Photo: Via Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle 2019 Photo: Via

Cupertino, the hometown of Apple, is taking an initial step toward having its own public transit system by contracting with private operator Via to run on-demand six-passenger vans within the 11-square-mile city and to the nearby Sunnyvale Caltrain station.

Passengers can summon the black Mercedes Metris vans via a smartphone app or by phone; they’ll be directed to walk to a nearby location to meet their ride. Typical wait times in other cities where Via operates are six to 10 minutes, the company said. The goal is to get multiple people to share rides, taking some cars off the streets to reduce congestion.

“This community shuttle is our first foray into providing our own transit” for residents and commuters, said Chris Corrao, senior travel and transportation planner for Cupertino. Currently the city is served by buses from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, “which very few people use, to be honest,” he said. “They are slow. Taking the bus to San Jose (10 miles away) can take well over an hour.”

Housing and public transit top the list of concerns of many Bay Area employers. Tech companies run private shuttle buses for employees, but they are often stuck in traffic. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that the company is eyeing expansion outside the region because of those infrastructure issues. Apple is also looking outside the Bay Area for a new campus.

Cupertino, with a population of some 60,000, balloons to about 150,000 people weekdays thanks to a huge influx of commuters, most of them headed to the city’s largest employer, Apple.

While Apple maintains a network of private buses around the Bay Area and local shuttles that crisscross Cupertino, Corrao expects that some Apple workers will take advantage of Via. Its new Apple Park campus has more than 11,000 parking spaces; parking occupies more square feet than the spaceship-like building.

Seniors, high school students and students at De Anza College are likely to be heavy users of the new system, Corrao said. Some of the vans will be wheelchair accessible.

The Via service will start Oct. 29 and will offer $1 rides for the first three weeks. After that, rides will be $5, with passes available for $17 a week and $60 a month. Service will run weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The program will start with six vans and expand to 10 as demand increases.

Cupertino is picking up the $1.75 million cost of the 18-month pilot, offset by fares. It is applying for grants as well.

Corrao hopes neighboring towns such as Sunnyvale would like to partner on expanded Via service.

“This is a really good model for the South Bay because it’s really suburban here,” he said. “A lot of the areas are not higher density, so a system like Via’s can be a short-term solution while we wait for fixed-route transit, which is expensive and takes a long time.”

New York’s Via operates in about 80 cities in 20 countries, including Pacifica, northern San Rafael, and West Sacramento. It also provides some service in Los Angeles and Orange County. Its largest deployment is 150 vehicles in Berlin.

Via’s California bus drivers are independent contractors. Under AB5, the recently passed gig work bill, they likely would need to be reclassified as employees since they do work central to the company’s business.

“We are aware of AB5 and will definitely make sure we are compliant with it by the time it takes effect on Jan. 1,” said Dillon Twombly, Via’s chief revenue officer.

Via partners with cities to provide a dynamic counterpoint to their “rigid” routes, it says.

“As transit agencies struggle with declining ridership, this provides a new option for them to fill needs like first mile/last mile (connections to transit) and in transit deserts,” Twombly said. “We operate in parts of cities where it’s not efficient to run a fixed-route bus.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid