Corporate shuttle buses rate favorably in new poll

Support for the employee-only shuttle buses — often called Google buses — climbed to 62 percent when pollsters asked whether the buses should be allowed to pick up and drop off passengers at a network of stops that includes some shared with Muni buses.

In November, the Municipal Transportation Agency board voted to alter but continue an 18-month trial program allowing the shuttles to share Muni stops.

Critics say the fees are too small and the buses too numerous and blame the city’s housing crisis on the shuttles, which primarily haul tech workers between their San Francisco homes and Silicon Valley workplaces.

The Bay Area Council, the regional business lobbying group that commissioned the poll, helped shape the corporate shuttle program, working on behalf of its members who operate buses for their employees.

A majority of those surveyed favored regulations requiring fair pay for shuttle drivers, air quality controls, pedestrian safety and traffic flow improvements, and increasing the fee charged to shuttle operators.