San Jose traffic (Los Angeles, Santa Clara: how much, home, parking)

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by kdog

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.

If you were commuting from New Almaden, I assume you were taking 85 and 280. The traffic around 101/Capitol is a totally different animal. I don't even feel safe walking on the sidewalk. You can get cut off anywhere, but I've never encountered anywhere else where you'll get cut off on every single block.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

If you were commuting from New Almaden, I assume you were taking 85 and 280. The traffic around 101/Capitol is a totally different animal. I don't even feel safe walking on the sidewalk. You can get cut off anywhere, but I've never encountered anywhere else where you'll get cut off on every single block.

Yep. 101 or 880 often present an unique presentation of hell for the commuter, no matter what form of transport is chosen. Difficult to remain invisible for long out there.

[t_thibaud]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

What it's saying is that we need job center consolidation and better public transit.

Why are there not more corporate employment centers in the South Bay? What's happening with the IBM facilities near Almaden and Santa Teresa (?sp) in south SJ? Why aren't there more corporations near Netflix along Winchester Blvd in Los Gatos? Appreciate any informed answers to the above.

Also, if the above centers developed real employment density, it make sense to run a commuter train along Hwy 85 between Cupertino and Morgan Hill. You could avoid the north-south commuter madness that the OP refers to, and not have to add much in the way of new tracks. There's already a Union Pacific rail line from Cupertino to Winchester in LG.

[theonlymember]

Originally Posted by theonlymember

Well I think the 101 entrance, doesn't really have anything to do with job consolidation so much as poor planning. Everyone's trying to go north on 101, if the jobs were downtown, everyone would still try to go north on 101.

The problem with that portion of 101 is that Yerba Buena, Capitol Expressway West, and Capitol Expwy East all merge into the same entrance onto 101. I mean, its really ridiculous. If you look at Google Maps, they could easily (IMO) remove the divider letting the Yerba Buena folks get on the 101 earlier.

Turns out these actual improvements were proposed and some are on the way.

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/planning/ev...nvestments.pdf
http://www.vta.org/news/factsheets/u...yerba_fact.pdf

[mgs333]

i'm just venting here. i commute from north san jose to santa clara, around the rivermark area.

5 miles, mostly on montague and it takes 20-25 minutes. when i moved here, i thought i was moving someplace close to work and that my commute might be 10 minutes or so. how wrong i was.

it took 10 minutes this morning just to go 1 mile from my house, just to turn onto montague. whoever designed montague should be kicked in the rear. on my short (distance-wise) commute, there are 2 places where a lane disappears and all the cars have to merge, causing massive backups needlessly. and what's with the timing of the lights on the expressways in the south bay? they time it perfectly so you go from one red light to another just as it's turning red, this is absolutely the worst on lawrence expwy. also, does each red light really need to be 5 minutes long? why am I waiting for 5 minutes if I'm on the expressway and the cross street is a smaller street?

[/rant over, sorry]

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by mgs333

i'm just venting here. i commute from north san jose to santa clara, around the rivermark area.

5 miles, mostly on montague and it takes 20-25 minutes. when i moved here, i thought i was moving someplace close to work and that my commute might be 10 minutes or so. how wrong i was.

it took 10 minutes this morning just to go 1 mile from my house, just to turn onto montague. whoever designed montague should be kicked in the rear. on my short (distance-wise) commute, there are 2 places where a lane disappears and all the cars have to merge, causing massive backups needlessly. and what's with the timing of the lights on the expressways in the south bay? they time it perfectly so you go from one red light to another just as it's turning red, this is absolutely the worst on lawrence expwy. also, does each red light really need to be 5 minutes long? why am I waiting for 5 minutes if I'm on the expressway and the cross street is a smaller street?

[/rant over, sorry]

I hate Montague Expressway. Are you trying to get onto it from Trade Zone? That light is the pits. Try taking 680 up to Montague instead, the exit gets backed up at rush hour but it could still save you a lot of time. I also hate Trimble, which I have to drive on every day. On either of those roads, if you hit one red light, you're going to hit every red light, which will add at least 10 minutes to any given commute.

[mgs333]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

I hate Montague Expressway. Are you trying to get onto it from Trade Zone? That light is the pits. Try taking 680 up to Montague instead, the exit gets backed up at rush hour but it could still save you a lot of time. I also hate Trimble, which I have to drive on every day. On either of those roads, if you hit one red light, you're going to hit every red light, which will add at least 10 minutes to any given commute.

yes. you got it. will try your tip out sometime. but i'm moving at the end of this month to another side of san jose, near santana row, granted there'll still be traffic but it can't be any worse than it is now.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by mgs333

it can't be any worse than it is now.

Like much of South Bay, it often depends on what time you use the freeways/expressways. More businesses need to adjust or stagger their employees' work hours so they're not stuck in traffic in the usual old a.m./p.m. rush hour times. Seems like this was something the collective Silicon Valley corporate community was beginning to address four or five years ago - what happened to that?

Oh, and 880 north (from your new home) is fine, if you get out early enough in the morning.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by mgs333

yes. you got it. will try your tip out sometime. but i'm moving at the end of this month to another side of san jose, near santana row, granted there'll still be traffic but it can't be any worse than it is now.

It's definitely easier to get to Santa Clara from there. 880N to 101N to Trimble, left on De la Cruz (turns into Agnew). DO NOT take San Tomas to Montague.

[mgs333]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Oh, and 880 north (from your new home) is fine, if you get out early enough in the morning.

Originally Posted by sonarrat

It's definitely easier to get to Santa Clara from there. 880N to 101N to Trimble, left on De la Cruz (turns into Agnew). DO NOT take San Tomas to Montague.

my new commute = . i just go north on san tomas, the lights are not purposefully timed to make you go from red light to red light. i've made the commute 5 times now and 1 time i didn't hit a single red light (once i got on san tomas) and another time hit just 1. even today when i hit 3 lights, it either changed to green as i was coming to a stop or turned shortly after, unlike coming south on montague where each red light is about 3-4 minutes long.

going on 880n would almost double my distance and would certainly take longer so i guess san tomas works good enough for me. coming home is a bit more crowded and take a bit longer but the same was true of my old commute, so both ways the new >>> old.