New in San Ramon (San Jose, San Francisco: school district, quality of life, living in)

[eisha]

I am in the process of moving to CA from the east coast due to a new job in Richmond. I will be living in San Ramon. What is the best route from San Ramon to Richmond and vise versa. I will have to pick and drop my children from before and after school care (630AM to 630PM). Any suggestions will be greatly apperciated. Thanks.

[lee_in_beechtree]

Originally Posted by eisha

I am in the process of moving to CA from the east coast due to a new job in Richmond. I will be living in San Ramon. What is the best route from San Ramon to Richmond and vise versa. I will have to pick and drop my children from before and after school care (630AM to 630PM). Any suggestions will be greatly apperciated. Thanks.

I think your question would be answered much quicker if you posted your message in the City-Data sub-forum for VIRGINIA > RICHMOND.

Maybe some highly-intelligent Moderator can do the moving for you, however, if you ask real nice...or offer a bribe. :-)

Good luck here on the East Coast. I moved to northern Virginia from SoCal in 2011 after living there for 24 years and now reside in Maryland. It's a big change and I miss CA a lot, but at least we don't have to put up with a drought.

[Dude111]

Welcome to city-data!!!


Good luck in your quest

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Actually, posting in the San Francisco/Oakland forum will be helpful.

That said, are you sure you need to do that commute? Yikes. I'm from the Bay Area, and that commute will exhaust you, along with dealing with kids, etc.

If you are going to drive, consider taking 680 to 24 to 80. Hwy 680 is much nicer and the traffic is normally not as bad as taking 580 - 880.

Just go to maps.google.com and put in the directions option: San Ramon to Richmond and you'll see the different routes.

The traffic on 880 is insanely heavy -as in it's often a parking lot, basically, with stop and go traffic, and it's ugly. There are sound walls up everywhere along that route now, so you can't usually see the Bay, so it's just ugly. At least 680 and 24 are pretty, even if you're stuck in traffic.

To take public transportation would be an additional pain, as you'd have to drive to a town with BART, then take BART. And I personally really hate BART. It's hard to find parking, there are often break-ins to cars in the BART parking lots, the trains are packed and are loud with a screeching noise from hell, which is so loud, it's hard to hold a conversation.

Others will disagree with me on how horrific riding BART is. But, that's my personal opinion. I'd always rather be in my car, even in traffic, that ride BART.

But, there will be no easy/fast commute from San Ramon to Richmond. So, I'm wondering if you might want to re-think where you will live. What about looking into Alameda?

Good luck to you, anyway, and congrats on the job.

[eisha]

Thank you for your comments. I will not be using BART for the same reasons you mentioned. I was thinking of going from 680 to 24 to San Pablo Dam RD. I mainly picked San Ramon because of high ranking school district. My children will start 3rd and 4th grade. Things will be difficult for the first couple of months until my husband wraps things up and moves to CA. We used to live in the San Jose/Santa Clara area and moved to the east coast 6 years ago. The bay area traffic is not something new to me.

[Maceart]

What the hell? If your job is in Richmond why did you choose San Ramon? The commute is going to suck in both directions, unless your job is located near BART (I doubt it, the Richmond station is located in a bad part of town). You're looking at 2 hours each way in heavy traffic (Caldecott Tunnel + I-80 quagmire).

Move further up north to Concord/Martinez for a much easier commute. You're not making back in time to pick up your kids at 630PM, let alone 700PM if your job ends at 500PM.

[sav858]

What's your housing budget? I'm thinking you can probably still get good schools closer to Richmond.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by eisha

Thank you for your comments. I will not be using BART for the same reasons you mentioned. I was thinking of going from 680 to 24 to San Pablo Dam RD. I mainly picked San Ramon because of high ranking school district. My children will start 3rd and 4th grade. Things will be difficult for the first couple of months until my husband wraps things up and moves to CA. We used to live in the San Jose/Santa Clara area and moved to the east coast 6 years ago. The bay area traffic is not something new to me.

San Pablo Dam Road is really pretty, but two-lane, and can get heavy with traffic, too.

Seriously, check out Alameda schools or Walnut Creek. Both should be good, and are both nice, safe towns, and much closer to Richmond.

I moved from Santa Clara a couple years ago. My daughter lives in Oakland. The East Bay Area traffic is much worse than Silicon Valley traffic, in my opinion. I just can't imagine, husband helping or not, that you can have a decent quality of life if your commute adds 3 - 4 hours to your workday. There are good schools much closer to your job.

[eisha]

Thank you everyone for all of your comments.... they are very helpful!