4 ms·

Looking at the action critically, what is to be gained by calling attention to Google, Facebook, and others providing their own bus fleets? A bus fleet that wo

Looking at the action critically, what is to be gained by calling attention to Google, Facebook, and others providing their own bus fleets? A bus fleet that works for everybody? You know, the kind of public transportation that is common in industrialized countries that have their act together when it comes to the provision of public services.

Houshalter 13y ago
And are they aren't preventing anyone from doing that.
- scott_karana 13y ago
  They are, if they're occupying their spots.
  - enneff 13y ago
    Hah, so the woeful state of the Bay Area's public transport system is the result of private buses being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Surely the issue is a bit deeper than that.
    - xster 13y ago
      Had similar reflex. The SF way seemed very strange to me as an outsider and it would almost appear like the primary 'benefactor' of these confrontations are the city governance who are paid by tax payers to make sure the housing supplies are sufficient and public transportation are efficient. If Gmail can't keep up with demand and the SF city council just opened 1000 new account, one for each city employee, and Gmail speed slowed to a crawl, would Google and the public say "aha! they're using all the resources, let's protest"?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    I don't think this is an actual issue though. The vast majority of people are not using private buses. Even if they were. And if they were, well there would be a decent private system in place and it still wouldn't be such an issue.
- 21echoes 13y ago
  by papering over the problem with a short-term fix for their employees only, they remove public demand for a long-term, public solution
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    Good. There was a problem and they decreased the amount of people affected by it. Since when is that a bad thing? Let alone worth protesting.
    - notJim 13y ago
      It's a problem when only a very privileged minority have access to a vital service.
      - Houshalter 13y ago
        That's a zero-sum fallacy. One person being better off doesn't make everyone else worse off. In any case you can make the same argument against any other private service ever.
sirkneeland 13y ago
As with government-run education, SF's problems with government-run transportation aren't a lack of funding. I imagine you'd find we spend just as much per capita on our mass transit systems as other industrialized countries. Our government institutions just aren't very well-run.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Doesn't that pre-suppose that there would exist a 'public' bus fleet that went between San Francisco and Mountain View (or Menlo Park, or Palo Alto, etc). There are at least three different transit districts covering that region. Now if you want to argue that we should combine all of the bus transport services, from San Rafael to Morgan Hill, and from Morgan Hill to Livermore into a single huge transportation system (all of those places are served by Gbus and presumably the other guys as well). That is a different conversation (and probably worth having)

Houshalter 13y ago

And are they aren't preventing anyone from doing that.

scott_karana 13y ago
They are, if they're occupying their spots.
- enneff 13y ago
  Hah, so the woeful state of the Bay Area's public transport system is the result of private buses being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Surely the issue is a bit deeper than that.
  - xster 13y ago
    Had similar reflex. The SF way seemed very strange to me as an outsider and it would almost appear like the primary 'benefactor' of these confrontations are the city governance who are paid by tax payers to make sure the housing supplies are sufficient and public transportation are efficient. If Gmail can't keep up with demand and the SF city council just opened 1000 new account, one for each city employee, and Gmail speed slowed to a crawl, would Google and the public say "aha! they're using all the resources, let's protest"?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- Houshalter 13y ago
  I don't think this is an actual issue though. The vast majority of people are not using private buses. Even if they were. And if they were, well there would be a decent private system in place and it still wouldn't be such an issue.
21echoes 13y ago
by papering over the problem with a short-term fix for their employees only, they remove public demand for a long-term, public solution
- Houshalter 13y ago
  Good. There was a problem and they decreased the amount of people affected by it. Since when is that a bad thing? Let alone worth protesting.
  - notJim 13y ago
    It's a problem when only a very privileged minority have access to a vital service.
    - Houshalter 13y ago
      That's a zero-sum fallacy. One person being better off doesn't make everyone else worse off. In any case you can make the same argument against any other private service ever.

sirkneeland 13y ago

As with government-run education, SF's problems with government-run transportation aren't a lack of funding. I imagine you'd find we spend just as much per capita on our mass transit systems as other industrialized countries. Our government institutions just aren't very well-run.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Doesn't that pre-suppose that there would exist a 'public' bus fleet that went between San Francisco and Mountain View (or Menlo Park, or Palo Alto, etc). There are at least three different transit districts covering that region. Now if you want to argue that we should combine all of the bus transport services, from San Rafael to Morgan Hill, and from Morgan Hill to Livermore into a single huge transportation system (all of those places are served by Gbus and presumably the other guys as well). That is a different conversation (and probably worth having)