New Rules for Chariot and Other Private Transportation Shuttles in San Francisco

In order to alleviate some mistakes, San Francisco ponders new program for private shuttles like Chariot. As per the new rules, vehicles like Chariot have to keep passenger vans out of crosswalks and Muni bus lanes. The director of SFMTA’s Taxis and Accessible Services Division, Kate Toran said, “This is a global program. Though Chariot is the only player on the market now, we developed the program to make sense as an overall framework.”

This new rule is applied to overcome the complaints filed against private vehicles for double-parking in active driving lanes and blocking roads. The agency received dozens of complaints and most of them came from the people in the Marina, the Mission, the Richmond, the Financial District, and Noe Valley. The new rules will permit the city to set its own regulations and charge fines to violators.

A spokeswoman for Chariot said, “We have been engaged in collaborative discussions with the SFMTA for several months and continue to review proposed regulations as part of this process.”

A transportation analyst with the SFMTA, Alex Jonlin said, “It’s a unique situation where someone has been operating for a few years and is popular with riders. We aren’t compromising on our key goals. But we don’t want to take away existing routes that might keep people off the road. The existing routes just aren’t always safe, so they will need to change.”

2016 S-Class Mercedes: