{"id":1781,"date":"2026-06-09T23:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T23:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781"},"modified":"2026-06-09T23:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T23:59:07","slug":"book-excerpt-city-on-the-edge-google-buses-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781","title":{"rendered":"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"lead-in-text-callout\">Activists in San<\/span> Francisco\u2019s Mission District weren\u2019t giving up easily. David Campos had taken the baton from Chris Daly as the city Supervisor leading the anti-gentrification advocates, who were anchored in a handful of nonprofit community groups. During the springtime festivities for Cinco de Mayo in 2015, Campos called for a moratorium on all new housing construction in the Mission, saying it was the only way to give the district \u201ca fighting chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The idea that new apartment buildings would push rents higher was\u2014and is\u2014a source of endless exasperation for housing advocates. Scott Wiener, who\u2019d taken a more centrist path than Campos, was now on San Francisco\u2019s Board of Supervisors and led the charge against the Mission moratorium, which was voted down twice. It was too drastic a step even for the progressive-leaning Board. But development in the district slowed dramatically in the face of all the political resistance: a proposed 10-story apartment building dubbed \u201cthe Monster in the Mission\u201d by activists had become a symbol of the fight and was ultimately abandoned. (As of this writing it was being revived as an affordable housing project, though opposition remains, and no shovels have been turned.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Yet the gentrification arguments weren\u2019t only, or even mainly, about the rent. Nothing would show that better than the theatrical protests targeting what were universally known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2016\/02\/sfs-tech-bus-problem-isnt-about-buses-its-about-housing\/\" class=\"text link\">the Google buses<\/a>\u2014or, more commonly in many circles, the \u201cfucking Google buses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Cari Spivack, the mid-level Google employee who first created the company\u2019s commuter shuttle program, never imagined she\u2019d be sparking a yearslong political row over whether tech was destroying San Francisco\u2019s soul. Her motivation was simple and personal: She was sick of sitting in traffic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">A designer by trade, Spivack had been working at the networking company 3Com in the early 2000s when she saw the simple elegance of Google\u2019s website, then just a white screen with the Google logo, a box to type your query, and a button that said, \u201cI\u2019m feeling lucky.\u201d Spivack thought its pure functionality was inspiring, and a friend of a friend connected her to a hiring manager at the company. She was brought on as a product manager, joining Google at a magical time when there were just a few hundred employees. It was a dream job\u2014except for the 45-minute white-knuckle commute from her home in Bernal Heights to the Google building in Mountain View.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">She tried taking Caltrain, the creaking, then-diesel-powered commuter railroad that connected Silicon Valley and the city, but with inconvenient stations and glacially slow and infrequent trains, it took forever. She tried carpooling, and that worked better, but the coordination was a constant hassle. \u201cWe\u2019re all leaving at the same time going to the same place on the same road\u2014I thought there has to be a better way,\u201d she recounted later. A friend who worked at Genentech, the biotech pioneer based in the industrial city of South San Francisco, mentioned that the company had a bus that picked people up at the Glen Park BART station and dropped them off at the office. Maybe Google could do that?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cGoogle was the type of place where you saw the patterns of problems and just came up with solutions,\u201d she says. The company had hired her, in fact, for that very mindset. She was a product manager on the engineering team with no background in engineering. But nobody quite knew what product management was anyway, and she could teach herself programming. She had the quality that was judged \u201cGoogley,\u201d as the company would come to call it, and though a computer science degree from a prestigious university would later be all but required for many jobs, it wasn\u2019t like that at the time. Employees were encouraged to think creatively and use 20 percent of their time for their own projects, which could include almost anything\u2014even commuter buses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI was yapping about it at lunch with people and they were like, \u2018Larry would love that idea,\u2019\u201d she recalled, referring to cofounder Larry Page. A few days later she mentioned it to him in the cafeteria line\u2014the company still worked that way in 2004\u2014and he said sure, figure it out. So she did, researching the cost of a bus, where it would stop, and trying to answer the critical question of whether anyone would actually ride it. Page liked the idea of reducing the company\u2019s carbon footprint, Spivack says, though Sergey Brin was doubtful that people would be willing to leave their cars behind in the city.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/book-excerpt-city-on-the-edge-google-buses-san-francisco\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Activists in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District weren\u2019t giving up easily. David Campos had taken the baton from Chris Daly as the city Supervisor leading the anti-gentrification advocates, who were anchored in a handful of nonprofit community groups. During the springtime festivities for Cinco de Mayo in 2015, Campos called for a moratorium on all new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[345,675,100,294,32,396,72,676],"class_list":["post-1781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-apple","tag-book-excerpt","tag-books","tag-facebook","tag-google","tag-longreads","tag-silicon-valley","tag-yahoo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A decade ago, commuter buses attracted big protests in San Francisco. Years later, the city is still feeling the repercussions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A decade ago, commuter buses attracted big protests in San Francisco. Years later, the city is still feeling the repercussions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-09T23:59:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"SILVYBRAND\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"SILVYBRAND\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"SILVYBRAND\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3\"},\"headline\":\"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-09T23:59:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781\"},\"wordCount\":780,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Apple\",\"book excerpt\",\"books\",\"Facebook\",\"Google\",\"longreads\",\"silicon valley\",\"yahoo\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gadgets\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781\",\"name\":\"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-09T23:59:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"A decade ago, commuter buses attracted big protests in San Francisco. Years later, the city is still feeling the repercussions.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":670},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=1781#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\",\"description\":\"Your daily dose of lifestyle, fashion, travel, beauty, and inspiration \u2014 living boldly, stylishly, and confidently.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg\",\"width\":1115,\"height\":522,\"caption\":\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3\",\"name\":\"SILVYBRAND\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"SILVYBRAND\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","description":"A decade ago, commuter buses attracted big protests in San Francisco. Years later, the city is still feeling the repercussions.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","og_description":"A decade ago, commuter buses attracted big protests in San Francisco. Years later, the city is still feeling the repercussions.","og_url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781","og_site_name":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","article_published_time":"2026-06-09T23:59:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":670,"url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"SILVYBRAND","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"SILVYBRAND","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781"},"author":{"name":"SILVYBRAND","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3"},"headline":"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco","datePublished":"2026-06-09T23:59:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781"},"wordCount":780,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg","keywords":["Apple","book excerpt","books","Facebook","Google","longreads","silicon valley","yahoo"],"articleSection":["Gadgets"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781","name":"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-09T23:59:07+00:00","description":"A decade ago, commuter buses attracted big protests in San Francisco. Years later, the city is still feeling the repercussions.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BookExceprt_GoogleBusesThatTookOverSanFrancisco_v3.jpg","width":1280,"height":670},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=1781#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Untold Story of the Google Buses That Took Over San Francisco"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/","name":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","description":"Your daily dose of lifestyle, fashion, travel, beauty, and inspiration \u2014 living boldly, stylishly, and confidently.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#organization","name":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg","width":1115,"height":522,"caption":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3","name":"SILVYBRAND","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"SILVYBRAND"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/silvybrand.com"],"url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}