Friends and I were visiting from Fresno and wanted to check out Emeryville Marina Park. We met a very friendly bus driver who informed us that the Emery Go Round will take us for free to the Marina. We got on at 1:31pm on 6/19/26 at the Shell mound and Bay Station. The shuttle driver was extremely kind and gave us a little info on the Marina. I have a car and do not need to take public transportation in my town and as a Fresnan, our bus drivers are not so nice, our rides take forever and our system is not great. It was refreshing to meet kind bus and shuttle drivers and the fact that this service is free just shows how much this city nourishes and values their residents. read more

How did I not know about Emery-Go-Round shuttle before? Great way to connect from MacArthur BART to businesses around Emeryville. Friendly drivers and frequent, on-time service. read more

I've been using Emery Go Around for 3 weeks now. So far I'm very happy with It. Knock on wood. I take this bus to get to the MacArthur BART station to commute to the city for work during the week. Yes, I have a car but it costs hundreds of dollars to park in the city and traffic sucks balls. So I take public transportation like your typical East Bay commuter. The buses are clean and generally come on time. They also have an app to track the buses but I rarely use it. Most drivers are friendly, however, I've seen one or two grumpy drivers also. There are different schedules for regular hours and commute hours. The buses run less frequently before and after commute hours and some routes are combined. It takes about 15 mins to the BART station from where I live during commute hours. The amount of time would double for regular hours. The service is FREE so it deff helps to reduce my commute cost. I don't think any city in the Bay Area has a similar bus service like Emeryville so I'm pretty happy with where I live. Some unappreciative ppl say it's not free because our taxes pay for it. I say move somewhere else that doesn't have a free bus then so you can be happy there! The takeaway message is don't take things for granted! Thanks Emery Go Around! I only hope you can get better from here. read more

Emery Go Round - Merry I mean Emery Go Round Round and Round - Public Transportation Near Me - Oakland, California

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I had to use this after a traumatic experience in San Francisco on BART. This bus came to the MacArthur station and drove me to my car in Emerybay. I found the stop and fortunately didn't have to wait long for the shuttle. And, did I mention that it's free? The shuttle was nice and clean, the ride was pleasant, and I know that I will probably not take it again, but if I have to I wouldn't be unhappy. It's quite a deal. read more

Shoutout to Kundan on Hollis in the morning who is always on time. This is a great free service for riders (paid for by Emeryville business and homeowners via property tax). Since the schedule change earlier this year, both my roommate and I have found the buses are nearly always on time heading towards Bart in the AM even if they don't always show up on the tracking app (Hollis). I usually wait 5-10 min from the Bart during rush hour. Note travel on weekends and slow times during the weekday especially late at night might be hit or miss. Most drivers are friendly and I've rarely ever had a bus drive away while I'm running towards it. Busses are clean although some can be rather old. Tips: The app can usually capture when the bus will arrive to a stop but especially at the Bart, departure times vary so feel free to ask the driver if you must know. read more

Hollis shuttle was a no show this morning. No notifications on the emery go round homepage. New scheduling app supposedly went live today and no notifications of delay there either on the new mobile app. The only notification there was is that the site reliability may not be the best due to the new launch, so I didn't put much faith in anything that was posted. Knocked off an additional star from my last posting. I had to sprint this morning to get to the MacArthur station from my usual Hollis stop on 45th St. no thanks to the Emery-Go-WRONG crap service. I think I may be walking in the mornings to the MacArthur BART for a while. read more

Anyone that bitches about a free bus can bite it. Do you also scoff at free samples at the grocery store because they're not big enough? Emery Go Round saves me crazy bank that I'd otherwise have to blow on AC Transit to get me from BART to work. That's free money people. A years worth of AC Transit bus passes would run me $960.... Do you know how many video games that is? How many plane tickets to fly down to see my girl? Lord help me, HOW MUCH PBR I COULD BUY??? Enough to fill a pool! On a PBR tangent, I'm 100% certain heaven would have PBR filled pools, showers, and fountains galore. I can't think of a better place to spend eternity than doing the backstroke through a mile long pool of PBR. Whoops, back to EGR. Sure, some of the drivers are mental. On my route I have a 50/50 shot at getting the nice driver who gives you pleasant ride or the guy who I'm pretty sure wants to kill us. "Nice driver", well he chats with you and does things to avoid traffic to get you where you need to go quicker. He drives at an even, pleasant pace so you can nap. He wishes you a wonderful evening. "Crazy driver" likes to ride the break, snapping necks. He enjoys slowly pulling away while people pound at his door, then opening it right as they've given up. He practices pulling away from a stop while people are not quite completely off the bus just yet. On that note, sorry to the 60 year old gentleman who got caught up this morning, don't take it personal. Nice job narrowly avoiding busting your shit. Regardless of your driver, it's still free and it gets you where you need to go. Plus, "bad driver" is still polite while he's trying to kill you, and oh yea, it's free. Did I mention it's free? Unless you work in Emeryville I'm not really sure why you'd come here, but if you're stuck rolling through like me it's nice to have the Emery Go Round not costing you a penny. read more

This shuttle is free, true. But it was waaaaaay off schedule the one and only time I alighted, and if hopping on this is part of the exigencies of quotidian life, best of luck!!! Bumpy and smelly ride ( exhaust) read more

This is the awesome service which allowed me to get to el Yelp Event at Periscope Cellars last night. 4 stars right out the door because it's totally free and runs late. There are a lot of buses and unless you know which line you need to be on you may get on the wrong one. (Yay being lucky and getting on the right one). It's right next to the exit of MacArthur Bart, walk straight out, it's there. The only negative I found was that it's not easy to see where you're going because of the overhangs in the bus and if you're unsure about the stop you're getting off at, it could be problematic. I had a nice driver and the music playing was nice, I left my ipod at home. I'd take it again. read more

I have a love/hate relationship with this shuttle. Love: -Free. -Clean -Multiple lines (3 of them) on weekdays -Easy access to BART -Bring your bike Hate: -Whenever I'm walking to the shuttle stop, one always passes me by. Bad luck or poor scheduling? Argh!!! -Only one line on the weekends. -Doesn't run on holidays...but I guess I can understand why. read more

They need a bigger sign i tried to talk to the driver to ask her a question for the hollis shuttle that left around the 1130 today she didn't even open her doors to say anything she just tried talking to me like I would hear her from inside the bus also they need a bigger sign on the front door its really stupid to not open all doors when your at a stop people have to get on from the back of the bus read more

I am disappointed at how unpredictable their schedules are. Sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. You cannot count on Emery Go Round for work, unless you are prepared to keep missing important meetings or things like that. I wished whoever is monitoring this service, if anybody at all, would be hold accountable. read more

It's AWESOME to have a transportation system that is free! But, you can't be in a hurry. If you regularly depend on the bus, you already know that. It's great for getting around if you take BART to Emeryville, or if you need to get to BART to get out of Emeryville. Or Berkeley or Oakland fringes. read more

I was taking the Shellmound/Powell shuttle from police station stop at 1155am. I got on through the back door as per safety rules. When getting off at Mac Arthur with another rider the driver stoped and did not open the back door. We both asked to get out and got no response.We then walked to the front. She (driver) wouldn't respond. After a few seconds she opened front door.She wouldn't speak or acknowledge we were even there. THATS SO RUDE. As well as it goes against safety standards that are for public safety. read more

As usual everyday the bus is not in time.custoners are waiting.they have to go to work.better to take other services

The Emery go round drivers are incapable of sticking to their route schedule. They are in such a hurry to return to the bart station that they continually race through their route, usually arriving much earlier than scheduled leaving great gaps in service. My favorite is when two or more drivers "leap frog" from stop to stop and sometimes skip stops all together. This service is just not dependable. read more

Amazing service offered to the people of Emeryville/north oakland! Hella reliable!!!! Cool drivers who always play good music. On time and hella accurate arrival times based on GPS tracking through the Emery Go Round app. Don't be an ungrateful hater or an oblivious gentrifier! Show some respect to the Emery Go Round!!! read more

Great Free ride with great radio station, KBLX 102.9 FM, Urban Adult Contemporary unique mix of R&B, Pop, Jazz Fusion and Soul. Take a Hollis South. See the real Oakland West area. You'll see many beat up Cadillacs. a guy pushing a Pakin'save shopping cart with full of soda cans. a big kid on a bicycle looks like he just stole the bike. decent lookin' old Asian ladies. and 10 dollar Bj of course. KBLX is the perfect radio station for the ride. Ooops, this isn't a review for KBLX but all driver i got they were listening the radio station. The buses are clean, free and comes often. This is good system. Take 1 star off because sometimes there are smelly locals on board. Btw, tinna h. said, "the only problem with emery go round is the short hours... oh well! at least it's free. :)" Yeah, there is No late night ride. read more

OMG! OMG! OMG! We'll never get over! OMG! That's it! We're heading for San Francisco! OMG! We made it over a lane! Cars are flying by us and NOT letting us over. Bastards! Support public transit, will ya'? OMG! OMG! Now we're going to end up on 880! Wow! We made it over another lane! *blood pressure still high* OMFG! That delivery truck almost hit us! Whoa! We made it all the way over to the 580 lanes! And Lo and Behold, we MADE it to Macarthur BART ALIVE! *resists urge to hug driver* *resists urge to collapse and kiss the sidewalk she's so happy that she made it* (This was Susan S's stream of conscious thoughts while riding the 3:22 Watergate Express the other day as the Emery-Go-Round made its way across the 80/880/580 juncture). Aren't you glad she wasn't the real driver? read more

The excuse I keep seeing that this is a "free shuttle" and "you get what you pay for" neither applies nor gives them an excuse to be probably the worst bus system I have ever taken. First of all - yea, it is free to YOU, but they aren't driving you around E-ville out of the goodness of their hearts. Local business owners pay for the service. When you are getting paid to deliver a service to the public, there should be standards of quality to meet - but they really don't give a crap. In reality, they do the bare minimum to appear to be offering a "service" and probably giving each other hefty raises with all the left over cash they pocketed from businesses who pay them - and most likely, paying the poor bus drivers crap, seeing as they change so frequently and seem to care less for their job than they would a dead rat they found alongside the road. 1. The buses are completely unreliable. However, they are more reliable in the mornings (6am to 8am), usually only being 10 or so minutes late, while in the afternoon (3pm - 5pm - ish) it's anyone's guess when they will decide to arrive. Could be 3 minutes, could be 75 minutes. Grab a good book. 2. The bus drivers are just damn rude to people. Man, they really don't give a crap how they treat people, they talk down to people all the time. If someone has a bike to put on the rack they will grumble and bitch the whole time, and then treat them like they are stupid if they don't get it on the rack quick enough - all the while offering no hand to help. GOD FORBID if you try to step on to the bus before noticing someone is getting off....omg they will yell at you like you are the most stupid person in the world for daring to step on the bus when the doors open. They listen to whatever radio stations they damn well please at whatever volume they damn well want to. Whether that is blaring radio talk shows about how your baby's daddy is cheatin on you with the hooker who was also your best friend, country music about lost dogs and sleezy bars, or rap. You are likely to hear it on the Emerygoround. They drive like hell, and you better just take the nearest seat you can find because that driver isn't going to wait for you to sit down before lurching the bus forward as hard as possible, sending you flying through the aisle. 3. Could they maybe get more buses that are up to date with standard bus-like features, such as the little pully cords to tell the bus driver you want to stop - rather than being forced to shout over whatever music or radio station they decide to force on everyone? 4. Their "schedules" must have been created with the intent on making you wait as long as possible. The bus from McAarthur leaves about 1 minute after trains from the Bay Point line arrive (only one of the most busy lines for commuters) making it so you get to fight your way through the horde of zombie morning commuters down the stairs, out the gate and to the parking lot JUST in time to see the bus drive away. Then you get to wait about 25 minutes for the next one - since it won't be on time. And what idiot figured out the schedule for the "Express" line from the Towers? I know, let's make the Express bus take off two minutes before the Powell bus arrives at this stop, nobody will want to transfer or anything. 5. What is the deal with a lot of the stops being literally, a block away from each other? Really, people can't walk a damn block? This becomes a hassle during commute hours when you are stopping every damn block for passengers, stopping for people who *might* be passengers, but wait no they are waiting on a different bus, stopping at red lights, at stop signs, etc. 6. Oh man these things smell so bad. I know it's not the buses fault that homeless drunks get on the bus smelling of ass and alcohol so bad that you have to cover your mouth or risk vomiting. But you could I dunno, clean them a little more often? Ive had some foul smelling buses on my way to work, and swear I got the same damn smelly bus on my way home - or maybe most of them are just smelly. 7. Is there even anyone staffed on your phone lines? Have you heard of this invention called call-waiting so it's not always busy? Oh wait...call waiting and having more than 1 person in your call staff will cost more money that you would rather pocket. 8. Maybe you could get more buses during commute hours? The buses are so full people can't get off or on. It's a can of sardines - that has to be dangerous as hell. read more

Started using Emery GoRound recently when my office moved from downtown San Francisco to downtown Oakland (I know - lame). But we all have to work, right? It's a big change for me going from using the Transbay AC Transit bus non-stop to Transbay Terminal to taking Emery Go Round then BART. However, I was not disappointed. Shuttles are clean, air-conditioned with comfortable upholstered seats. Always on time. Very convenient schedule, especially in the rush hour. Shuttles run every 15 minutes with multiple routes to take. And the best part - the ride is free! Courtesy of Emeryville taxpayers. Drivers are always friendly. One driver listens to bible on tape in the morning. Getting very emotional, raising his hands in the air, and all. You can really get into spirit before work, I tell ya. All in all, it takes me the same amount of time to get to the new office. Don't forget to say 'thank you' when you disembark. read more

I'm going to give this three stars because that's the minimum you can reasonably give to a free shuttle service. But you get what you pay for. I've ridden it three times. 1) The first time was when I went to Ikea right after I moved here. The driver helpfully dropped me off right at the entrance to the parking lot, and I went on my merry shopping way. When I was finished, I returned to the spot where I had been dropped off, since that's how buses typically work. The first shuttle drove by. I assumed it didn't see me, so the next time the shuttle came by, I leapt into the street in front of it and waved my arms. The driver honked, swerved around me, and made an obscene gesture. At this point I realized something had gone horribly wrong, so I went back into Ikea to investigate why no one wanted to drive me to BART. The actual Ikea stop was not where I had been dropped off but rather was on the other side of Ikea and very clearly labelled. Oops. 2) The second time I rode Emery-Go-Round, I threw up. 3) Today, after a long hiatus, I took the Emery-Go-Round for the third time to try to get a massage. I got off BART and went up the shuttle. I knocked on the door, and the driver opened it. I moved to get into the van, and he abruptly slammed it shut. His timing was impeccable -- one more second and he would have taken a body part or two. He then opened the door just a crack. Driver: You can't get on here. Me: Then where do I get on? Driver: Up there. Me: Where? Driver: Up there. Me: WHERE?!? Driver: I CAN'T TELL YOU IF YOU KEEP SAYING "WHERE" Me: Oh. I was supposed to wait for the shuttle around the corner. I walked around the corner, then like thirty seconds later he turned the corner and let everyone on. I don't understand why buses do that shit. Why can't I ride the bus around the corner? It's not like there wasn't enough room for everyone. But whatever. The most embarassing part of the morning was that the massage clinic had lost my reservation, so I left about five minutes after arriving. Since the shuttle makes a loop, I had to get back on the same shuttle with the same driver. The driver LAUGHED at me when I got on. I think he thinks I'm the least skilled bus rider ever. Although, given that I have a history of getting bus-sick, failing to correctly locate bus stops, and leaping in front of moving buses on the highway, he's probably right... read more

The white, somewhat nondescript vans that pass as buses are a little creepy and dingy. (yes, but it's FREE...) It's a bit hard to figure out where to get on or where it's going once you do. (granted, but it's FREE...) Sometimes the vans only run once an hour and the pull cord is really hard to find. (true, but it stops at Ikea, land of Swedish meatballs and cheap-yet-interesting furniture, and Michael's, a great place to find fake foliage.) Why can't they advertise like normal transit agencies and actually publicize their routes so that people will actually use it? Sheesh... (it's because you get what you pay for, now shut the hell up before this magical FREE bus magically disappears! Dumbass.) [this review brought to you by whiny yet picky Sus.annah and easygoing but somewhat bitchy Sus.annah] read more

Celebrities in Emeryville, CA (Emeryville? are you sure?) are talking about the latest in fitness clubs... The Emery-go-Round shuttle! Now Featuring...... Warm-up: a quick sprint to the shuttle, since both the on-line and phone notification services were WRONG again about the arrival time! Butt-Bounce: You'll catch some serious air when the custom-designed, therapeutic potholes of Emeryville and Oakland bounce those pounds off! Firm up those flabby upper arms by holding on for dear life as you zip around corners! Trying to squeeze into your favorite dress, ladies? The compression-locomotion feature of the shuttle when filled to the brim with shoppers (and their new 3-piece living room set!) will have your fat cells screaming for mercy! Multiple routes give you the opportunity for MULTIPLE WORKOUTS--MULTIPLE FUN!! And best of all....it's FREE!!! But wait....for a limited time only.....ride the BART SHOPPER route and get a BONUS WORKOUT as you struggle to open the door manually! FEEL THE BURN...... RIDE TODAY! But seriously, folks... Compared to a 2+ hour drive (each way) from San Jose to Emeryville, I'll take BART + Emery-go-Round any day. This would have been a 3-star review, except for Bill, who's not only the best shuttle driver I have ridden with, he's also a heckuva nice guy who greets everyone with a big smile every day. This and all other reviews posted on http://yelp.com by "Ma Megabyte" are copyrighted 2009/2010 by Pie Hole Publishing. All rights reserved read more

Very disappointed with the new routing! Every time I ride, which is several times a week, I hear passenger after passenger ask where the bus goes and watch the drivers*, more often than not, mumble something under their breath like, "You gotta read the sign. The sign says where the bus goes." They're not understanding that the 'sign' is not intuitive, the people don't know the routes and the new routes and lack of consistency seem to have only caused problems and haven't helped anyone. What happened EmerygoRound? Please explain! *I have to add that I don't place the fault of this situation on the drivers. Most of the drivers seem like great people and I know they have a tough job to deal with as I've been in the transportation industry for almost 2 decades. read more

Yeah, Emery-Go-Round.... Whenever the fuck it feels like it. It has a more ambiguous schedule than Sockless Ray, the bottle collector in my neighborhood. Suuuuure, during the day for all the mindy commuters its cool, but when im out in the effing rain and wind coming off the Bay, drowning in the icy tears of friggin Odin, that goddamn Short Bus from New Oakland is never to be seen. Its like it gets this second agenda around 930pm... "Hey EGR, you comin tonight baby?" "Yeah, erm...ill try." "You said youd be here 11 minutes ago." "Yeah...see..there's this thing...HEY, Timmy? What up? Naw...Yeah....No.....Sho thing..... Look Mick, i gotta run...just catch the 57 in 12 minutes, cuz i aint comin. Sorry man." Yeah, yeah, its free...what are you gonna do....but shit man...just because half and half creamers are free doesnt mean they have to be spoiled. read more

I hate the new routes and inconsistent wait times. There should be an express route that goes straight from shellmound to bart. The drivers are so rude and uninformative it's frustrating. Most of the time I end up having to take a Lyft because there's a 20+ minute wait... not worth the free ride. read more

I used to enjoy the Emery Go Round. I really did. Notice that "used to" I threw in there? Yeah. Let me tell you about them now. They were once reliable. They were once staffed with friendly bus drivers. They were once clean! Now, they've become another AC Transit. Some drivers are still friendly, but most just ignore you, scowl at you, or whatever. Yes...another AC Transit, right down to having stops 1 or 2 blocks from one another, yet getting RID of stops that, you know, people actually USE with some lame excuse that they can't "safely turn the buses around" when they were doing so before with the same amount of road they had before, or they could, I don't know, drive up 2 more blocks where there's this HUGE FREAKING PARKING LOT NEAR THE PUBLIC BOAT LAUNCH? Just, you know, throwing that out there. No, instead, they want to eliminate those last two stops on Powell Street altogether - never mind the fact that they just completely REBUILT one of them 2 months ago. Some of the buses are smoking so badly, you'd think they were on fire. Others rattle and clatter that you wonder if they're going to fall apart. And the less said about the Mario Andretti drivers going down Shellmound and across the bridge toward Target, the better. I've had to hold on tightly to the edge of my seat for fear of being thrown into the aisle from the centrifugal force, and I wondered whether the bus was going to flip over right there! Then, of course, there's the "race to the stop" and then...sit there for 10 minutes. What's that about? Emery Go Round. Once good, now...it's AC Transit. Or worse...Muni. Emeryville needs better than this. read more

I gave 1 star for the friendly drivers, but the service sucks. At MacArthur BART especially, not only do the buses routinely not show up when scheduled (Watergate Express evening service runs 20-30 minutes late EVERY night), they also routinely leave 2-3 minutes early, so anyway you slice it if you are on time you will miss the bus. Then, the buses pull so far down the block that I think they actually WANT you to miss it (or run like hell). Some buses aren't even labeled with their destination. The company recently broke up the Powell Shellmound route so now even fewer buses go to Watergate. When most of the Emeryville population lives there, that isn't too bright. Even if it is a "free" service (which it isn't, all businesses and residents pay through their taxes), it is increasingly unreliable. Unfortunately I'm going to start driving to work, and I wanted to use public transportation to avoid being one more car on the road. Update -- January 2017. Just missed the 5:30pm Watergate Express bus because I walked up at 5:26pm and they took off. read more

Emeryville Go Round rocks!!!! Always on time!!! Always clean!!! Always an adventure!!! Public transportation is better that driving Ferrari yourself!!! an extra star if they offer Martinis, just let me know!!! read more

I like the Emery Go Round. So the buses leave whenever they want. I don't think the sporadic schedule is a big deal, because they use satellite tracking! I always check when the next bus is coming on nextbus.com so I never have to wait more than a minute or so. FREE Yes, it's slow. Yes, it takes a long time to get from MacArthur to my office. But it drops me off right in front of my office, so I can't complain too much. The Bart Shopper route will even take you to whatever store you're going to, so you can have the least amount of physical movement possible when practicing your consumerism. The seats are nice, the drivers are friendly, and it's FREE. read more

This is a free shuttle provided by the city of Emeryville. It's very convenient and makes stops near the big apt complexes, bart, trader joes, michaels, bay street, etc. I like that you can track the location of the shuttles online and there's a number you can call for real time arrival. Just be careful which one you get on as there are a few shuttles; each with their own route. It can be crowded and a bit loud during non commute times. They stop running around 10 pm so it would be nice if they extended hours; especially on the weekends. read more

Five stars because this is a free service and you can't complain if you ain't payin! I've never had a bad experience, but then again I only complain when I'm spending money. Shame on the negative reviews. Shut your trap and pay for the bus. You'll be waiting an hour on that too. read more

South Hollis leaves at 9:25am from BART station, well... 300ft from the train stop. I run from the train at 9:23am to get the bus. Today's driver looked at me through the door mirror, close the door real fast, and left at 9:24am making me run for another 100ft trying to get the bus. He ended up not opening the door for me lol read more

The bus is never on time. Today it's 30 minutes late, that's why I have time to write this review (for some perspective, the bus is supposed to come every 10 minutes!). The drivers are mean and cranky, for the most part. Multiple times, I've been at a bus stop and the driver just drove on past. I've also been on the bus when it's happened to other people. Last week, a driver stopped the bus in the middle of the road (over by Watergate), and without a word, got off the bus and walked into a nearby building for several minutes. The buses themselves are often broken and always filthy. There are only three routes. I've seen ELEVEN buses go by for the other two routes, while I wait here for my route's bus. I hate the Emery-Go-Round. I'm gonna buy a bike and save myself a bunch of time and hassle. read more

I've only ridden it once, at non rush hour but it was pretty good. It has kind of a weird "schedule" but there is a link to a site called Nextbus on their website. If you have an Internet ready phone, you can use their site to find out when the bus is coming. They have GPS units in the buses which update the site...which is effing awesome for a big GIS geek such as myself. Oh...and the price is right! I would probably have given it fewer stars if it wasn't free. read more

I have never really had problems with EmeryGoRound arriving late....yes it is the free bus that runs the lenghts, the widths and all around Emeryville none stop like a clock (last bus is 10m on weekdays), except for holidays and weekends when the hours and running periods are a lot more limited (6:30pm and 9:30pm- Bart Shopper only).... I must say I do love the EmeryGoRound because I can take it to the BART station (McCarthur), and be there in 15 minutes....Very convenient... Additionally, I like the new installations of the flatscreen TV that they have on some of the busses....YUP you can tell when each Bart trains are arriving, and when each one are departing....VERY COOL...plus they also post headline news...now that's cool for someone like me who can't read a newspaper in any moving vehicle due to carsickness..... I LOVE YOU EMERYGOROUND!!!!!!!!!! read more

Emery-Go-Round just plain sucks. I understand that it's a free shuttle service and I shouldn't expect much, but to be honest I'd rather pay money for something that's going to be reliable and on-time then pay nothing and have to wait around for ridiculous amounts of time, constantly being late for class because the drivers for the go round frankly don't give a shit. I've seen one of the drivers get off the bus to go "holla at some bitches" (this is how he described it to his buddy on the phone as he was driving the bus) while we all just sat there on the bus, looking stupid, waiting to leave. A real fuckin jackass move if you ask me, especially considering that most people that take this bus are either going to work or school, things that both require you to be there on time. If this is what a free bus service is then by all means, charge me a buck. read more

Free? Good. Less-than-ideal frequency on weekends? Not so good. Having it practically turned into a private car service? Well... This was my first experience with the Emery Go Round. Admittedly I don't often find myself in Emeryville, but I did today, and, of course, when you don't have a car, your options are limited. I first heard that my destination was BART accessible, which I, of course falsely, assumed to mean I could pick up a little stone when I exited the station and hit their building. Not that I would. Violence is bad. Well, not so much. I have to take the shuttle to get there? ...Okay, slight ugh. But hey, it's free! ...Sweet. So my friend I got to MacArthur BART, just around the time the 12:54 EGR was supposed to be leaving. But it wasn't there. So we waited. And waited. And waitied. For over 35 minutes. The 1:30 shuttle, of course, left right on time. Now I realize I should know better than to rely on bus schedules, and it is a free service so I can't complain, but I figured since BART was the first stop on the route, it would leave on time. So either I really did *just* miss that earlier departure, or it left early. Assuming the latter, that kinda sucks, and BART does have to take half the blame. Our conducter/driver/what-have-you was so busy telling everyone on board that our train was going to Richmond ad nauseam (okay, we get it!!) at every stop that we were actually running late. But I digress. Once we got on the shuttle it was fine. In fact, probably in better shape than most Muni buses I ride, but then again you don't find fabric seats on Muni. There was, what I perceived to be, a large crowd of people waiting for it and we all managed to get seats. And it dropped me off just a block or so away from my destination. So ultimately, a long wait, but not bad. For my return venture to BART, Jessica T pointed me in the direction of another stop to meet the shuttle to take back. Oooh, adventure. Would we wait 5 minutes? 50? Actually, we only had to wait a couple. But when the driver got there he said he wasn't scheduled to depart from that stop for another 10 minutes. AND he wasn't going directly to BART. So it was either wait, then transfer and take the proper shuttle to the station, or walk way back to grab the shuttle for where the direct BART shuttle was picking up. Well, I was feeling lazy. So my friend and I told the driver we would just wait. After less than a minute, the driver says, "You know what, I make my own rules..." (or something along those lines -- I'm paraphrasing) "..we're gonna go to BART." And off we went. So, no waiting 10 minutes, no transfering to another shuttle... our driver took us directly to BART. Picking up one other lucky gentlemen who was headed to the station also. When we got to the station, I tried to tip but the driver wouldn't accept. And there were a whole bunch of confused people at the station who tried to board the bus but the driver had to tell them it wasn't the regular bus. I'm being vague on the driver's description because I don't want to get him/her in trouble by his/her bosses, but that totally rocked. Not bad at all. read more

It's free, I can't complain. Most drivers are nice, nicer than AC Transit drivers. (Though there is one driver who is a total dickwad.) The shuttle runs from MacArthur BART to Hollis (Hollis/Amtrak) or to Ikea/Bay Street/Powell Plaza (Powell) on weekdays, and on weekends it only goes to the malls. During commute hours, it runs every 10-15 minutes. In the middle of the day, it's every 20-25 minutes. You can either look up the arrivals on http://www.nextbus.com by computer or by wireless device; you can also call the number posted at the bus stop and punch in the code for the particular stop to get an estimated arrival. (It's not always accurate, mind you.) The shuttle runs late enough on weeknights that you can catch it after an evening movie and take BART home. Because it loops around, when I had a long day and need to sit, I catch it before the turnaround; usually, between 5-6pm, the buses get pretty packed on the Hollis line and in worst cases, you will have to wait for the next shuttle. read more