Following a spate of angry blockades of buses carrying tech workers to and from Silicon Valley, shuttle operators for Google, Facebook, and other companies have agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next 18 months to continue using spots reserved for public Muni transportation.
Wi-Fi-equipped shuttle buses, which ferry tech employees from San Francisco to their jobs in Silicon Valley, are just one perk offered up by companies like Google, Yahoo, Apple and Facebook. For some locals, these buses have become a tangible symbol representing the aggressive wave of gentrification sweeping through large swathes of San Francisco and Oakland. Now, almost as if in response, the city of San Franciscohas outlined plans to tax the tech companies if they want to continue offering their workers private transportation.