Commute.org – Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance

In theory,
is a fantastic tool. If you live in Burlingame, north foster city, or a few other places in the peninsula, this FREE shuttle will take you to the Millbrae Bart/​Caltrain or a few other Caltrain stops. It seemed like a great alternative to driving to the Millbrae for me (which is now $ 3 to park per day). The reality is, the company in which they contract (MV Transportation) hires cheap labor for shuttle drivers. This leads to missed routes, a communication break down, and many other problems. In my experience, accountability is crucial to my job, and because I need to get to work on time, so I can no longer use this service. Here are the three most recent encounters I’ve had:
1) I waited for the 7:59am pickup at 4100 east 3^rd… I saw the shuttle turn around a block down the road and skip my pick up. This made me 45 minutes late to work.
2) I came earlier to the 735am pickup at 4100 east 3^rd hoping to get to work a bit early… The shuttle driver skipped this stop, I arrived at 725 so I know I didn’t miss it… (I’m assuming because he didn’t have anyone to drop off)
3) the Bart was delayed 10 minutes. Normally I get on the 6pm shuttle frm Millbrae back to foster city. Because of my delay I arrived at the pickup spot at 610. The next shuttle came at 7pm. When we got to foster city (close to 730pm), the driver screamed at me in Mandarin, kicking me off the bus. He kept slapping a schedule I couldn’t read. When I got off the shuttle (and walked 2.5 miles to where he was supposed to drop me off) I noticed the last shuttle (his shuttle) only does the one stop, not all of them. That’s fine, unfortunate for me, but not his fault. However, since he dropped me off last time and when I spoke to a member of
I was assured they do all stops, I was confused as to why the driver was kicking me off. Screaming at me, SHOUTING, and embarrassing himself and me was not the way to handle this. There was a lady on the shuttle who spoke Mandarin, perhaps if he wanted to explain the situation he could have explained to her to tell me? More importantly, what if there is a safety issue and the bus needs to stop? With this man speaking ZERO English, it seems like a dangerous opportunity for disaster.
If you have a lax company about time and don’t want to drive, this is a decent alternative (though time consuming). And their website is great. But the shuttle drivers and the lack of accountability from
make this a LAST CHOICE for me.