Commute Help: Lafayette to Redwood Shores/Oracle. Ouch... (Hayward, San Mateo: home, transfer)

[welty68]

Got this nasty one to deal with.....any creative options out there that might include BARTing from Lafayette...also what's the drive like leaving east bay at 5:30am and departing peninsula at 5pm? Thanks. I can't move, so don't tell me how great San Mateo is! Thanks.

[humboldtrat]

You can take BART to Millbrae and then take Caltrain to Either Belmont or San Carlos. I have seen Oracle shuttle buses at the San Carlos Caltrain station (check with Oracle about this). Driving - using either the Bay Bridge or the San Mateo Bridge - would be a terrible commute. Probably would be OK at 5:30am but just plain awful at 5pm.

[artemis78]

You can also take AC Transit's Transbay M bus, which picks up at Hayward BART and takes you directly to Oracle (with stops at other Peninsula workplaces too)---not sure it's any faster, but it might be less painful with just the one transfer. (The Transbay buses are pretty nice, too---comfy seats, some have WiFi, etc.) You can also get the bus at Castro Valley or Union City BART.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by artemis78

You can also take AC Transit's Transbay M bus, which picks up at Hayward BART and takes you directly to Oracle (with stops at other Peninsula workplaces too)---not sure it's any faster, but it might be less painful with just the one transfer. (The Transbay buses are pretty nice, too---comfy seats, some have WiFi, etc.) You can also get the bus at Castro Valley or Union City BART.

This is the solution I would take too. You could also try to carpool, there are plenty of Oracle employees that live in Marin County, Gilroy, and the East Bay and commute.. if you found a couple people who live in Lamorinda or Walnut Creek, you could take the Bay Bridge for free and keep from putting 40,000 miles on your car a year.

[18Montclair]

If you were in São Paulo you'd be commuting by helicopter.

LOL

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by artemis78

You can also take AC Transit's Transbay M bus, which picks up at Hayward BART and takes you directly to Oracle (with stops at other Peninsula workplaces too)---not sure it's any faster, but it might be less painful with just the one transfer. (The Transbay buses are pretty nice, too---comfy seats, some have WiFi, etc.) You can also get the bus at Castro Valley or Union City BART.

This is precisely what I would do if I were in the OP's shoes.

[cardinal2007]

Depending on what job the OP has he/she can telecommute once a week possibly. If I were the OP I would certainly talk to my manager about that. Another possibility is to work remotely from Pleasanton, but if the OP's manager and team are in Redwood Shores working from home and working from Pleasanton would be almost the same thing. There are some jobs that have a lot of mandatory face-to-face interaction with other people everyday, so it might not work out.

I would favor the taking the M over the Caltrain + Shuttle, the M buses stop every 30 minutes across the street on Oracle Pkwy, even late in the day, ask about getting the AC-transit pass for the transbay buses using pre-tax money. Caltrain shuttle runs to/from San Carlos and there aren't that many, all during rush-hour (and one from Hillsdale in the morning), none to an from Belmont, and there are few trains that go from Belmont during rush-hour.

If I were driving and I were the OP I would leave after 9AM, and leave work after 7pm, someone who used to commute from Pleasanton to Redwood Shores told me the traffic was fairly light on those times. I have personally seen the 101 going north from Ralston at 5:30 it is not a pretty sight, I swear at that time it sometimes takes 10 minutes just to get to Hillsdale!, I would avoid. If I were the OP and I were done with work at that time I would try to use the gym.

[welty68]

Thanks so much to all of you....great feedback

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Carndinal2007 made good points. I agree that if you do drive, being on a later schedule is better.