The latest salvo in San Francisco's continuing Google Bus War: A coalition of community and housing activists and a union representing public employees filed suit Thursday to stop San Francisco officials from going ahead with a pilot project to regulate private commuter buses.
The complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, says the pilot project violates both the California Vehicle Code and state environmental law and seeks court orders to halt the program until it's brought into compliance.
The buses carry thousands of workers to high-tech campuses from San Francisco to Silicon Valley as well as to sites around the city. Over the past year, the shuttles have become the object of repeated protests as the booming tech economy draws workers to the Bay Area, a trend that in turn has played a part in rising rents and an increasing number of evictions.
The hundreds of buses plying San Francisco streets have also been unpopular because they freely use Municipal Railway bus stops. Under state law, that curb space is reserved for public transportation, and private vehicles of any sort are subject to fines of at least $100 for stopping there.
The pilot bus project, approved by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in January, would allow the private shuttles to use about 200 Muni bus stops for a fee of $1 for every stop each bus makes on its daily rounds. City officials say that fee would raise about $1.5 million over the 18 months of the pilot, enough to defray the cost of the program.