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> public transportation I have spent some time in the San Francisco bay area and a lot of time in New York City. Looking at BART and Caltrain schedules - the
by Mc91 5y ago
> public transportation
I have spent some time in the San Francisco bay area and a lot of time in New York City.
Looking at BART and Caltrain schedules - the last Caltrain train leaving San Francisco is three minutes after midnight. The last BART train leaving San Francisco leaves at 1041PM! The BART website says they will add slightly later trains next month, but still - it was like this before Covid too.
In New York City, PATH and subway trains run all night. Metro-North, LIRR and New Jersey transit trains run fairly late as well. It's a larger city, but many people commute 40 miles or more every day, and it's no big thing - get on a train in Bay Shore, Suffolk, New York in the morning, and in a little less than an hour you walk out of Penn Station, over 40 miles away. If you want a faster commute, then live 35, or 30, or 25 miles away - still plenty of room for one family homes and lawns if that is your thing.
I have taken the BART from SFO into the city during the day, and that worked well enough when I did it, but expanding BART, Caltrain etc. could solve a lot of the Bay's problems of insane rent for a small place in a neighborhood that is not that great.
- Ericson2314 5y agoNYC is better, but there is still to much sprawl there too. The A train is < 40 miles, and Manhanttan is roughly in the middle, so subways commutes are less long. There is nothing wrong with long regional rail commutes per-se, but the the problem is US "commuter rail" is set up so the richest surburbanites in the biggest homes drive for the rest of their lives (and are the worse green house gas emitters in the country), and just take transit to get to their 9-5 midtown office jobs. This is bad for the environment, and regressive. Transit should serve all classes, and be paired with dense development around stations (think more flushings) so people living far out might have more room for kids, but need not rely on cars to any greater extent. See https://pedestrianobservations.com/2021/03/09/the-hempstead-line/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/2021/03/09/the-hempstead-... and linked posts for plans about this sort of thing.
- Ericson2314 5y agoNYC metropolitan region was what I was calling sprawl, to be clear. But yes, NYC proper isn't dense enough in parts either.
- dasil003 5y agoLast BART train going to the East Bay left Civic Center after midnight, not sure if this got dialed back for Covid, but I used to take this all the time.
- zootboy 5y agoIndeed. The pre-COVID schedule was that all active lines had their last train leave from the end of their line at midnight. The last SF to East Bay would be the SFO train, which would hit Civic Center around 12:30 am.