San Jose traffic (Santa Clara, Cupertino, Morgan Hill: new home, employment, centers)

[theonlymember]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Bit of NIMBYism, maybe? Why in the hell is Evergreen only served by the 31 and the 39 (a little 'community' bus on the half hour)?
Might reflect what's been going on in Los Gatos, where only one normal-sized bus now runs, and a few random little community ones have replaced what were once fairly convenient, reasonably frequent buses that actually went somewhere (48 and 49 only go to the end of the light rail at Winchester station). Oh, those unsightly long boxes coming to our town with...with those people! Can't have that now, can we?

Oh well, let's just build some more Lego-houses to make ourselves feel better.

I always thought it was VTA who decided that the lack of ridership of the 31 and 39 warranted downsizing to the community buses.

[sonarrat]

The 31 (which runs right by my house) is still on the full-size buses, but they cut off the leg which goes from Eastridge to the light-rail. As you might predict this destroyed ridership, which is down about 50% since the change was made.. and now they're planning service cuts because of the decreased ridership. Hello?! I might ride it if it still went to the light-rail!

[missingcol]

I leave my house at about 9:00am. I go Delta -> San Felipe ->White -> Quimby -> Capitol Expwy -> 680S -> 101 N to my workplace which is near San Jose Airport. It all takes me about 25min since 2009. It is amazing the traffic improved so much this year. Nobody feels it?

[missingcol]

Originally Posted by Ludachris

We lived on Westgrove Lane, right behind the McDonalds in your area. I remember the horrible commutes very well. The only real way around it is having a flexible schedule (or having someone carpool with you for that golden carpool lane freeway entrance on Capitol/101). There are no good alternative routes. I think I was leaving the house just before 6 am at one point and it helped a little bit.

So you lived in Evergreeen and then moved to CO? Ha, we plan to do the same thing.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by missingcol

I leave my house at about 9:00am. I go Delta -> San Felipe ->White -> Quimby -> Capitol Expwy -> 680S -> 101 N to my workplace which is near San Jose Airport. It all takes me about 25min since 2009. It is amazing the traffic improved so much this year. Nobody feels it?

Not really, because it's still worse than it was before they expanded 101 through Coyote Valley. At the time I was commuting from my parents' house in Morgan Hill to SJSU via 101 and Santa Clara St. I still remember when they opened up the extra lanes. It was a breeze to get out of Dodge, but all of a sudden traffic backed up at Capitol Expwy instead of at Tully, and it caught people off guard.. I had two major accidents happen inches from my front bumper within the first week.

[kdog]

Get a motorcycle. I commuted from New Almaden to San Mateo for years on one. 50 miles each way, rain or shine, accidents or no, 45 minutes every time. Lane splitting and HOV lanes rule.

[sonarrat]

No problem this morning.. 25 minutes door to door going by 101N to 880N. There was hardly anyone waiting to turn left from Aborn onto Capitol, usually that left lane is backed up all the way to Nieman but not today.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by kdog

Get a motorcycle.

Assuming a majority of people behind the wheel are paying attention to their driving here. Unfortunately, not necessarily the case. A potentially lethal problem for motorcyclists.

[lastguy]

poorly planed city, weak government, messed up traffic on allmost all new areas (evergreen, san ramon, etc.), stupid and slow (2-3 times slower then Singapore) traffic light, and poor, hard working people struggled on holding a house whole life.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Assuming a majority of people behind the wheel are paying attention to their driving here. Unfortunately, not necessarily the case. A potentially lethal problem for motorcyclists.

Inattentive drivers are not a problem, because a good motorcyclist assumes that he is invisible and rides that way. In my 750 days of commuting 100 miles a day up and down the SF peninsula, I never came close to having an accident. Did I have people move into my lane because they didn't see me, despite having a huge bike with lights all over it? Absolutely, but it's expected. I also had a horn that was so loud it was practically a weapon. I used to enjoy seeing cell-phone yakkers have a heart-attack when they'd drift in my lane and get a blast from my horn.

Commuting by motorycle is a very viable option in the bay area, and thousands of bikers do it every day. The ability for me to commute 50 miles each way to work in exactly 45 minutes, rain or shine, regardless of traffic, accidents etc, made life bearable. In fact, the commute was the best part of my day. Yes, it's more dangerous than sitting in a cage in stopped traffic, if that's how you like to spend your time.

Getting trained by taking the MSF advanced course to learn how to deal with traffic, always wearing proper protective gear head to toe and paying attention are ways of minimizing the risk.