Private bus service Leap Transit shut down by state
Turns out Muni isn’t that easy to avoid.
After determining it was operating without the proper license, the California Public Utilities Commission has shut down private bus service Leap Transit, the pay-per-ride service that ferries commuters between the Marina and the Financial District allowing them to bypass the crowds and ickiness of Muni.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Leap had been granted its “authority to operate,” but didn’t yet have the proper license to run the bus line. Leap announced Tuesday that it has suspended its service after the CPUC sent the company a cease-and-desist letter.
The article cited a post on Leap’s Facebook page in which the company said it hopes to be “back on the road in no time.”
In the meantime Leap customers, guess we’ll be seeing you all on the bus.
So, LEAP’s attempt to game the system didn’t quite work! Good until their lawyers figure out another way to get around PUC regulations.
Why is the City merely “studying” how or whether to regulate these new services? The framework is already in place, because San Francisco used to have private “jitneys” on the length of Mission Street and between the Financial District and Caltrain. Seems to me like one more case of Ed Lee getting bamboozled and bought by his big-bucks buddies. Maybe the laws need updating, but they ought to be enforced in the meantime. That includes the Americans with Disabilities Act, too.