Commuting from Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, and Union City to Downtown SF (Oakland: HOA)

[Adenine]

If I need to be in downtown SF by 9 a.m., what time should I leave Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, and Union City? I know that of course BART is fast and convenient but I want to know drive times. Thank you.

[ccm123]

I can speak for Pleasanton, as I have lived in Pleasanton. 580 gets heavy in the morning and so does 880 towards the Bay Bridge toll plaza. It would take you 20-25 minutes at times just to clear the toll plaza. Sometimes longer.

I estimate Union City would be shorter.

You could take 580 to 880 and then cross San Mateo bridge, which would be lighter. I estimate that you should leave by 7:20 AM, at the latest. It used to take me about 80-90 minutes to make the commute in the morning and around 90-100 minutes in the afternoon. I stopped driving and started taking BART in.

My destination was Beale and Howard Street (SOMA).

[jade408]

60-90 minutes. Check out traffic.511.org to calculate estimated drive times. And sf itself can be pretty congested so it really depends on where you need to go in downtown. Also carpool or no carpool. I live 3 miles from the toll plaza in Oakland and it takes about 40 minutes without the carpool, 20 with the carpool lane. The backup can range from only in Oakland west of Keller or all the way in San Leandro and continue the whole way.

Livermore is the worst of those choices since you need to deal with the altamont traffic. Getting to Dublin could easily take 20-30 minutes.

[18Montclair]

I second 60-90 mins. That's a realistic timeframe on normal days.

[davdaven]

Yes, it will take at least 60 minutes. It would be reasonable to plan on 90 minutes on a regular basis. As you can see, it is faster to take BART, which is why most people do so from these communities (or in Danville's case, via the nearest BART-accessible town).

[Justme909]

Danville is by far the best community to live in out of those options. You might be surprised to find that some great townhomes are available at reasonable prices ( I like Danville Woods townhomes on sycamore circle-for its great community feel, lots of trees an open space. I think you can actually find a townhouse in the high $300 to high $400,000 range. They have a really high HOA until2016 but after that the levels return to normal. And right now is the perfect time to buy as they are priced lower now because of that but property values will rise after the HOA situation is resolved ). There are also some great neighborhoods in the Baldwin school area with great neighbors and relatively close to he freeway for commuting.