How Google Buses are Changing San Francisco

Check out this video on Vimeo to see just how much tech buses are using the 21-Hayes Bus Stop in the span of three hours on a given day. 

In the past couple of years, San Francisco has attracted many tech workers who want to stay in the city, especially with the rise of tech companies such as Twitter, Yelp, and Pinterest planting their headquarters in San Francisco. However, a sort of reverse commute is happening as well-- usually, people commute from the suburbs into the city, preferring a quieter (and cheaper) neighborhood over ones in the city, but the opposite is now happening. San Francisco has become a magnet for the young and wealthy millennials, many of which who work in Silicon Valley for the tech industry. They want to live in the rich-in-culture and lively San Francisco but work in Silicon Valley--35 miles away. In order to cater to these workers, some tech companies, most notably Google whose shuttle system is known as the "G Fleet," have begun providing shuttles to pick up workers around San Francisco using public bus stops as their own. 

            According to Google’s website, their G Fleet saves more than 20,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, which is “like taking about 4000 cars off the road or avoiding 71 million vehicle miles every year!” While this number is not specific to San Francisco, it certainly highlights the benefits of Google buses. Who wouldn’t want to get cars off the road? Who doesn’t want to save the environment? While this all seems fine and dandy, there are some underlying implications to the G Fleet in San Francisco.

            First, Google (and when I say Google, I am referring to all the tech shuttle buses in general) buses, which brings around 14,000 workers from San Francisco to Silicon Valley everyday, are eliminating people from the public transit system and therefore funding for public transportation. So while tech workers enjoy their fancy, wi-fi filled buses, San Franciscans may not receive enough money to improve or repair their transportation. But wait! Google is donating millions to that one program that provides free/reduced public transit bus passes to the working class and low-income kids! Doesn’t that count for anything? Although this may help, it could also be creating a “separate but equal” bus system (a point that this article makes), deepening the divide between those who take the Google bus and those using Google-subsidized bus passes.

            Secondly, Google buses use public transportation system, which could clutter up the public transportation system and create undue noise and traffic in neighborhoods where buses stop. Furthermore, there is the question of who can actually stop at public bus stops. Cars are fined $271 for parking at a stop, while these tech buses pay absolutely nothing. However, San Francisco will begin implementing a pilot program in July where buses will have to pay a dollar per stop, which is projected to generate $1.5 million dollars.

            Finally, buses are intensifying gentrification in San Francisco by increasing rent and property values near Google stops according to this study by UC Berkeley grad student Alexandra Goldman. There have also been other studies that show that transit development near houses in general increase their value. By increasing housing around these areas, low-income people will find it more and more difficult to live in San Francisco.

            Although there have been many protests and resistance against the tech industry in the past year in San Francisco, tech companies are probably here to stay and so are tech workers. Instead of fighting against them, I say that we work with them in order to address everyone’s needs. Here are some of the more popular proposed solutions I’ve read to solve the issue at hand:

• Charge companies more than a dollar to stop at public bus stops and use the money to fund affordable housing.
• Work with city metro centers to provide public transit for everyone from San Francisco to areas outside of the city.
• Change current public transportation from San Francisco to Silicon Valley (which would be Caltrain) so that tech workers would actually want to use it.

I’m not sure how feasible any of these solutions are or even how effective they would be, but this guy makes a good point. Taking the Caltrain over Google buses gives you a different perspective and gets you out of the tech bubble. There’s a “rich sense of community” and a taste of the Bay Area—an experience that even Google can’t offer.