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About to start a daily commute from Berkeley to Menlo Park. Am optimistic about 880-South in the morning, and driving seems far faster and more peaceful than th

About to start a daily commute from Berkeley to Menlo Park. Am optimistic about 880-South in the morning, and driving seems far faster and more peaceful than the BART -> Shuttle method. But I do mourn the loss of productive time on a daily basis, but can't imagine a better place to live. Even on a wonderful developer salary, I cannot possibly afford a nice apartment for me and my partner in San Francisco or on the peninsula. Especially compared to East Bay's prices...

doktrin 13y ago
> Even on a wonderful developer salary, I cannot possibly afford a nice apartment for me and my partner in San Francisco or on the peninsula. Especially compared to East Bay's prices Ah, yeah. I was unfortunately speaking from the POV of 1-person dwellings with, ahem, somewhat lax standards. I totally empathize with not finding something suitable for 2. A carpool might be worth looking into, but that said they're not really my cup of tea either (and, less productive than any single BART / train ride). Congrats on the new gig though, hopefully the work will be stimulating enough to offset any other inconvenience :)
microtherion 13y ago
I don’t quite follow the logic of driving being “faster”. In my experience, public transportation can be highly productive time for certain activities like reading, while driving is very limited in the activities you can safely do (though I used to have a tape in my car to help me practice singing scales, so there are some safe options).
- textminer 13y ago
  I've just timed it out for about 45 minutes in the car, and an hour and fifteen for the BART/shuttle combo. I also quite like podcasts, so am all right with having just my ears free while driving.
  - rdl 13y ago
    Berkeley to Menlo Park is only 45 minutes if you leave at the correct time (before 6-7 and after 10am, and 1-3pm or >9pm), and there are no accidents or other delays. To get there with 95% odds, you often need to allow 70-80 minutes. I guess it depends on how bad being late is. Timing it to arrive at 0930 is actually really hard; I end up leaving around 0730 to be 99% certain of arriving on time. Sometimes it's an hour early, but sometimes only 15 minutes early.
    - textminer 13y ago
      You've just broken my heart. My timing's basically based on two 9 AM drives that hit traffic/construction, but took no more than 45 minutes. I start tomorrow.
      - rdl 13y ago
        80 (i.e. along the shore in Berkeley) is really bad quite often, but you could possibly skip most of that. If you can avoid that, it's not too bad, although the 880 parts in Oakland (due to port/construction traffic) can be bad.
        textminer 13y ago
        Actually live in Oakland near Emeryville. Not sure why I wrote Berkeley, except for misguided attempt at identity obfuscation. But used to live up in Contra Costa county, and the mornings I'd drive into SF-- boy howdy, 580/80 along the coast near University was an absolute disaster. I wonder if, as "Oakland becomes the new Mission", if we'll see more of the tech giants sending shuttles up to East Bay. I know Google has at least one going to West Oakland, but Facebook does not yet.
        rdl 13y ago
        Yeah, I have a friend who worked at google who lives at the cannery lofts, and used the west Oakland Bart google shuttle a lot. I still would want my car in case I wanted to work late, or go somewhere other tha directly home. Another annoying thing about 880 is the trucks and general narrowness. It is technically 45mph but people do 70-80. I hadn't had an accident there, but it kind of sucks vs the rest of 880. You are aware that a lot of the Oakland/emeryville areas near 30th and such are pretty gangster, right? My friend had a loft there and I kept showing up at her buyer while the cops had the block shut down to serve a high risk warrant.
gammarator 13y ago
I tried this a few times during a conference--it was stop-and-go hell during rush hour, hope your experience is better.

doktrin 13y ago

> Even on a wonderful developer salary, I cannot possibly afford a nice apartment for me and my partner in San Francisco or on the peninsula. Especially compared to East Bay's prices Ah, yeah. I was unfortunately speaking from the POV of 1-person dwellings with, ahem, somewhat lax standards. I totally empathize with not finding something suitable for 2. A carpool might be worth looking into, but that said they're not really my cup of tea either (and, less productive than any single BART / train ride). Congrats on the new gig though, hopefully the work will be stimulating enough to offset any other inconvenience :)

microtherion 13y ago

I don’t quite follow the logic of driving being “faster”. In my experience, public transportation can be highly productive time for certain activities like reading, while driving is very limited in the activities you can safely do (though I used to have a tape in my car to help me practice singing scales, so there are some safe options).

textminer 13y ago
I've just timed it out for about 45 minutes in the car, and an hour and fifteen for the BART/shuttle combo. I also quite like podcasts, so am all right with having just my ears free while driving.
- rdl 13y ago
  Berkeley to Menlo Park is only 45 minutes if you leave at the correct time (before 6-7 and after 10am, and 1-3pm or >9pm), and there are no accidents or other delays. To get there with 95% odds, you often need to allow 70-80 minutes. I guess it depends on how bad being late is. Timing it to arrive at 0930 is actually really hard; I end up leaving around 0730 to be 99% certain of arriving on time. Sometimes it's an hour early, but sometimes only 15 minutes early.
  - textminer 13y ago
    You've just broken my heart. My timing's basically based on two 9 AM drives that hit traffic/construction, but took no more than 45 minutes. I start tomorrow.
    - rdl 13y ago
      80 (i.e. along the shore in Berkeley) is really bad quite often, but you could possibly skip most of that. If you can avoid that, it's not too bad, although the 880 parts in Oakland (due to port/construction traffic) can be bad.
      - textminer 13y ago
        Actually live in Oakland near Emeryville. Not sure why I wrote Berkeley, except for misguided attempt at identity obfuscation. But used to live up in Contra Costa county, and the mornings I'd drive into SF-- boy howdy, 580/80 along the coast near University was an absolute disaster. I wonder if, as "Oakland becomes the new Mission", if we'll see more of the tech giants sending shuttles up to East Bay. I know Google has at least one going to West Oakland, but Facebook does not yet.
        rdl 13y ago
        Yeah, I have a friend who worked at google who lives at the cannery lofts, and used the west Oakland Bart google shuttle a lot. I still would want my car in case I wanted to work late, or go somewhere other tha directly home. Another annoying thing about 880 is the trucks and general narrowness. It is technically 45mph but people do 70-80. I hadn't had an accident there, but it kind of sucks vs the rest of 880. You are aware that a lot of the Oakland/emeryville areas near 30th and such are pretty gangster, right? My friend had a loft there and I kept showing up at her buyer while the cops had the block shut down to serve a high risk warrant.

gammarator 13y ago

I tried this a few times during a conference--it was stop-and-go hell during rush hour, hope your experience is better.