What’s the Big Deal with San Francisco’s Tech Shuttles? – A Legal Review

If you’ve been to San Francisco recently, chances are you’ve seen the 18-foot tall white shuttle buses cruising up and down the city’s narrow roads. These shuttles are provided by Google, Apple, and other tech giants to ship their employees to and from their offices down the road in Silicon Valley. You also may have noticed quite a bit of outrage over these tall, wide buses.

Although these busses are operated by private companies, they use the same public bus stops that are maintained by tax payers. Many local residents (people directly affected by growing income gaps and skyrocketing rents) are asking “How is this legal?”

Are the Buses Violating Any Laws?

Initial protests around these buses decried them as an “illegal use of public infrastructure.” Unfortunately for protesters, that isn’t really anything besides a catchy slogan. There are ostensibly city ordinances and vehicle codes that apply and are being broken. For example, the most popular outcry is that private drivers face up to $271 for parking in a bus zone, yet these chartered buses have been left unregulated.

This sort of frustration is misdirected for a few reasons. First, these buses are not technically parking, but loading. Second, they are legally identified as buses, as defined by the vehicle code, and therefore that section of the code would not apply. Another avenue of regulation in the vehicle code is a section that prohibits motorists from impeding traffic. There is another section of San Francisco transit code that provides for loading zones of private buses, and it is possible that not using those could be punishable. However, these sorts of regulation would be a stretch. After all, it is a little extreme to expect someone to be ticketed or fined for stopping to pick up a friend for work at Hayes and Steiner.

Regardless of how you feel about a private bus using a public bus stop, the city is really handcuffed when it comes to any type of financial reregulation of this behavior. Proposition 218 essentially forbids cities from a fee structure that would charge these buses profitable fees. As it stands, San Francisco can charge these shuttles $1 a day, starting in July, and can do so for 18 months.

Are There Any Benefits to These Buses?

In February, Google donated almost $7 million dollars so that lower-income children can have free bus passes for almost two years. Furthermore, a study conducted by two UC Berkeley grad students indicates that these shuttles have a positive impact on traffic patterns, removing thousands from the already congested Bay Area roads.

So What’s the Big Deal?

These sleek, modern buses with tinted windows have come to indicate a type of class-warfare in an area where the gap between the wealthy and economically disadvantaged is staggeringly wide. Incredibly, evictions have increased by 1/3 since 2010. Since there is little to no movement on (or room for) new development, and rents continue to soar, despite San Francisco already being the most expensive city in the country per square-foot.

However, while these issues are all concerning, this rage is a bit misdirected. Local politicians and city planners should be the ones hearing these complaints, not people who have decided to live in a beautiful city, are simply trying to go to work, and are being offered a convenient way to do so. This is particularly true where these companies aren’t technically violating any laws, and have made efforts to help the city’s lower-income residents.

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