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

[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.