Silicon Valley firms to pay fee for commuter shuttles amid tech backlash

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Silicon Valley firms to pay fee for commuter shuttles amid tech backlash

BY ALEXEI ORESKOVIC
SAN FRANCISCO Tue Jan 21, 2014 11:05pm EST

(Reuters) - San Francisco's transportation agency agreed on Tuesday to charge Google Inc, Apple Inc and other tech companies $1 every time one of their commuter shuttles uses a public bus stop, in a deal that seems unlikely to end the recent wave of technology industry-backlash among some residents.

The commuter buses take about 17,000 passengers a day from their homes in San Francisco to dozens of technology companies based in Silicon Valley, south of the city.

The 18-month pilot program, which the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency unanimously approved, comes as the buses have become high-profile targets to activists upset about rising housing prices.

Hours before the meeting on Tuesday, protesters blocked two technology company buses in San Francisco, according to media reports. Several of Google's buses have been blocked by protesters in recent weeks, including an incident in Oakland in which the window of a Google bus was shattered.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/22/us-usa-techbus-idUSBREA0L06420140122

[jollyreaper2112]

1. I admit I don't know what this story is about

Specifically, what the problem is. These companies are running private transport just like a private school, right? Day care businesses will run shuttles to local schools to pick up kids. A retirement home near me has a shuttle that takes people to the store.

So this kind of thing can be done responsibly and respectfully. Where are these guys crossing the line and abusing the system? I don't doubt they can and will, I just don't see where it's happening here. I like to know what I'm getting riled up about.

[Savannahmann]

2. Ok, I'm confused.

One of the programs that conservation encourages is ride sharing and the use of mass transit. These private busses are little more than express busses for the workers to use, if they so choose. I don't believe that they are mandatory, and each person who boards the bus reduces the amount of traffic on the streets and the congestion by one. So if ten workers are on the bus not counting the driver, then that is nine less cars on the road, and a probable reduction of greenhouse gasses by at least half, probably more.

The busses are IMO a nice touch to help the environment, the congestion found in many cities, and offers a more relaxing journey to and from work.

Blaming the busses because the city is going more tech company friendly is kind of silly. Yes it is a shame that the people with those tech jobs are buying up all the real estate and changing the character of the city. But cities are always in flux, with some moving in, and other moving out. I was in Southern California in the 1980's when Garden Grove became known as "Little Saigon" because a number of the refugee's from Viet-Nam had settled there. Of course you want to live near people who have the same ethnic and social understandings as you do. That wasn't the point, there wasn't a rule that anyone had to live there, or could not live there unless they were. It wasn't a Ghetto, or a mandatory thing. It was one of a million small communities that grow up in cities, and have done so since the dawn of time. In NY City there are Irish neighborhoods, Italian Neighborhoods, Chinatown, and others too numerous to list.

I'm sure that the people who lived in Garden Grove and saw the influx of Vietnamese immigrants arriving were miffed at the time. In time, everyone learned to live together, as usually happens.

Now, San Francisco is going to have to learn to live with the Tech Workers. Because the benefits to the city are far more numerous than the detractions. Yes, there are Google busses driving down the road, but those busses are bringing people to and from work, to their homes where they are going to be using local restaurants, grocery stores, car dealers and repair shops. I know, those are service related jobs, but the thing is this. We've talked many times about how raising the minimum wage improves the economy, and that is the economy that is improved first by the influx of more people with more disposable income. Here is a link from yesterday. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024365833

San Francisco isn't being taken over by these all too visible examples of the tech industry. Those things are examples of an environmentally friendly approach to the need to get to work. So lighten up gang, Congratulate Google and Apple and the rest for spending the money to buy the busses and pay the drivers to reduce the congestion that would otherwise clog your city's streets.