Google's Best Perk — Transport

Reverse Gear writes "The New York Times has an interesting article about how different kinds of fringe benefits are starting to count more in the fight for the best brains in Silicon Valley. The article mainly focuses on Google's high-tech shuttle-bus system, which is quite extensive, covering a majority of the San Fransisco Bay area. The article quotes a transportation expert opining that Google's may be the largest such private system anywhere. One-quarter of the headquarters employees are now using it. A Google software engineer said: 'They could either charge for the food or cut it altogether... If they cut the shuttle, it would be a disaster.'"

Comments

Re:In saner parts of the world...

[j-pimp]

... there is real mass transit so that companies don't have to invest money in doing this for themselves. This leads me to ask a few rhetorical questions: How long before Google gets together with some of the other tech companies in the area to run a shared service? How long after that before it transforms into the sort of mass transit service that people elsewhere in the world take for granted?

Welcome to the consequences of high-density living. Are you predicting the free market will deliver a better mass transportation system than a government monopoly? Surely you jest? Next you'll suggest private education and people paying for there own healthcare!

Mass transit is useless for 90% of journeys

[Colin Smith]

... there is real mass transit so that companies don't have to invest money in doing this for themselves. Right, so of course, the rest of the population should subsidise business transport instead? Public transport is useless for 85%-90% or so of journeys, it's a bad deal for the vast majority of the population.