Those nefarious Google buses — the sleek, climate controlled hearses that have ferried San Francisco progressivism to hell — could soon be legal statewide. Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) has proposed giving local transit agencies the authority to allow private shuttles the use of public bus stops. Currently, most cities in California only allow schools to access those stops.
“The shuttle services are struggling to be able to continue these environmental [sic] conscious carpool programs for the employees’ benefit, due to outdated statues in law. These companies are pulling more cars off the road,” Allen wrote to the California Legislature.
He's probably right. As Mother Jonesreported last year, the shuttles save 757,223 car trips per year, which equals approximately 6,750 fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year — or the equivalent of taking 1,400 cars off the road. So why have so many demonized private shuttles?
Because gentrification. Opponents say that rents spike around shuttle stops and further displace longtime residents. “Those of us paying taxes, and working hard to maintain our lives in the city, shouldn’t be paying to support private interests who have plenty of money to pay for their own needs,” Sara Shortt, executive director of the Housing Rights Committee, told the Examiner.
To that end, Shortt and several others have filed a lawsuit seeking a mandatory review of the shuttles’ environmental impact. Last year, San Francisco authorized a pilot program allowing private buses to use 200 public stops. The SFMTA charges $3.67 per stop per day, which is effectively the cost of operating the program. Critics worry that Allen’s proposal is a thinly veiled attempt to snuff the lawsuit.
If you believe everything you read in the Chronicle, many San Franciscans have made peace with tech's encroachment on the city and are focused on solutions rather than protests. While it's true that whether you shrug at Google buses or slash their tires depends on how much you have to lose, there is a sense that most in the city have achieved a wary (or just weary) truce with tech's more benign manifestations, such as private shuttles. Or it's possible that old-fashioned street picketing has gone as far as it can and activists, like tech, are seeking new ways to disrupt.
[via SF Examiner; photo courtesy of Flickr]
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