That's an insightful writeup on the life in SF, but I didn't understand what private buses have to do with real estate prices. Isn't it just bad public policy?

That's an insightful writeup on the life in SF, but I didn't understand what private buses have to do with real estate prices. Isn't it just bad public policy? My city (and many others) allow private inter-state buses to pick up passengers from certain designated locations late in the evening (so it doesn't cause a traffic jam). When implemented correctly, this is /fair/ because the service is accessible and (more-or-less) useful to everyone. That's taxpayer money (roads, public congestion) being put to good use. There are also lots of private company buses that pick up passengers from their homes and drop them at their place of work (which is probably a factory very far away), that don't even require explicit permission. If they weren't early morning/ late evening buses, and caused a lot of congestion, the public would certainly complain. The company would have to make amends to make everyone feel more comfortable. From what I've read, the Google Bus is the worst kind of private bus. It's masked as a public bus, and uses the regular bus stops. Yet, it's designed in a very unfriendly manner and does not indicate where it's going. In other words, it's not easily accessible to everyone. And people naturally complain because of the rift it creates in society. There are even building rules in every city: one city is so particular that its buildings must look friendly that everything is pink! (look up Jaipur). Good public policy is about using taxpayer money to make public spaces/services as friendly and equitable as possible. That said, I don't deny that there might be terrible public transport in SF. In which case, the solution is not to throw private buses out the window (I've already stated that they're not fundamentally unworkable), but rather to pick the points of criticism and make amends.