I live approximately an hour outside of Fairfield, California. I have just taken a position located in Redwood Shores. I accept that I am likely going to have to rent a room, or a motel, or some other closet-away-from-home arrangement, but I wanted to make certain that the commute was intolerable first. My results with notes:
| Driving | Driving takes approximately 2.5-3.5 hours depending on traffic conditions. If I leave the house at 07:00h then I'm pretty much guaranteed to get to the office at between 10:00h and 11:00h. Leaving the house at 04:45h gets me to the office pretty reliably at between 07:45h and 08:15h. The round-trip also includes 240 miles of wear-and-tear on the vehicle, one tank of gas, and two bridge tolls. A reasonable estimate of the per-mile cost to drive is ¢25. | Cost: $60 | Time (hours, one way): 2.5-4 |
| Public transit 1 |
This was recommended by the otherwise excellent 511.org web site. The recommendation:
If all connections are made and the system is on time then I arrive at the office at ~10:00h, or a ~4.25 hour commute (leaving the house by 05:30h to catch the 06:50h 90 means arriving at ~09:15h, or a ~3.75 hour commute). This costs ~$13.75 one way, plus the cost of the initial driving (25% of the distance if I drove the entire way). The return trip gets me home at ~20:30-21:30h. |
Cost: $15 + ($13.75 * 2) = $42.50 | Time (hours, one way): 3.75-4.25 |
| Public transit 2 |
Inexplicably 511.org seems to not acknowledge that AmTrak is an option. It is though. Here's how that shakes out:
The total transit time is from 04:40h-09:10h, or The return trip gets me home at ~21:30h. |
Cost: $15 + ($21 + 4) * 2 = $65 | Time (hours, one way): 4.5 |
It's worth noting that both public transit options become less expensive if I do them regularly and buy monthly passes rather than single one-way tickets on the day of travel. The $21-per-trip AmTrak ticket in particular comes down substantially if a month-pass is purchased for $368. At 40 trips a month with the pass each individual trip comes in at just under $11 one way, or nearly 50% cheaper.
What I find really frustrating about all of this is that it's as though the transit agencies have gone out of their way to make things hard. Finding all of this information has been extremely frustrating, and I know there's more information that I haven't found at all. Getting from one side of the Bay to the other is extremely disorganized. Hayward and AC Transit, in particular, seem to have gone out of their way to make things difficult. The AC Transit bus that leaves from hayward does not stop at the AmTrak station. Instead it leaves from the BART station a brisk 10 minute hike away. There are no busses or shuttles from the AmTrak station to the BART station. The M line schedule is not ctimed/coordinated with AmTrak and BART to minimize commuter's waiting times. Once across the San Mateo bridge the M bus becomes local service stopping at many surface street locations rather than proceeding as quickly as possible to a central hub location (Hillsdale Mall? San Carlos CalTrain?). If AC Transit, BART, and AmTrak would cooperate and plan efficiently then the AmTrak option would actually be as fast as (if not faster than) driving. It is reprehensible that AmTrak drops passengers off in Hayward at 07:39h and the fastest those passengers can expect to arrive at Oracle's campus is 09:00h.
So where does this leave us? Driving is generally faster and more versatile. It also costs $60 each time I do it and I'll spend between five and eight hours a day just driving. There are two mass-transit options easily available (not to mention ferries from Vallejo to San Francisco, etc). They're reasonably priced when paid for in bulk, but they add (at best) an hour to each direction of commute. I'll spend more time getting to (and coming from) work than I will actually working. Ultimately the only really feasible option is to stay closer to the office and, if my employer eventually agrees to to it, telecommute one or two days a week.
2 comments (+add yours?)
Did you try the Ferry?
You could drive to Vallejo, catch the ferry to SF ($13, 10.50 if you buy a 10 ride card), then Muni to Caltrain (use a transfer) and Cal Train to San Carlos ($9.00). Leave Vallejo 6:30 AM arrival San Carlos 8:50AM. 2.5 hours plus drive (1hour?), 19.50 * 2 = 38.00 + driving. And you can have breakfast and after work drinks on the ferry. Also don't forget that there is power on the Train and the Ferry (I think), so you if you tether your laptop, you can get some of your work done during the ride.
Considered, then dismissed
I considered the ferry but ultimately dismissed it. It would take me ~1.333 hours driving to get to the ferry. That's nearly 3 hours round trip just in driving. Plus the 150 miles, or ~$20 in gas. Add that to the cost of the ferry, the transfer to Muni, then CalTrain. I'd be leaving the house by 5:00am every day to make it to the office by 9:00am, and I'd be spending ~$60 a day for the privilege.
No, sadly it simply doesn't make sense for me to try to get to the Peninsula or South Bay from my home during the week (East Bay or SF would actually be doable though). It's much cheaper in both time and money for me to rent a room in Sunnyvale and take CalTrain in the morning.
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