Wife has a job offer in San Rafael, my job offer is in Sunnyvale (Daly City: 2015, apartments) - San Francisco - Oakland - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

mikem2015 · 05-13-2015, 09:50 PM

Hi all,

I am hoping you guys can help me out. We are on the east coast and my wife has a nice job offer in San Rafael. I have an offer in Sunnyvale. Are their any towns where we can both commute 1 hour or so and get to work (peak hours commute

) I have heard the traffic is bad but there must be some way , I hope !

Rent isnt an issue but we can't both do 1.5 hours of commute. I dont mind doing 1.5 hours if it reduces her commute to 30 minutes but that is sort of the upper limit.

Thanks for your help !!

butercup · 05-13-2015, 10:03 PM

I have no clue about the SF-San Rafael part of the equation, but depending on where your job is the Caltrain out of SF (SOMA, 4th and King) will take you an hour to the Sunnyvale station (limited stop trains) or 50 minutes to Mountain View (baby bullet) - does your job offer a shuttle or is it in walking/biking distance of either of those stations? It's a nice enough commute on the train, especially since you should get a seat starting at the origin.

mikem2015 · 05-13-2015, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by butercup

I have no clue about the SF-San Rafael part of the equation, but depending on where your job is the Caltrain out of SF (SOMA, 4th and King) will take you an hour to the Sunnyvale station (limited stop trains) or 50 minutes to Mountain View (baby bullet) - does your job offer a shuttle or is it in walking/biking distance of either of those stations? It's a nice enough commute on the train, especially since you should get a seat starting at the origin.

Thanks, no bus/shuttle but can i overnight park on the train station? Maybe I can buy a spare car/bike and leave it at the train station.

ketch89 · 05-13-2015, 10:18 PM

Yeah, the only real feasible situation in my mind would be to locate near the 4th and King Caltrain station. You would take the train (finish the trip with a bike?), she would take the ferry to Larkspur (and probably connect with a bus). Driving would be awful.

mikem2015 · 05-13-2015, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ketch89

Yeah, the only real feasible situation in my mind would be to locate near the 4th and King Caltrain station. You would take the train (finish the trip with a bike?), she would take the ferry to Larkspur (and probably connect with a bus). Driving would be awful.

Thank you for the tip.
It seems like the ferry ride is 1hour from SF, and her office is a 20 minute walk .. is san rafael bike friendly?
It still is a 1.5 hour roughly journey for her, and 1 hour 15-30 minutes for me door-to-door. Is anything faster possible?

ketch89 · 05-13-2015, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikem2015

Thank you for the tip.
It seems like the ferry ride is 1hour from SF, and her office is a 20 minute walk .. is san rafael bike friendly?
It still is a 1.5 hour roughly journey for her, and 1 hour 15-30 minutes for me door-to-door. Is anything faster possible?

The ferry is ~30 mins dock to dock. San Rafael is pretty bike friendly, it just depends on the road really. A new bike bridge connecting the ferry terminal to downtown San Rafael will be completed later this year, but it doesn't sound like that's where your wife is going.

There's also a bus, which takes 43 minutes from its stop near Civic Center BART to get to San Rafael. Not quite as enjoyable as the ferry but cheaper and maybe slightly faster. You could of course also choose to drive, which would probably prove maddening after a while unless you're one of those people who are immune to the tedium of stop and go traffic (... and it would take the same amount of time).

mikem2015 · 05-13-2015, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ketch89

The ferry is ~30 mins dock to dock. San Rafael is pretty bike friendly, it just depends on the road really. A new bike bridge connecting the ferry terminal to downtown San Rafael will be completed later this year, but it doesn't sound like that's where your wife is going.

There's also a bus, which takes 43 minutes from its stop near Civic Center BART to get to San Rafael. Not quite as enjoyable as the ferry but cheaper and maybe slightly faster. You could of course also choose to drive, which would probably prove maddening after a while unless you're one of those people who are immune to the tedium of stop and go traffic (... and it would take the same amount of time).

Thank you so much Ketch89. Would you know of any good apartments near king and 4th caltrain station (walking/bikeable :-) )

Matadora · 05-14-2015, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikem2015

Thanks, no bus/shuttle but can i overnight park on the train station? Maybe I can buy a spare car/bike and leave it at the train station.

What about commuting on a motorcycle? It will save you so much money and time.

capoeira · 05-14-2015, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikem2015

Thank you for the tip.
It seems like the ferry ride is 1hour from SF, and her office is a 20 minute walk .. is san rafael bike friendly?
It still is a 1.5 hour roughly journey for her, and 1 hour 15-30 minutes for me door-to-door. Is anything faster possible?

The best solution for your wife is to live in the Richmond neighborhood and have a very short drive through SF to get to the bridge. It will be an easy commute for your wife since it is a reverse traffic commute. However that will give you a very long commute. If you live in Inner Sunset it will add ten minutes to her commute but it will give you a possible public transit option instead of driving all the time. You could take the 44 bus to Glen Park Bart, Bart to Millbrae, Caltrain to Sunnyvale. You could also take the 43 to Balboa Park Bart. I would drive instead. The 280 is a great freeway but if you leave SF too late there is a lot of congestion between Daly City and San Bruno. You could also take the 44 bus from the Inner Richmond area but that will be a longer ride.

Chuck5000 · 05-14-2015, 10:58 AM

Capoeira above is right, Richmond district this is your best solution, and Ketch89 has I think the 2nd best idea. Note that you haven't mentioned budget or space preferences and desired lifestyle level, salaries, need to save, etc. Note that Richmond and Sunset weather is not considered good by many. You'll need to spend 3k minimum for a 1 bedroom in SF, and you wont' find much that's nice at this price. Near 4th and King, I'm not sure 3k would get you more than a studio there, and competition for apartments there is intense. If I were you I'd drop one of the two jobs, and either focus on, in order: a) an SF job + a peninsula job, b) 2 peninsula jobs, or c) Marin plus an SF job. Marin + peninsula is a distant 3rd place (my wife and I have ruled this out) unless you can afford to live near the ferry in Larkspur = very expensive. I think Marin + peninsula commute (totally impossible with young children, btw) by car would wear anyone down, unless you can have Sunnyvale office hours of 11 am to 3:30pm - I'd consider it then.