The point isn't the existence of the shuttle, it's the freeloading on public infrastructure. Google was removing paying transit riders while using public transit infrastructure and inconveniencing the public. Oh and rent near a Google shuttle stop suddenly surged because of demand from Google employees. Quite literally a recipe for creating discontent in a neighborhood.

Google got the message and made a large donation, but like most things the damage was easy to make and hard to recover from.

And the solution is simple--Google (and any other company running a shuttle that uses public stops) should pay for what its using.