Microtransit is Coming to Sunnyvale
- Sharlene Liu
- Mar 1
- 2 min read
With much anticipation, Sunnyvale will launch a microtransit service in September. This microtransit service will be open to everyone who has to transit through Sunnyvale. It will be especially useful for students to get to school, commuters for their first and last mile, and anyone who can't or prefers not to drive, bike, or walk.
The service area will be within the Sunnyvale city limits, with a few exceptions to include Homestead High School and Kaiser Permanente Hospital, both of which are just outside the Sunnyvale border. The public expressed a desire for Sunnyvale's service to be integrated with Cupertino and Santa Clara's microtransit service, dubbed "SV Hopper". Indeed, servicing a larger area would improve the utility of any transit service. However, staff indicated that, at least initially, they want the simplicity of a Sunnyvale-only service, as coordination with other cities would be complicated. Later, integrating with the SV Hopper is a possibility.
The fleet will be 9 electric vans, with 3 of them wheelchair accessible. The other 6 vans will have bike racks for passengers to transport their bike.
During the 5 years that this service will be running, data will be collected on such metrics as number of riders, routes taken, routes requested outside of the service area, and wait times. Refinements to the service may include expanding the service area boundaries and converting popular routes to fixed routes with fixed schedules.
The VTA bus service is the existing system that people rely on today, but the VTA service has many problems. Buses don't come frequently enough. For high traffic times like school start and end times, buses fill up. Bus routes are geographically sparse, so the bus routes do not cover many origins and destinations. VTA should ideally improve its bus service, but Sunnyvale is not holding its breath. Instead, the city will use the microtransit service to address the deficits in the VTA bus service. The microtransit service is an on-call, almost-door-to-door service covering the entire Sunnyvale area. The expected wait time will be 15 minutes.
Half of the funds for the $8M+ service come from an outside grant and the other half comes out of city funds. The cost to the rider will be much less than an uber. Students will get an even more discounted rate. The Fremont Union High School District is open to contributing toward the cost of microtransit for its students. Passengers can pay by credit card, and possibly by Clipper. Rides can be hailed by an app, and also by a phone call.
Transit advocates welcome the microtransit service as a step in the right direction. People will get used to riding a bus, albeit an on-call bus, but it's a step toward car-independence. A reduction in vehicles miles traveled is expected, as the microtransit service can pick up other riders along the way. Green house gases will be reduced by virtue of replacing conventional automobile trips with electric microtransit trips. The microtransit service will make car-free living feasible.
About the Author
Sharlene Liu is Founder and Chair of Sunnyvale Safe Streets. She is dedicated to making Sunnyvale's streets safe for walking and biking.
