Opinion: Privatized busing comes to San Francisco

[Panich52]

San Francisco is not a convenient place to live. And with the rising cost of living, the growing population and the shortage of housing, it’s becoming less convenient by the day. A booming tech industry has brought thousands of new residents to San Francisco, all needing a way to get to work. Public transit infrastructure is operating over capacity. While city agencies scramble to meet rising demand, private companies are stepping in with market-based solutions for top-tier customers.

Read more:  More insidious than just a private bus

http://alj.am/1NZ7bE9
via @ajam

[MineralMan]

1. I hear there are, like, private taxis and limo services

there, too. There's also public transit aplenty in the Bay Area. Maybe these private services will take some of the load off public transit and make everything go more smoothly. You think?

[XemaSab]

2. According to Google maps

Taking public transportation from the Palace of Fine Arts (in a nice wealthy neighborhood in SF) to the Googleplex in Mountain View takes 3 hours and 10 minutes each way, while driving in a private car takes 52 minutes.

In that situation, it's about more than just not wanting to take the bus with the plebes, it's about not wanting to spend 6 hours and 20 minutes a day getting to and from work.

[Throd]

3. Oh no! Someone recognized a need and is catering to it.

The article was trying to imply something nefarious here, but I just don't see it.

[daredtowork]

5. Something that occurs to me

Is the issue might become the same as vouchers for private schools and means-testing for Social Security: when the wealthier people withdraw themselves from the public system, the political will to support the public system dries up. Taxes keep getting cut, and eventually the middling to poorer classes have no more "public" resource.

If the commute is a hassle, the public resource should be improved so the middle and lower class also does not have to suffer a 6 hour commute. Considering how property values escalate in the immediate vicinity of these tech companies, some cashiers, clerks, and janitors are commuting even further. Don't think they won't apply for a job two counties away. When I was registered for a Workforce Initiative Act employment program in Berkeley, the ONLY jobs they would refer me to were minimum wage jobs that would take over an hour to get to across several forms of public transportation. Apparently even a client's mobility disability that would have prohibited that type of commute was no bar to the aspiration of getting unemployed people to work in jobs where their transportation costs would negate their after-tax pay. I'm under the impression that all such programs were to scam WIA funds from the Federal govt., but unemployed people have to take what is shoved down their throats around here.

[1939]

6. Even with public transit

If there are a large number of people going from Point A to Point B all at the same time, it makes sense to provide assets to meet the need. When I was a kid growing up, the city bus line ran a Saturday "shoppers special" from a meeting point near us that ran straight to the downtown department stores and back without intermediate stops. It gave them revenue on a low commute load day and saved the riders an out of the way route with a transfer that stops every couple of blocks to load and unload.

[daredtowork]

7. That makes sense but

make it a public service, not a luxury limo.

[SoCalDem]

4. Van-pool "buses" have been in CA for DECADES

It actually makes sense because if the distances, and takes cars off the roads too

[SickOfTheOnePct]

8. I see no problem with it

If public transportation can't or won't keep up with demand, then I see no reason why private companies shouldn't pick up the slack.

[Nye Bevan]

9. Kudos to these companies for creating jobs and helping the environment

by providing buses for their workers instead of having them all drive to and from work in their own cars. Seems like a win-win-win to me.