipal Transportation Agency, those departments must give the highest priority to the delivery of such services.

(e) At the same time, this Article is intended to ensure sufficient oversight of the Municipal Transportation Agency by, among other things, preserving the role of the City's Controller as to financial matters, the City Attorney as to legal matters, and the Civil Service Commission, as to merit system issues. In addition, this Article requires that outside audits be performed to ensure that required service levels are obtained with a minimum of waste.

(f) Finally, this Article is intended to strengthen the Municipal Transportation Agency's authority to: 1) manage its employees; 2) establish efficient and economical work rules and work practices that maximize the Agency's responsiveness to public needs; and 3) protect the Agency's right to select, train, promote, demote, discipline, layoff and terminate employees, managers, and supervisors based upon the highest standards of customer service, efficiency and competency.

(g) The effective management of traffic flow and parking are vital to the operation of the Municipal Railway. Congestion on city streets causes delays in transit operations. Therefore, the Municipal Transportation Agency must manage parking and traffic flow to ensure that transit vehicles move through City streets safely and efficiently.

(h) In addition, the residents of San Francisco require that the Agency: 1) value and protect the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists; 2) reduce congestion and air pollution through efficient use of the streets; and 3) protect the City's economic health by giving priority to commercial deliveries and access to local businesses.

(i) The voters find that reducing the carbon emissions from San Francisco's transit sector is fundamental to the City's health and wellbeing and shall be among the Agency's policy priorities. Because the Agency has significant influence on San Francisco's transportation sector, which is responsible for fully half of the carbon emissions produced within the City, the voters direct the Agency to develop and implement strategies for substantially reducing those emissions. The voters further affirm the goals of the City's Climate Action Plan.

(j) This Article shall be interpreted and applied in conformance with the above goals.