In an effort to appear that they have any control whatsoever over the growing swarm of corporate shuttle buses clogging neighborhood streets and bogarting their bus stops, the SFMTA has proposed a new set of "rules" that basically allow shuttles to keep operating as they already are. The new policy will be put to an 18-month test, and Muni is hoping it will "minimize the impact" the corporate shuttles are having on Muni bus operations.

At issue, primarily, is the fact that the buses chartered by companies like Facebook, Google, and Genentech have been illegally sharing some 250 Muni bus stops, some at already crowded intersections, such as the corner of Hayes and Steiner by Alamo Square, and the corner of 18th and Castro, and occasionally forcing Muni buses to offload passengers in the middle of the street. Under current law, this shouldn't be happening, but Muni has so far turned a blind eye. The proposed plan, as the Chron reports, would simply ask the corporate shuttles to kindly use a specific set of 100 Muni stops, to try to pull to the front of the stop, and to limit how long they sit there.

The new policy would also require shuttle operators to share passenger data and routes with the MTA, which may at least help matters since currently no one seems to know exactly how many of these shuttles are running on any given day. (The MTA has tried to map the stops before, and so has this design firm.)

An MTA Board of Directors committee heard a presentation of the new plan at a meeting on Friday, and we'll update if we learn more.

[Chron]