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Comment by cremsh | Hacker News Reader

On the contrary, children need their own buses so they can be shuttled to school despite an existing public transportation infrastructure.

These children are paid above median income, espouse libertarian ideals, refuse to participate or share, and require their own shuttle service separate from 'the natives'.

It says something that to draw 'talent', you have to implement a separate transportation system to appease their fragile sensibilities.

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It says something about San Francisco's housing density and public transportation system that Google needs to create their transportation alternative. It's not that Google employees have "fragile sensibilities" and cannot mix with the rest of the general populace. Rather, it's that everything is spread out and it's difficult to get around using the public transportation system. There are no Google shuttles in NYC because it's more attractive to live closer to the workplace and sufficiently fast to take the existing transportation. The local residents need to accept that high tech workers are there to stay and start solving these problems.

No, the strawman constructed to represent these people espouses libertarian ideals and refuses to participate or share. Actual shuttle riders require the shuttle (to the degree that they really "require" it) because it drives them to work. There isn't much more to it than that.

If Caltrain or BART made the same trip and was even a tiny bit faster or more reliable most would switch in a heartbeat.

Uhh...way to go on stereotyping people. Because everyone who is in tech does this. There are countless tech people who take the Muni and Caltrain to work in Mountain View. Also, the shuttles are an option, designed by companies to optimize the amount of time you work. Quite a lot of people get work done in shuttles. I am not sure how this makes it the fault of the employee because they are using a benefit which exists. What is next? Complain because someone is not refusing a higher pay package just because of your silly conceptions of equality.

While I support the San Francisco backlash-- it's the immune system of the city's soul-- I would normally think the Google buses are a good thing. First, it's better for the environment to have a bus than to have a bunch of people driving. Second, car commuting is awful and being able to replace the commute with useful work hours is a major plus for the workers. If I had a 1.5-hour commute each way, I'd be very appreciative of a program that allowed me to get something done with that time.

The problem isn't Google buses. It's that these tech companies don't pay any fucking taxes. The right way to solve this problem is to make them pay their damn taxes like normal people, and to use that money to build housing until it becomes affordable again (and then everyone can leave the buses alone). And if a corporation is bussing people in from San Francisco, it should pay SF taxes as well instead of being a fucking tax-evading suburbanite.

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