Why I Don't Take Transit

[kevin_standlee]

It's difficult to be around me for long before discovering that I'm a train fan and a transit advocate. I'm not fond of buses, but they are a necessary evil. So why do I drive to work every day instead of taking advantage of transit? Well, I've wanted to do so, but here is how I'd have to do it:


6:11 Lv Fremont/Centerville AC Transit Route U bus (Fare $3.50)
6:51 Ar Stanford Oval
6:56 Lv Stanford Oval Stanford Marguerite Shuttle (free)
7:20 Ar Palo Alto Transit Center
7:32 Lv PATC (University Avenue) Caltrain train #217 (Fare $3.50)
7:46 Ar Hillsdale
8:07 Lv Hillsdale Campus Drive Shuttle (free)
8:20 Ar Peninsula Office Park

Total time: 2:09 Cost: $7 one way


Another alternative is the Dumbarton Express bus, but keep in mind that I'd still have to drive to the Union City BART station to catch it -- about three miles.

6:05 Lv Home Drive to BART Union City, hope there is a parking space
6:20 Ar BART Union City
6:22 Lv BART Union City Dumbarton Express (Fare $3)
7:11 Ar Palo Alto Transit Center
7:15 Lv PATC (University Avenue) Caltrain #215 (Fare $3.50)
7:27 Ar Hillsdale
7:40 Lv Hillsdale Campus Drive Shuttle
7:51 Ar Peninsula Office Park

Total time: 1:46 Cost: $6.50 one way (plus driving to UC BART)


Yet another alternative is to take the long way around, heading south on Altamont Commuter Express to San Jose, then back up north on Caltrain:

5:57 Lv Fremont/Centerville ACE #1 (Fare $4)
6:30 Ar San Jose
6:45 Lv San Jose Caltrain #313 (Fare $5)
7:16 Ar Hillsdale
7:40 Lv Hillsdale Campus Drive Shuttle
7:51 Ar Peninsula Office Park

Total time: 1:54 Cost: $9 one way

Besides all of the alternatives I thought of, the TransitInfo Trip Planner came up with an even more-complex route of AC Transit Bus to Union City Bus to BART to AC Transit transbay bus to SamTrans local bus, taking 2:25 and costing $7.25.

The drive takes about an hour to go 25 miles door to door, and costs an estimated $10 or so one way. With those numbers, driving is the only sensible choice. It's frustrating, given that I'm a transit supporter, but it's hard to reach any other conclusion.

Of course I can move -- there's nothing forcing me to stay in Fremont, other than I hate moving.

Comments

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

It seems you'll spend a bunch of time in Hillsdale. Is there a way where you could walk a block or two and cut out some time?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

You'd think there would be, but the critical issue is that the only practical way up to my office is the Campus Drive Employer Shuttle, which runs only four times in the morning commute period between the Hillsdale Caltrain station and Peninsula Office Park:

Lv Hillsdale     6:50  7:40  8:07  8:50
Ar Peninsula OP  7:02  7:53  8:22  9:05

These shuttles connect out of certain Caltrain trains; the tightest connections (and where they trace back to Palo Alto TC/University Avenue) are:

                  207   215  217*   227
Lv PATC/Univ Ave 6:32  7:15  7:32  8:32
Ar Hillsdale     6:46  7:27  7:46  8:46

*Train 221, which arrives Hillsdale 7:55 and is the official connection to the shuttle, does not stop at Palo Alto University Avenue.

The even worse bottleneck is the ACT U bus, which goes right past Palo Alto TC without stopping. The only U buses are:

Lv Centerville  6:11   7:20   8:27
Ar Stanford     6:51   8:00   9:07

And in all three cases, you still have to get from Stanford back over to PATC. In practice, the only option I'd have is the early one.

I've heard that once renovations at PATC are finished, the U bus will swing in and stop there on its way to Stanford. The main purpose of the U bus is to take people to Stanford, not connect them to Caltrain.

And while Dumbarton Express would work, having to drive to BART Union City to catch it makes it more of a pain. Moreover, at least in theory, I'm breaking BART rules by parking there, because the BART parking lot is only supposed to be used for BART riders, not for anyone taking any of the other transit options radiating from the station. Or I could drive to the Newark/Ardenwood Park & Ride, but again, once I've spent the first 15 minutes driving, I might as well keep going.

If the U bus stopped at Palo Alto TC, or if the Dumbarton Rail service (proposed, mostly funded, but hung up in the wheels of bureaucracy because it crosses all sorts of administrative boundaries and besides, it's cost-effective, unlike BART extensions) were in place, I could do it. Ideal would be DBX train I could catch at Centerville and ride to Hillsdale.

I think there will eventually be Dumbarton Rail trains. I voted yes on Regional Measure 2, even though it added $1 to my bridge toll, and even though it's unlikely I'll ever personally benefit from it because by the time it's running, I'll be long gone, because I think it's the right and sensible thing to do. Even more sensible would be if the DBX trains shared a station with BART at Union City. It would be a "missing link" connection between rail systems.

Transfers kill you in transit. Non-integrated transfers between systems are even worse, an the Bay Area's balkanized transit systems have that problem in spades. And I'm faced with the "last mile" problem of getting from where I live to where the first leg of the connection is. It is a sign of how important this is that I paid $7 for a one-seat ride from Fremont/Centerville (on the Amtrak Capitol) to Oakland Coliseum rather than $4.50 to ride an ACT bus to BART to Coliseum. If only the Capitol ran on Caltrain-like frequencies, but that's never going to happen.

[caladri.livejournal.com]

Transfers kill you in transit. Non-integrated transfers between systems are even worse, an the Bay Area's balkanized transit systems have that problem in spades.

Absolutely. What's worse is things like SamTrans which pretend to have integration with major hubs like Caltrain. The schedule is timed just right, from Menlo Park to Menlo Park Caltrain, for example, to get you on the West side of the tracks about 2 minutes before the Northbound train goes up the East side of the tracks, crossing requires walking what's about half a city block North or South, corssing the tracks, and then walking South or North half a city block, to board the train (and get a 10-ride validated.) So integration that doesn't take reality into account is a problem, too :)

When I was commuting from Menlo Park to San Francisco, that just about drove me insane. Now my biggest problem in my commute (SF->Palo Alto) is frequency, if I'm five minutes late getting to Caltrain, I'm an hour later getting in to work. Well, that and that I don't like a two hour door-to-door commute to begin with, even if there's no wait time or missed transfers.

The Bay Area's transit systems are great for anything but commutes which require transfers. BART even has this problem internally, with the questionable assortment of trains they run on the weekends (I can't remember the last time I rode from Ashby, transferred from the Fremont train to the SF train at MacArthur and saw *anyone* left on the Fremont-bound train, on a Sunday night.)

I've never taken ACE, but I've wanted to for a while, I've just been in need of an excuse.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I've taken ACE four times (two round trips), back when they still stopped at Santa Clara (El Camino Real) station. This was because I was flying SJC-Detroit on business, so I was traveling on weekdays, going out in the morning and back in the afternoon, and that's the only way you could do it, as ACE is only three trains to San Jose in the morning and three trains to Stockton at night, weekdays only. Fremont-Centerville to Santa Clara isn't a very long trip, but I was much happier taking that trip (and the transfer to the #10 bus to the airport) than driving to SJC.

Service to Santa Clara is "suspended due to construction" and the Capitol never stops there. In both cases, I presume this is because there's no passenger platform on the #1 track (the UP-owned third track through that area over which ACE and Amtrak normally run). To use the passenger platform, ACE and Amtrak would have to cross the other two mains, which would get in Caltrain's way. If they could move the tracks apart and put a grade-separated island platform between tracks 1 and 2, they could get around this problem, but doing so would obviously be very expensive.