By Robert Haugh
A new rideshare service called Silicon Valley (SV) Hopper is now available in Santa Clara and Cupertino.
The service is available in the southern half of Santa Clara, with plans to expand to the northern half.
Rides are $3.50 for a one-way trip, and a discounted fare of $1.75 for seniors, students, and people with disabilities. The first five rides are free.
This is cheaper than services like Uber and Lyft, but the service area and times are limited. (See below).
SV Hopper is the result of a collaboration between the City of Santa Clara, the City of Cupertino, Silicon Valley Power, and the California State Transportation Agency.
In 2022, the two cities were awarded approximately $8.5 million to continue Cupertino’s existing on-demand shuttle program and expand service into Santa Clara with a zero-emissions fleet.
SV Hopper is designed to be a convenient and affordable transportation option for residents of Santa Clara and Cupertino.
With its on-demand nature, users can book rides at their convenience and be picked up at a designated stop.
Here’s the website for more info.
Hours of Operation:
- Monday – Friday: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
- Saturday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Fares:
- One-way fare: $3.50
- Discounted fare: $1.75
- +1s (additional riders): $1
- First 5 rides are free
Discounted Fare Eligibility:
- Senior Discount: 65+ with Photo ID
- Student Discount: Valid (photo) student ID
- Low-Income Discount: Cal Fresh or Medicare/Medicaid card
- Disabled Discount: Valid disabled placard & registration card
I have been in favor of this since the old Dial-a-ride program in San Jose. I think it was the late 70’s. This was limited by land lines and never had a chance to be effective the way it was intended.
I expect it won’t be long before we have driverless shuttles that perform this task. That is if the unions don’t prevent it.
Bus rider: I suggest if there is a small corridor where the buses are actually full the transit co. find a way to reduce the wasted empty trips.
VTA constantly juggles bus routes and schedules trying to do what mrhmyers suggests. It is a hard and expensive problem. Cutting costs is easy. Doing so while continuing to provide a useful service in the real world is another story. Make it hard to get to real destinations on an acceptable schedule and your rider base shrinks even more because riders are no longer willing to take the gamble. Throw in the often erratic schedules of tech workers and it is even harder. Union influences could further complicate things.
There used to be a 324 bus route from El Camino and Lawrence to Lockheed, but it only ran two times or even one time a day in each direction. Miss the bus home a few times because a mandatory work meeting ran 5 minutes late, and taking the bus to work no longer looks very appealing. Likewise if your kid unexpectedly gets ill at school.
You have to optimize all of the bus routes as a group, not just any given fraction of a bus route, because riders often have to connect between bus routes to get to real world destinations. Try it yourself, even on paper. Get from a random place on El Camino to an employer on the north side of town on a schedule you and your boss would accept in the real world.
I tried something similar a few years ago to get to/from a weekend event at the convention center. It was very difficult to even get something close to acceptable, even though I can easily walk between stops when needed.
Mrhmyers, I am open to any sane optimization of public transit. It is just a harder problem than many realize. I am optimistic that the new service will remedy at least a portion of the larger problem.
This sounds much better than the giant empty VTA bus scenario. Never seen one on El Camino more than 25% full. Usually about four heads. Huge waste of taxpayers money
Ride-sharing is the future.
Richard, by the time the exact same “empty” bus you refer to gets to downtown San Jose people often have to stand in the aisle.
The new service does sound appealing. No bus VTA offers today allows someone to go down Lawrence to Kaiser, for example. Hopefully the new service will help meet that need for both staff and patients.