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For the first time, Mountain View council members reviewed the numbers for the city’s fledgling community shuttle system, a nearly year-old service that is fast and free, yet still relatively unknown in town.

The four community shuttles, which make a daily 13.5-mile loop through the city, are entirely funded from a donation by Google.

The shuttles were launched at the start of this year as a pilot program, and while ridership has gradually grown, it still remains relatively small. City staff noted that just over 300 people on average rode the shuttle each day in August, or about 10 riders per hour. In comparison, the Valley Transit Authority bus routes 34 and 35, which travel from downtown Mountain View to San Antonio and Stanford shopping centers, respectively, average about 27 riders per hour, according to VTA officials.

That might seem modest, but the nascent shuttle service has some big fans in town, with many urging the city to expand the program with new stops. Chatting with the Voice, the scant passengers on a midday ride on Monday extolled the shuttles as a convenient service that has become a part of their daily routines.

Hopping on the shuttle at the downtown Transit Center on Monday, 22-year-old Christianna Iniguez said that the free service has become her primary way to get to work and around town since she first learned about it around May. Not having a car, she used to take public buses costing $2 per trip. Needless to say, now she opts for the free ride.

“It goes basically everywhere and it’s free,” she said. “Sometimes it comes too early, before it’s scheduled to, and when that happens I have to hurry over to one of the bus stops.”

Taking a short jaunt to the bank on Monday, Mountain View resident Allen Diehl stepped onto the shuttle. Like many of his neighbors at the Paulson Park senior home, he signed a petition asking the city to consider opening a new stop near Montebello Avenue so residents didn’t have to make a 15-minute walk to the pick-up spot.

“It’s not that bad,” he said, smiling. “I’m 80 years old, and I can still walk to get around.”

Shuttle drivers said that some passengers hop on for a ride simply to enjoy the vehicle’s free public wi-fi and cushy seats.

Mountain View staff members reported they had received about 40 requests from the public and city advisory committees to add new shuttle stops and make other changes to the system. City staff recommended not implementing most of those requests because many proved unfeasible or would have resulted in considerable delays along the route.

Other tweaks were proposed by staff, such as limiting how frequently the shuttles would travel out to the lone stop in the North Bayshore area at Shoreline Boulevard and Pear Avenue. Rush-hour traffic or events at the Shoreline Amphitheater can cause delays as long as 30 minutes for shuttles traversing the area. Council members supported a staff recommendation to limit service to the North Bayshore stop to weekends.

Hanging over the shuttle discussion was the issue of how long the program could continue. Google officials have pledged to continue funding the shuttles through the end of 2016, but after that, the service’s future is up in the air.

“I’m worried that because this is a gift we haven’t made it very efficient,” said Councilman Lenny Siegel, “I’m worried that at the end of the gift, we’ll have to abandon it.”

Much of the council’s discussion centered on how to best expand the number of riders using the shuttle program. Council members urged the staff to survey communities, particularly those that rely on public transit, to research adding stops or changing the route for their benefit. Council members urged staff to investigate adding new stops at the Shorebreeze Apartments off Shoreline Boulevard, Paulson Park off Montebello Avenue and the Costco store off Rengstorff Avenue.

City Manager Dan Rich warned that the council couldn’t do everything with its shuttle system and still keep it speedy and punctual.

“There’s going to be trade-offs and we’ve tried to balance those trade-offs,” he said. “At the end of the day, there’s only so many places we can reach if we want a shuttle with 30 minutes or less of headway.”

Councilwoman Pat Showalter wanted to make sure it didn’t seem like the city was looking a gift horse in the mouth.

“I want to make sure we thank Google for this service,” she said. “It’s a real service to the community.”

Email Mark Noack at mnoack@mv-voice.com

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  4. It’d be much more useful if it ran until 8PM on weekdays, instead of the current 10AM to 6PM. That’s not late enough to get dinner downtown. It’d also make sense to run extra shuttles around lunch.

    But that would cost money, of course.

  5. Sparty, the people crossing the street aren’t doing it because of lack of parking, they’re doing it because it makes no sense to drive a car 100 feet when you can walk that in less time.

    Also, not once have I been unable to find parking in that lot.

  6. Really wish Palo Alto and Mountain View weren’t treating themselves like islands. Many of us wish for public transportation that went across the Berlin Wall (sorry I mean San Antonio).

    I would love to be able to get from Midtown Palo Alto to Castro Street easily.

  8. Crossing shoreline at Safeway probably is not necessarily jaywalking. A pedestrian may generally cross a roadway anywhere along the road without jaywalking. The exeptions seem to not apply here.

  9. VTA publishes its system performance data. These 2 comparison routes don’t average 27 riders per hour. What they report is boardings per hour. For the 34 bus, a Community Bus by VTA classification, boardings are 11 per hour. For the 35 bus, a Local Route by VTA’s terms, boardings are 21.5 per hour.

  10. The 34 Bus doesn’t run on the weekend, either.

    The figures for the 35 bus in boardings per hour peaks at 21.5 per hour on Saturday. On Sunday it is 18.2 boardings per hour, and weekdays it is 17.2 boardings per hour.

    The MV Community bus is on par with the VTA services referred to.

  12. “it’s far better to run through traffic, and stand on the islands where drivers may or may not see you when you step out.”

    As opposed to the crosswalks where you depend on other traffic seeing you, which they regularly do not … I do cross at the crosswalks there regularly. If there isn’t much traffic I’d rather cross one side at a time with a safe place halfway than to have to depend on drivers looking and yielding.

  14. Kudos to Google for providing this. That said, our city leaders have shown poor enough judgment to plan around something like this- and Google has zero obligation to continue it (just like their employee busses, which will someday go away and turn Mtn View into a traffic nightmare that will make the 405 look like a country road)

  15. Seems like they simply ran the routes on the streets with the least traffic. Might have been good to at least come close to more shopping–like the Shoreline Safeway which has small parking lots in a tiny lot. Which is probably why you always see jaywalkers running across Shoreline from the apts. across the street

  16. >Sparty, the people crossing the street aren’t doing it because of lack of parking

    Really? Maybe they should drive, since walking alllllllllllllll the way to the crosswalk might add a whole 2 minutes to their trip.

    Then again, maybe your right, it’s far better to run through traffic, and stand on the islands where drivers may or may not see you when you step out.

  17. Little known facts about where it’s legal and illegal to walk across a street:

    (1) It legal to cross midblock outside of a crosswalk unless the two nearest intersections have traffic signals. That means walking across Montecito to get to Safeway near the apartments is 100% legal. See CVC 21955

    (2) Every corner has a legal crosswalk, whether or not it’s marked as such. The only exceptions are when the path between corners is marked “no crossing” or if the streets don’t have sidewalks. See CVC 275

    So before you say someone was “jaywalking” take a look at the CVC. They may be crossing completely legally.

  18. > That means walking across Montecito

    As clearly mentioned in the post above. JAYWALKING. Across SHORELINE.

    Not walking across Montecito. S H O R E L I N E.

    Shame your cut and paste left a few things out….

    V C Section 21950

    “21950. (b) This section does not relieve a pedestrian from the duty of using due care for his or her safety.

    No pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard.”

    Which they do…all the time….running across Shoreline. As mentioned. Not Montecito. Shoreline.

    So before you tell others what to post, at least pay attention to what they are saying, before selectively quoting the CVC

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