How is the daily commute to SF from San Jose in the morning? (Sunnyvale: to live, professionals)

[RockhetHD]

How is the daily commute to SF from San Jose in the morning?

How is driving vs taking the Cal-Train Bullet Train?

[bmw335xi]

If you can drive before rush hour or after rush hour, traffic isn't bad. If you have to be at work during peak rush hours, Caltrain may be a better option if your work is near the station. Caltrain is really nice inside and used mostly by professionals. I don't feel like my clothes need to be washed unlike riding BART.

[ccm123]

My colleague commutes from the Mission District to Sunnyvale and it can be anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours (on a very bad day). Average is one hour, 15 minutes.

[mdwstrnkid]

Well, if it rains, like it did this morning, the commute can be awful. Took me 1 hour 45 minutes for me to get from my place in the City to work in Palo Alto. It took almost 40 minutes just to get to the freeway due to a flashing red light on a major thoroughfare getting to the freeway.

[hsw]

Same game as in NYC or LA...anyone who values his time/productivity arrives at office <6AM and leaves after 7PM (or otherwise avoids worker bees who can't drive fast/safe/smart in usual "rush" hrs: perhaps a reason why these people have low-pay, 9-5 jobs and drive 20yo cars clogging left lane of fwy at ~8AM and ~5PM)

Unlike LA or NYC, the 35-45mis btwn SF and SV is arguably the fastest commute of any major urban region on planet, esp when one considers that the mkt cap (and pay of 1000s of top workers) of HQs in this corridor dwarfs that of any region on planet (incl NYC/NJ/CT)

[peninsular]

Just say "No". Regular commute from SF to SJ is inhumane. A friend of mine tried commuting from the Marin to SJ, but didn't last. OK, that sounded a bit extreme, he's still alive. Just changed jobs.

[skyao]

45 minutes from SF to san jose makes some pretty big assumptions:

* You are driving when there is no traffic, so really early or really late.
* You live in SF very close to highway access - this mean Mission, noe valley, soma, Potrero
* You work the part of SJ close to the highway.
* You hit no traffic and have carpool lane access.

I think a realistic commute during work hours is 1.5 hours and up to 2 hours on bad days. I did the commute to sunnyvale for 5 years...

[rkwalton]

A married couple I know does it. They're probably going to leave San Jose and move closer to the city. It's really a chore for them. When they drive into the city together, I know they can carpool. However, sometimes it's Cal-Train and other times they have different work schedules so they have to drive their own cars.

This is all second-hand, but I definitely do not envy them.

[04kL4nD]

Depends on what time of day you are driving and what freeway you take

I regularly drive from SF to SV on 280 and it takes about 45 mins without much traffic, but I also leave the south part of SF around 9am

[iamfishhead]

I take Caltrain to Lawrence every day and live near 4th and King. From 4th and King to Downtown SJ, the train should take about an hour. If you were to live close to the Caltrain station at 4th and King and work near Downtown SJ, then Caltrain will probably be faster than driving, assuming you go during rush hour. Depending on where you work, connecting service may be good or bad. You should also look at the Caltrain shuttles (Shuttles) and bike times as well. Sadly, VTA rarely does a good job of connecting to Caltrain.

On the off hours, the freeways aren't as crowded and they will be faster. As many people have said, you'd probably need to be more specific with locations for anyone to really give a good answer.