Google’s bus program in San Francisco gets challenged by activists

San Francisco city supervisors and affordable housing activists butted heads again over a new pilot program to manage tech commuter shuttles from Silicon Valley-based companies like Google and Facebook. A handful of activist groups say that the new pilot program, which charges tech companies $1 per stop, must undergo environmental review. That would involve a lengthy legal process that could take months or years. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency had previously exempted the pilot program, which was passed back in January, from environmental review. The program is set to charge $1 per stop fee, in part because the city’s transportation agency wasn’t legally allowed to create a revenue-generating program. So the pilot program can only pay for its costs, which are expected to be $1.7 million.