Daily Commute: Oakland to East San Jose (Fremont, San Leandro: buying a home, buying)

[teamtrummer]

What's the daily commute like (during rush hours: 7:00 a.m. / 5:00 p.m.) from Oakland to East San Jose? I'm in the process of re-locating to Oakland and will be buying a home there, but have a job offer based in East San Jose. I'm wondering if anyone has insight about how the daily commute is? Google maps reports it as a 45 min. - 1 hour commute with traffic. Is it more like bumper-to-bumper traffic, or slow-moving? Is the traffic so bad that it may make me want to consider finding work closer to Oakland/SF after say a year or so of commuting? (I generally don't care for driving, as opposed to those who don't mind it much, but obviously it's a necessity for me to get to and from work.)

FYI: I currently live in Chicago where traffic is generally horrendous all day, every day, especially when suburb-commuters come into play.

Thanks!

[04kL4nD]

It's going to take AT LEAST 1 hour. Don't do it!

[jade408]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

It's going to take AT LEAST 1 hour. Don't do it!

An hour when there is no traffic.

Um that would be torture. Ok worse than torture. In the PM it will take around 90 minute 2 hours to get home, if you leave anytime between about 4 or 4:30 and 6:30 or 7.

It might be OK in the AM, and only an hour and not more like 90 minutes. But the PM is going to suck until closer to 7.

It is good to note, San Jose is aloud 45 miles from Oakland.

[ccm123]

It would be an awful commute during traffic. 880 southbound in the morning is jammed and 880 NB is the afternoon is jammed. Don't forget that this commute is with the traffic flow and not against it. I estimate 90-120 minutes each way in traffic. My office is currently in North San Jose and I have a colleague who comes in from San Leandro (further south than Oakland), he reports commutes of up to 2 hours, each way (in traffic). Fortunately, he comes in later and leaves later, so it takes him about 60-75 minutes each way.

I recommend against it!

[ashlandbus]

If it is near an Amtrak station then it's ok, as the Capitol corridor is a great route with decent schedules. But if you have to drive don't do it. I worked in Milpitas for a while commuting non commute hours (leave house by 545am) and that drive sucked the life out of me. Several days home took over 1.5 hours and over one hour was the norm. During commute hours 1.5 hours will be the norm with 2 hours being somewhat common.

[sonarrat]

I commute from San Jose to San Lorenzo, which is considered a "reverse commute" and rarely has any significant delays. That takes me 45 minutes early in the morning, and from 55-75 minutes coming home in the afternoon. I can tell you that I've tried going the other way to Oakland during the evening crush on a Friday when I was working in north San Jose, and it was a 2 hour ordeal in bumper to bumper crawl. It's especially bad from the 101-880 merge up to Mission, then again from Decoto up to I-238 where all the Central Valley commuters make the turn and things finally loosen up.

You would possibly save some time by taking Mission over to I-680 in Fremont and taking the Capitol Expressway exit to get to the east side. At least that stretch of 680 is rarely impacted.

[davdaven]

Where in Oakland and East San Jose will you be? Both are large places. Assuming we are talking about traveling from downtown Oakland to Alum Rock, it's going to take 60-90 minutes in the morning and 90-120 minutes in the afternoon. I recommend against it unless you can use public transit. It won't be faster, but at least your time can be spent reading, snoozing, or whatever.