[mc32]

I do think it's sensible they use side streets to board/offboard.

That said, what do you think about MegaBUS and the sort which also park and use regular bus route stops and shelters for minutes at a time while passengers board? There are also chartered buses which do the same.

Or are those okay, or are they also problematic?

If people made the Google buses and other private busses more difficult for employers to have, what would happen is people would cram into cars creating a bigger problem. Or businesses could take their employees back to the suburbs and you could have new Detroits at the extreme. And then people decry the flight of wealth out from the cities...

You can't have it both ways.

[theorique]

Good question.

I fail to see how these buses are any different from:

* Megabus / BoltBus / other private bus companies that park on city streets (mentioned in the parent comment)

* privately chartered bus (for a school or community group)

Is the issue that they are crowding out actual city buses? Because I could see that would be a problem if the Google bus waits X minutes at a bus stop and people need to walk around it to get to the "real" city bus.

But if it just shows up to pick up a handful of people and then leaves, without disrupting the regular public transport, I don't see what the issue is, or why these "activists" are so butthurt about it.