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Residents of a wealthy Silicon Valley city are lining up for heavily subsidized rides around town — that will cost them peanuts.
Sunnyvale, Calif. officially launched the affordable Beam service on Sept. 1 — a public, on-demand rideshare that will take users anywhere in the city for a flat rate of $3.50.
The Bay Area burg is one of the wealthiest municipalities in the entire country — with a median household income of $186,170 in 2024, according to a study from MoneyLion.
Operated by Via Transportation, the beams fleet includes six Kia Niros and three Ford E-Transit vans, city spokesperson Jennifer Garnett told SFGATE.
“We are thrilled to launch the Sunnyvale Beam rideshare service that will complement our existing transit network and give people in our community more freedom and independence for their everyday trips,” Garnett said.
The Beam will operate Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, officials said.Teens and seniors will receive a discounted rate of just $1.75, and an additional charge of $1 will be tacked on for each additional passenger. And don’t worry about a tip hiking up the price — gratuity will not be accepted.
Beam drivers will be paid by the hour, rather than for each ride they complete.
A job listing on the city of Sunnyvale’s website showed pay rates between $23-$25 per hour.
The service is reportedly already a hit with the tony town’s residents, Garnett said.
In the two weeks since the service soft-launched, they’ve averaged around 65 rides a day taken by approximately 2,000 users.
Hopeful hailers typically need to wait a bit longer for a Beam than an Uber or a Lyft — with wait times that can hover around 15 minutes during peak demand, according to Garnett.
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The Beam program receives half its funding from a $4.2 million public grant from the California Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, while the city will pay for the other half as part of a five-year-contract.
The pilot program isn’t the first of its kind in the upscale region.
Sunnyvale already operates a similar program called Peery Park Rides thats services the northwestern part of the city.
Nearby Cupertino and Santa Clara also operate their own micro transit services.
