Google has received praise from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for donating $.6.8 million, which will help low-income kids in the city avail of free public bus rides.
The $6.8 million gift will fund the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's (SFMTA) Free Muni for Youth pilot program to provide free bus transportation to all low- and middle-income kids between the ages of five and seventeen for two years. It is estimated to cost around $3 million to offer free bus rides to youths for one year.
The SFMTA started the pilot project in March 2013 and applications will be accepted till June 30, 2014. Over 30,000 kids have already registered for the scheme and have also received passes.
"San Francisco residents are rightly frustrated that we don't pay more to use city bus stops. So we'll continue to work with the city on these fees, and in the meantime will fund MUNI passes for low income students for the next two years," said a Google spokeswoman in a statement.
Tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook etc. have been under fire for using San Francisco's public bus stops for free as pick-up locations for their employees traveling for work to Silicon Valley campuses.
The use of public bus stops by private buses has annoyed local residents in the past, prompting the Board of Directors of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) to start a pilot program, which is intended to start from July this year and will charge the shuttles $1 per stop per day. The program is expected to cost companies, shuttling their employees, thousands of dollars every year.
For a while many activists have been requesting big companies to make larger contributions to the community. Google's latest gift to San Francisco is treated as one of the biggest donations made to the SFMTA, which will enable the transport agency to continue the Free Muni for Youth program without at no extra cost to taxpayers. The additional fund from Google will also help SFMTA to free use its cash for other expenses relating to maintaining its services.
Google is the first tech giant to make a massive donation to the community. San Francisco government officials will hope that other big companies will also come forward and make generous contributions for the development of the community.
