Living in Mountain View possible without car?

[fashionguy]

Doable != Normal Life. Doable means just getting by. At least that's what I meant, and with regards main stream shopping, Oakridge mall isn't up there with Valley Fair or Stanford.

I think in most part we are having the same opinion. I am not saying downtown MV or PA is better than downtown SJ. They are all places that it is "doable" to not have a car (meaning you can get by), but you sacrifice a lot by not having a car.

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

You exclude Downtown SJ, and yet also goes on and say that it's "doable" in DT MV and DT PA?

Mainstream retail in Downtown SJ includes Ross, San Jose Market Center (Target, Marshall's, Michael's, Trader Joes', Office Depot, Payless Shoes, and a crapload of other "suburban amenities" and restaurants), and OSH for hardware supplies. There's also a Lowe's Hardware on Coleman Landing but you will need a bike to access it through the Guadalupe River Trail. Downtown core has several supermarkets including Whole Foods, Safeway, Grocery Outlet, and Dai Thanh Supermarket. It has several gyms, crapload of auto repair stores, bike shops, car rentals, 2-3 movie theatres, etc.

The only thing that Downtown Core lacks is an electronics store such as Radio Shack or Best Buy.

If you jump on the light rail and head 20-30 minutes south on the Santa Teresa-Alum Rock line, you will literally be dropped at the door of Oakridge Mall, where you can have all that Target, Macy's, Sears, JCPenneys, Home Depot, Office Depot, and a ton of food options and other retail stores (including ELECTRONICS stores) both inside the mall and in the immediate corners at Blossom Hill/Santa Teresa.

If you're winded from Downtown San Jose, you can always jump on the lightrail and go to Downtown Campbell and Downtown Willow Glen for more shopping, but those will be of the boutique varieties instead of functional usage.


First off, the light rail is slow in Downtown Core for a reason: IT'S THE DOWNTOWN CORE! You want the thing to whiz along at 30 mph and run the pedestrians over, especially the semi-sober ones on the weekends and happy hours? And there are only 6-7 stops in Downtown Core, just enough to serve most of its residents/workers.

Once outside of Downtown, light rail chugs along at 50 mph in its southern sections. It's the slower 35-mph northern section heading towards Tasman where lightrail got most of its detractors from.

I agree that Santana Row/Valleyfair should be linked by lightrail to Downtown. But we need a lot of money for that. ALOT. I would vote for a bond to do that extension, but most of San Jose's citizens are suburban-minded folks and would throw up a fight.

But you don't need to get linked to Valley Fair to do your mainstream retail from Downtown. As I've discussed above, Oakridge Mall and San Jose Market Center can serve that purpose perfectly fine.

And heck, if you want to do outlet shopping, you can also jump on the light rail from Downtown, head north, grit your teeth through the northern section, and land at the front door of Great Mall in Milpitas

I still stand by my observation that Downtown SJ, Downtown Oakland, and most of San Francisco, are the only places that you can live "car-free"--or at least as close to "car-free" as possible. No other places come close to these three.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by fashionguy

Doable != Normal Life. Doable means just getting by. At least that's what I meant, and with regards main stream shopping, Oakridge mall isn't up there with Valley Fair or Stanford.

There are NO shopping malls of any kind in the Bay Area that can match Santana Row/Valley Fair combination, period.

But for everyday needs, Oakridge Mall and the surrounding stores more than suffices.

We all agree that in the Bay Area, you will need a car. But if you want to live car-free, there're only 3 places that it would be possible to do so, and still able to maintain a normal lifestyle, albeit with a bit of constraints.

[zitsky]

I'll be the naysayer. I lived in Mountain View for 12 years. Bike lanes will take you anywhere in Mountain View you need to go. Some of you people should move to an east coast city like Raleigh to see how lucky you are to live in a bike friendly place. Sure, it's a sacrifice to not have a car, but you could head up to San Francisco on Caltrain, then take a bus to get around. You just have to be willing to be patient.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Once they're built, I think that the apts (I think that's what they are) being built just north of the Cottle Rd VTA station might be livable w/o a car. The Safeway in the same lot as the already open Target should be finished by then, and there are lots of casual restaurants along Cottle between the new housing and Blossom Hill Rd. If you need a mall, it's just a few quick stops away on VTA.

Then again, I'm not a young person who needs to live within staggering distance of multiple bars and nightclubs, so this may not work at all.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by otterprods

That's all I was saying really. Most anyone who lives in a city or even a dense suburb would love to be able to get around efficiently without dealing with traffic or other driving hazards. But until we have really efficient public transit, or perhaps teleportation transporters, it's hard to beat a suitably small car.

Yep.

Originally Posted by otterprods

Another thing, and this may be getting off topic, but here goes: If you want to talk about being green, saving time, $$, stress… it really doesn't get any better than telecommuting. It's ironic how so many big employers tout their green initiatives, subsidize transit options and provide shuttles and things, but are relatively stingy when it comes to their WFH policies. Fortunately my company allows it pretty liberally and I've been doing it successfully full time now for going on 6 years. And at commute 0 miles per day and the extra 2 hours I have which I can be working instead of driving, I conserve far more resources than I would occupying a seat or two on a bus, train or even in a carpool. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad for NOT doing that, just a plug for it if any employers are reading this and possibly on the fence about allowing it. ALLOW IT, it's for more productive and pleasant for everyone, CDF time notwithstanding :-)

It wouldn't work for my job. I don't know...there's something about telecommuting that just seems weird to me. I can see it one day a week, but I think you lose a certain synergy if you're not in the office together. I'm sure you'll disagree, but JMO.