‘Like an Uber Share’ but public: South Bay city to bring low-cost, rideshare-style public transit service

Sunnyvale is bringing a low-cost public transit option similar to popular ride hailing apps this September.

The all-electric vehicle service will allow riders to move anywhere within the city and help address cracks in the current public transit system that left students and others ‘stranded,’ according to the Sunnyvale City Council, which unanimously approved the service this week.

“This has been a long time coming. I’m overjoyed that we’re finally to this point,” said Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein, calling the move “an exciting step forward for mobility for seniors, for our youth, for those low-income and unhoused residents.”

The new service will operate much like rideshare apps such as Uber and Lyft. A rider can call the service through a dedicated app or via phone call, and the service will pick up the rider at a nearby point and drop them off at their destination. The rider can reserve a seat on the vehicle, and share the ride with others who were dropped off along the way.

“It’s like an Uber Share,” explained Angela Obeso, Traffic and Transportation Manager for Sunnyvale.

There are some distinctions between the popular ride-hailing apps and the upcoming service. The service costs less. A seat would be $3.50 per ride, and an extra dollar per additional passenger. Those who qualify for discounted rides would pay $1.75.

The new service will only serve Sunnyvale and a few locations outside of the city’s borders, such as Homestead High School and the Kaiser Permanente on Homestead Road. It will also operate on limited hours, currently planned for Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. The drivers will be contracted and undergo training and background checks through a contract with Via Transportation — a New York City-based company that helps operate shuttle and public transit services in cities across the world. Riders will also have to wait a little longer, with an expected average wait time around 15 minutes, said Obeso.

Both city officials and members of the public painted the new service as filling a long-held need.

Because the high schools for Sunnyvale residents are largely located to the south of the city, students in northern Sunnyvale face more difficulty getting to and from the schools. While VTA has expanded bus service to and from the schools in recent years, parents of high school students complain that at times, buses are at capacity, leaving students “stranded” at bus stations and limited bus schedules keep students from participating in after school activities.

“There’s no real option for them. It’s a hard situation for a lot of families,” said Jessica Jarecki, a Sunnyvale resident with a daughter in high school who welcomed the new service. “It is a really big dang deal. VTA does not cover well enough for our students.”

Councilmember Eileen Le even spoke of a case where a student dropped out because of difficulty getting to school.

“It is heartbreaking that this is something that happens in Silicon Valley,” said Le at the meeting. “This will change lives.”

But the impact could go beyond high school students to the most vulnerable members of the community.

“We serve families, seniors, students, workers who are doing everything we can to remain stable,” said Paulina Zapata of local charity Sunnyvale Community Services. “When transit is unreliable and unaffordable, it affects employment, education, health and long term financial security.”

Even so, she noted that “residents’ lives do not stop beyond city boundaries” and called for the city to find ways to expand the service.

The city has eyed a shuttle service for years. Klein proposed exploring a shuttle service in the city to serve residents in 2022. After back and forth on the shuttle program, the city was awarded a multimillion dollar grant in 2024 from the California State Transportation Agency to help launch the service.

The program will cost around $8.4 million dollars to operate over the next five years, with half of that cost covered by the state grant. The service would include nine electric vehicles, including three which are accessible to those with disabilities.

This is not the first service of its kind in Silicon Valley or even in Sunnyvale. A similar service called SV Hopper began in Cupertino in 2019 and later expanded to Santa Clara in 2023. Last year, Sunnyvale began piloting a similar program limited to northwest Sunnyvale.

Once the program is launched, the City Council will adapt the details of the program in response to demand as it moves forward.