The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is proposing a set of rules around commuter buses and the use of public bus stops, a spokesman Paul Rose said via email.
“The proposed policy balances the need to minimize impacts on Muni with the benefits that shuttles provide by taking thousands of cars off the street,” Rose said. The agency plans to present the proposal to its board in January. If approved, a pilot test will go into affect in the summer, he added.
“We certainly don’t want to cause any inconvenience to San Francisco residents and we and others in our industry are working with SFMTA to agree on a policy on shuttles in the city,” a Google spokeswoman said.
Bemused Google workers spent about a half hour sitting on the bus until the protesters disbanded, many of the workers sending Tweets about the incident.
“My shuttle came under siege this morning,” tweeted Alejandro Villarreal, who attached a photo of the scene as it appeared through the bus window. Villarreal’s LinkedIn profile identifies him as a program manager at Google.
“Don’t hate on me for my job,” tweeted @FashionistaLab, whose Twitter description identifies her as a style editor at Google Shopping. “You think I LIKE commuting to Mountain View? This protest is dumb.”
A man who screamed at protest organizer Erin McElroy, 31, was later identified as a union worker who was pretending to be a Google employee upset at being delayed by the protest.