Google Shuttles Vilified in San Francisco
September 8, 2009
I wrote a column for KMWorld about Google’s push into mass transit services. Google disclosed an invention for sending shuttles where they were needed. The traditional muni transportation systems in the US run buses on a scheduled route. Most bus systems are bleeding cash. Google’s shuttle system (I am simplifying here) allows a Googler to request a ride electronically. The driver gets a route and map update wirelessly. The Googler gets an SMS that tell him or her when the shuttle will arrive. Lovely. But the love fest in SF is ending if the story in the San Francisco Weekly is accurate. “Noe Valley and Mission Residents Say Google Shuttles Are Evil” reported:
Residents from the Mission and Noe Valley have vilified the company and its unmarked private shuttles that zip commuters to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. Many Mission hipsters blame Google and its buses for gentrifying the neighborhood that prides itself on being artsy and eclectic. Next door in Noe Valley, residents are irked for different reasons. They complain that the buses, which are equipped with WiFi and air conditioning, are infecting their pristine neighborhood with congestion, noise, and pollution. “There are buses idling; we don’t want that even if they run partially on biofuel,” says Vicki Rosen, president of Upper Noe Neighbors.
Google has spicy sausage pains in Italy. Now the Mission and Noe crowd are grousing. Poor Googzilla. The honeymoon seems to be ending.
Stephen Arnold, September 8, 2009
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