If there is enough interest, this is going to happen.
-Asking how much they would pay is not the same as asking how much would they pay at most. E.g. I would rather pay $3/trip but would pay up to $7.
-You don't describe the service offered: the nicer it is the more someone would pay if they were paying out of pocket (yellow school bus or an air conditioned coach with WiFi, power outlets, tons of leg room, very few stops, a toilet and fold down tables).
From what I hear in many cases employees have to buy caltrain passes and expense them. Having employees pay would directly replace that. Since most people in this thread suggested talking to employers, I might look into that, thanks.
The service offered would probably have all the amenities you describe (bathroom is a maybe, not sure about cost/benefit)
Also, gadget charging not a problem on caltrain - on the old trains, sit upstairs in 7th seat from front. On newer trains, all tables have plugs.
No way a shuttle can compete with the commute time of a bullet train. But, I would pay about the same price as a caltrain ticket to ride a shuttle. One perk I would happily pay for is good food! It would save me the time of stopping to grab either breakfast or dinner.
Do you live close to caltrain? One advantages shuttles usually have is that they pick up from multiple spots in the city
Yea, I live close to caltrain, its a 12min walk for me. Personally, I like the extra 3-4 miles of walking a day because its a change of pace, good exercise and good people watching. But, I'm probably an exception, most opt for comfort, convenience first.
And I bet more companies would provide shuttle services if someone else handled all the messy details.
No reason each company needs their own shuttle either, so it's efficient and cheap. You can also allow individuals to purchase one-off tickets as well.
If someone makes a go of this, it will make a noticeable impact on employee productivity.
See, if all of you that expressed interest in this idea instead actually took the caltrain, the bart, and the samtrans buses and whatever local bus lines there are, then the companies operating those would see that there is increased demand, and the increased revenues would go to making the system better.
There are already people around whose job it is to handle the messy details of moving groups of people around the valley, why make yet another company in parallell?
What annoyed me the most when I tried the public transportation in the valley is how fractured it is, there's lots of different companies, no unified payment method, no unified ticketing system, no unified timetables, no unified maps, etc. Figuring out how to get from point A to point B is really hard because there's no coordination at all.
And into this mess you want to introduce yet another form of transportation? Madness.
You're right that the public transportation situation sucks, but wrong that people shouldn't want a new solution that works for them personally.
Let me also remind you that the distances and population densities are very, very different, even in a relatively dense area of the US like the Peninsula.
If you're up for it, please drop me a line, my contact info is in my profile.
Sample questions: a) [radio] prefer one-way or round-trip? b) [radio] do you want wifi? c,d) [textfield] how much are you willing to pay for a wifi (one-way trip|roundtrip)? e,f) [textfield] non-wifi (one-way trip|roundtrip)?
that said, caltrain is a smoother, cheaper ride.
At the point of this writing more than 180 people have indicated interest in the project with an average price/ride of around $5. It might be possible to break even with this, but it'll be difficult without buying the bus. I have some data on this, drop me a line if you're interested in that stuff.
I put together a wufoo form on the subject at http://jonashuckestein.wufoo.com/forms/startupshuttle-survey... . I'll post it on HN tomorrow morning, I don't know if it's a great idea to post it at night (then again, I have no idea about when to best post things on HN)
The Google shuttle works well because there is one focal point - everyone is going or coming from the Googleplex. Optimizing routes would be harder for anyone trying to open a similar service to the public, since employers in the valley are spread out.
There is also a sorely missing off-hours service. Even at Google, I know several times that friends would have stayed for an extra drink/game if there was a shuttle that left later than 10pm. And, how many have you been caught in SF after just missing the 10:20pm and having to wait for the 12am? Or, had to cut a night short because you had no way of getting home after 12am? Brutal.
Most people didn't think they wanted or needed an iPad until Apple put it in front of them. And according to Thomas Watson the world only needed 5-10 computers. At the time, these were reasonable answers. Honestly, people don't know what they want until you show them a better way.
(I commute from Sunnyvale station into SF everyday.)
Anyway, maybe you should collect emails; everybody else, please make sure email is in your profile, and note that you have to put it in the comment area.
But failing that, the answer to "who in SF is hiring" is basically "everyone".
Walk into any startup space, hacker space, or hacker-filled coffee shop (Summit?), announce your availability as a coder, and try not to get trampled.
Find a house in the valley? Plenty of availability!