Their math seems suspect. $1B / $271 = 3.7 million stops. Assuming 39 bus stops in the Bay Area [1], a 7d/wk schedule (i.e., no separate holiday/weekend schedule), and that every bus stop gets an equal number of stops, that's 86 stops per day per bus stop. Or once every 17 minutes, around the clock. I'd believe that frequency for peak hours at the busiest/largest stops, but not as the all-day average across every stop.
Tech Industry private shuttles use over 200 SF MUNI stops approximately
7,100 times in total each day (M-F) without permission or contributing
funds to support this public infrastructure. No vehicles other than
MUNI are allowed to use these stops. If the tech industry was fined for
each illegal use for the past 2 years, they would owe an estimated $1
billion to the city.
>Google declined to comment on the map, but said it has over 100 buses that shuttle 4,500-plus people per day from more than 30 stops across seven Bay Area counties.
So Google alone could make up that number. Toss in the other tech companies that are doing this as well and I can see how there are far more than 86 stops a day.
I think you missed the part of the post you're replying to where he said his calculations amount to 86 stops per day per stop. That's at least 2580 stops per day total. 2580 stops for 4500 employees? They're clearly off by more than an order of magnitude.
It makes "more than 30 stops", but it wouldn't be physically possible to make that number of stops with 100 buses (even ignoring that they then have to make the hour+ trip down to Mountain View after that). The math doesn't make sense.
[1] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000087239639044398290...
Edit: From their website & flyer: http://www.heart-of-the-city.org/
The numbers still sound high to me, but ... shrug