San Francisco Mayor London Breed hatched a creative plan Sunday to solve two problems in one fell swoop.
The mayor is looking into hiring all 300 drivers laid off by private bus company Chariot. It would keep those drivers out of the unemployment ranks and would help solve Muni’s operator shortage, which has caused long wait times across the city.
Breed announced her plan to the public with a tweet: "With Chariot shutting down, we're exploring offering all 300 of their drivers a job with @sfmta_muni, which will help address Muni's operator shortages. This makes sense for the drivers, Muni, and the City."
The transition couldn’t happen right away. Even though Chariot drivers have Class B licenses, they would need extensive Muni training before becoming Muni operators.
San Francisco-based Chariot, an app-based shuttle service owned by Ford, announced Thursday it was going out of business by the end of the month.
