Commute to S.F from Tracy?? (Oakland, San Mateo: home, transfer, to buy)

[lscott29]

My family is relocating back to the area after 5 years in TX. My husband has a job in Tracy and we are looking at that area to buy our home. I have an opportunity to transfer in my current job to the S.F office. What kind of commute am I looking at if take the Bart? Looking for any useful info..Thanks!!

[sonarrat]

Parking is scarce at the Pleasanton and Castro Valley BART stations.. that will improve once they finish the West Dublin station. Just getting to either of them can sometimes take an hour due to heavy traffic through Livermore.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by lscott29

My family is relocating back to the area after 5 years in TX. My husband has a job in Tracy and we are looking at that area to buy our home. I have an opportunity to transfer in my current job to the S.F office. What kind of commute am I looking at if take the Bart? Looking for any useful info..Thanks!!

Via Con Dios.

BART does not go anywhere near Tracy.

You would have a 1 hour drive (At best) to Dublin during commuter hours to catch BART. Someday they plan a HOV carpool lane but that is looking slim with the cutbacks.

[lscott29]

Thank you for the info. I am debating if I should take the position or not. I love the company and want to stay with them but I don't want to take on an unreasonable commute. It's a part time job with a great deal of flexibility so I would have some control over my schedule.

Here are my thoughts:

I could leave very early 5:30ish to beat the traffic and just drive through. I'd either be going to Brisbane (I'm guessing the San Mateo Bridge) or to the Moscone Center most days. Also I won't be working everyday. Probably 15 days per month on average. My map app shows 1 hour 15 minutes to Brisbane w/ traffic and 1 hour 7 minutes to Moscone. Do these times sound right if I beat the bulk of the commute traffic? Does this sound like an insane idea? I want to accept but don't want to regret it. I wish we could afford to move closer in but we can only afford shacks for the price range we're looking at.

[sonarrat]

Brisbane is not far south from SF so it will still be better to take the shorter Bay Bridge. 238 backs up as badly as the BB toll plaza, and both 880 and 101 can be a major drag coming off the San Mateo bridge. But if there's any hint of trouble on 580 through San Leandro/Oakland, or if there's an accident on your deck of the bridge (upper deck westbound, lower deck eastbound), well, go through the Castro Valley "Y" and go to the SM..

Then there's the Pleasanton issue. Radio listeners, repeat after me: Slow from Hopyard to El Charro, then from N Livermore Ave to First Street.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by lscott29

I could leave very early 5:30ish to beat the traffic and just drive through. I'd either be going to Brisbane (I'm guessing the San Mateo Bridge) or to the Moscone Center most days. Also I won't be working everyday. Probably 15 days per month on average. My map app shows 1 hour 15 minutes to Brisbane w/ traffic and 1 hour 7 minutes to Moscone. Do these times sound right if I beat the bulk of the commute traffic? Does this sound like an insane idea? I want to accept but don't want to regret it. I wish we could afford to move closer in but we can only afford shacks for the price range we're looking at.

I knew a lot of people who worked in the east bay with off hour shifts like 11am- 8pm and 2pm -11pm etc. and they had no trouble with traffic going to lathrop/tracy/manteca so I would guess that if you can swing off hours it would be fine.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

238 backs up as badly as the BB toll plaza, and both 880 and 101 can be a major drag coming off the San Mateo bridge. But if there's any hint of trouble on 580 through San Leandro/Oakland, or if there's an accident on your deck of the bridge (upper deck westbound, lower deck eastbound), well, go through the Castro Valley "Y" and go to the SM..

Then there's the Pleasanton issue. Radio listeners, repeat after me: Slow from Hopyard to El Charro, then from N Livermore Ave to First Street.

I don't think you would need this if you had off hours at work.
BUT:
Backroads are a great thing. Tracy to SF -->
OK so what you do is you can get off on First street in Livermore and take it over to railroad ave which turns into Stanley blvd and go to Pleasanton. Make a right on Valley Ave, a right on Hopyard and a left on stoneridge over to Foothill rd where you can either rejoin the 580 freeway in dublin/pleasanton or you can continue on the backroad dublin canyon all the way to CV.

Then you can get back on the freeway again (if you are going to the bay bridge 580) or you can continue on the backway make a left on grove way and a left again at Center (turns into B.) street. Make a left on foothill blvd and stay to the right on the 5 corners (take Jackson) all the way past 880 and onto the san mateo bridge.

To get home just do the same thing backwards.