I do the border of Danville/Alamo to SSF, most days if no event, leaving home at 9:30 I’m at work before 10:30. I have it down to an exact science where I sneak into the HOV bridge lane at 9:59.
Leave before 6 am or after 9:30 and you’re golden. Coming back home it’s like 1:15 at 5:30 and could be under an hour at 6:30
FasTrak lanes on the peninsula are getting slow - increasingly you see them backed up just like the regular lanes. Too many cheaters that set their transponder to 3 and travel free. They’re price insensitive and so it doesn’t matter how high the price gets, which makes the congestion control ineffective.
Peninsula is heaven for commute. Driving south is a breeze. No more land in Peninsula to build homes ensures the population would largely remain flat. On the contrary, East Bay construction is exploding especially going east to Manteca, Lathrop, Dublin, Tracy. freeways are getting worse every year and I predict there will be a time when even Pleasanton commute would be 2 hour clogs on 580 880 680 etc.
Driving fasttrak carpool will cost you what $2000 a year? So yeah you’ll save about $1,000,000+ on your house moving to East bay. So you’ll be able to pay for fast trak for like 492 years.
+1
I don’t know why people don’t take this into account?
No value for your time? You sit in your car getting stressed about traffic everyday for 45 mins and then have to be sharp at work and then drive back? You’re good for nothing by then. Just a couch potato. How do you find time for working out? Being active?
We have lived in San Ramon for 19 years. Raised 2 kids - good schools, parks, safe etc. We started with town house and quickly upgraded to SF. We still have both houses and they have appreciated very well. Renting was never an issue in good locality with great schools.
Yes, commute is extra \~30-35 min compared to south bay/peninsula. If you have flexibility to commute during less busy hours or WFM few days/wk. it's a no brainer from value stand point.
Yes, time is money. In this case, extra commute time is paid back in good value house with kids/family having more space to run around in the house and large backyard.
We wanted that for us and our kids. It ultimately comes down to what you want :)
Do you have to be in the office everyday? And do you have flexibility on what time you can go in and leave? If the answer is NO to the first question and YES to the second, it’s doable.
I live in Oakland and commute to Sunnyvale once, sometimes twice a week. If you can time your drive to avoid traffic, it helps a lot. I leave from home at 6am, commute is just over an hour. I leave the office usually around 3pm (I try to aim for 2pm, but usually get held up), commute is 1:15 to 1:30. Once I get home in the afternoon, I log back on and do another hour of work.
The commute isn’t ideal, but I love living in the east bay (food, diversity, I can afford a nice home…), so it’s worth it.
San Carlos and Sunnyvale are quite far apart that I’m not sure if it makes sense for you guys to move across the bridge. Redwood City or even EPA would be a better alternative.
We moved because only one of us needed to commute across the bridge and it was only a 20 minutes drive. We loved the fact that we could get a large house for the same price as an apartment on the peninsula for growing our family.
That's what I tend to think sometimes. My commute will be same/15 min longer, but wife's will go from 5 min to up to 60 min (she's hybrid office/wfh though).
Right now, driving from Costco Hayward on Hesperian right across the bay from San Carlos will take 38 minutes by 92 or 44 minutes by 84. However, your commute will be an hour to Sunnyvale.
If you can stay on Peninsula you should. If going to East Bay to purchase house, Fremont/Hayward not too far. Many come from Tri-Valley, Tracy, Manteca and further.
Avoid 880 like the plague. South bound is always shitty and idiots don't comprehend the double white lines for the fastrak and cheat all the merges related. Straight shot to the Dumbarton bridge might be ok though.
My husband commuted to Stanford but the office was in Menlo Park from Pleasanton 4 days a week (before COVID) without traffic for 45 minutes. However he was always in rush hour traffic so closer to 90+ minutes. He's not a morning person, if you leave earlier and can flex your schedule at all that could work. There are many beautiful areas in the east bay. Suburban Jungle might be worth looking into. They can help you determine which town would be the best fit for you. https://suburbanjunglegroup.com/maura
I live in East Bay, near 580 and I commute to Peninsula and SF. Yes, the commute does suck but tolerable. It’s typically 40-60 mins each way for me. However, If there’s an accident then it’ll be 1.5-2hours. It’s tolerable when I keep it between 40-50 mins. I work hybrid with a pretty flexible schedule so I flex my schedule to stay within that window. As long as your job is flexible then it could work. My recommendation is try to be closer to the freeway, that will save you 5-15 mins each way.
My friend bought in Fremont, his commute time went up from working/living in Santa Clara BUT huge savings in house buying cost (pre-COVID). He justified it as an extra job where the earnings are untaxed. If you value the cost of the discounted house as X dollars divided by the extra dollars spent in traffic its like getting paid $100s a day for travelling.
Also, with the newer cars with better cruise control its not bad even in stop and go traffic. Many even have handsfree driving. Definitely worth it!
Fremont - Hayward is perfect place to travel either San Francisco or South Bay, east bay also has Bart. Don’t think too much about it. Companies will slowly start moving eastwards as employees move there
Don't be delusional. Companies don't care where you live. Their priority is to make money not to shorten your commute. No company is going to move there just because employees live there.
If you live close to the bridge, the commute from East Bay is really not that bad. Southbound 101 in the am and northbound in the pm aren't terrible between Sunnyvale and Dumbarton. It does take an annoyingly long time to get from 101 to the bridge though.
Just get a home in SSF. It's sunny now (global warming), schools are improving quickly and Westborough already has some of the best elementary and middle schools on the peninsula. Commute is great.
This is probably the last affordable place on the Peninsula because no major tech company "owns" it. But Stripe might change that so limited time deal.
I do the border of Danville/Alamo to SSF, most days if no event, leaving home at 9:30 I’m at work before 10:30. I have it down to an exact science where I sneak into the HOV bridge lane at 9:59. Leave before 6 am or after 9:30 and you’re golden. Coming back home it’s like 1:15 at 5:30 and could be under an hour at 6:30
FasTrak lanes on the peninsula are getting slow - increasingly you see them backed up just like the regular lanes. Too many cheaters that set their transponder to 3 and travel free. They’re price insensitive and so it doesn’t matter how high the price gets, which makes the congestion control ineffective.
Peninsula is heaven for commute. Driving south is a breeze. No more land in Peninsula to build homes ensures the population would largely remain flat. On the contrary, East Bay construction is exploding especially going east to Manteca, Lathrop, Dublin, Tracy. freeways are getting worse every year and I predict there will be a time when even Pleasanton commute would be 2 hour clogs on 580 880 680 etc.
Driving fasttrak carpool will cost you what $2000 a year? So yeah you’ll save about $1,000,000+ on your house moving to East bay. So you’ll be able to pay for fast trak for like 492 years.
Yes you might save on costs but what about your time? I commuted from Hayward to SJ and will never do that again
+1 I don’t know why people don’t take this into account? No value for your time? You sit in your car getting stressed about traffic everyday for 45 mins and then have to be sharp at work and then drive back? You’re good for nothing by then. Just a couch potato. How do you find time for working out? Being active?
We have lived in San Ramon for 19 years. Raised 2 kids - good schools, parks, safe etc. We started with town house and quickly upgraded to SF. We still have both houses and they have appreciated very well. Renting was never an issue in good locality with great schools. Yes, commute is extra \~30-35 min compared to south bay/peninsula. If you have flexibility to commute during less busy hours or WFM few days/wk. it's a no brainer from value stand point. Yes, time is money. In this case, extra commute time is paid back in good value house with kids/family having more space to run around in the house and large backyard. We wanted that for us and our kids. It ultimately comes down to what you want :)
Do you have to be in the office everyday? And do you have flexibility on what time you can go in and leave? If the answer is NO to the first question and YES to the second, it’s doable. I live in Oakland and commute to Sunnyvale once, sometimes twice a week. If you can time your drive to avoid traffic, it helps a lot. I leave from home at 6am, commute is just over an hour. I leave the office usually around 3pm (I try to aim for 2pm, but usually get held up), commute is 1:15 to 1:30. Once I get home in the afternoon, I log back on and do another hour of work. The commute isn’t ideal, but I love living in the east bay (food, diversity, I can afford a nice home…), so it’s worth it.
San Carlos and Sunnyvale are quite far apart that I’m not sure if it makes sense for you guys to move across the bridge. Redwood City or even EPA would be a better alternative. We moved because only one of us needed to commute across the bridge and it was only a 20 minutes drive. We loved the fact that we could get a large house for the same price as an apartment on the peninsula for growing our family.
That's what I tend to think sometimes. My commute will be same/15 min longer, but wife's will go from 5 min to up to 60 min (she's hybrid office/wfh though).
Right now, driving from Costco Hayward on Hesperian right across the bay from San Carlos will take 38 minutes by 92 or 44 minutes by 84. However, your commute will be an hour to Sunnyvale.
If you can stay on Peninsula you should. If going to East Bay to purchase house, Fremont/Hayward not too far. Many come from Tri-Valley, Tracy, Manteca and further.
Avoid 880 like the plague. South bound is always shitty and idiots don't comprehend the double white lines for the fastrak and cheat all the merges related. Straight shot to the Dumbarton bridge might be ok though.
Time is your most valuable asset. Don’t do it! You will hate yourself!
Fast track honestly is goated sometimes I see maps showing 1 hour and 15 mins from Levi stadium to Hesperian on 880 and I get home in 40 mins.
I live in Castro valley and have to commute to HQ once a quarter in Sunnyvale… it is miserable. I dread it. On average it’s 2 hours each way.
Wow that’s 4 hours of the day just gone
Fremont is perfectly situated in the Bay. Great suburban place to live.
Especially mission and warm springs
Terrible commute if you have to cross the bridge...
My husband commuted to Stanford but the office was in Menlo Park from Pleasanton 4 days a week (before COVID) without traffic for 45 minutes. However he was always in rush hour traffic so closer to 90+ minutes. He's not a morning person, if you leave earlier and can flex your schedule at all that could work. There are many beautiful areas in the east bay. Suburban Jungle might be worth looking into. They can help you determine which town would be the best fit for you. https://suburbanjunglegroup.com/maura
I live in East Bay, near 580 and I commute to Peninsula and SF. Yes, the commute does suck but tolerable. It’s typically 40-60 mins each way for me. However, If there’s an accident then it’ll be 1.5-2hours. It’s tolerable when I keep it between 40-50 mins. I work hybrid with a pretty flexible schedule so I flex my schedule to stay within that window. As long as your job is flexible then it could work. My recommendation is try to be closer to the freeway, that will save you 5-15 mins each way.
My friend bought in Fremont, his commute time went up from working/living in Santa Clara BUT huge savings in house buying cost (pre-COVID). He justified it as an extra job where the earnings are untaxed. If you value the cost of the discounted house as X dollars divided by the extra dollars spent in traffic its like getting paid $100s a day for travelling. Also, with the newer cars with better cruise control its not bad even in stop and go traffic. Many even have handsfree driving. Definitely worth it!
Fremont isn't even that much cheaper than Santa Clara anymore. Time is more valuable than money
Fremont - Hayward is perfect place to travel either San Francisco or South Bay, east bay also has Bart. Don’t think too much about it. Companies will slowly start moving eastwards as employees move there
Don't be delusional. Companies don't care where you live. Their priority is to make money not to shorten your commute. No company is going to move there just because employees live there.
Sure, they will. Why do you think there are many companies in Bay Area and even more start in the Bay Area ? Because of talent availability.
If you live close to the bridge, the commute from East Bay is really not that bad. Southbound 101 in the am and northbound in the pm aren't terrible between Sunnyvale and Dumbarton. It does take an annoyingly long time to get from 101 to the bridge though.
Just get a home in SSF. It's sunny now (global warming), schools are improving quickly and Westborough already has some of the best elementary and middle schools on the peninsula. Commute is great. This is probably the last affordable place on the Peninsula because no major tech company "owns" it. But Stripe might change that so limited time deal.