Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 07-09-2008, 05:41 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,360 posts, read 51,970,126 times
Reputation: 23808

Advertisements

I'm meeting my friend in Santa Clara this Friday, and we're seeing a show in Saratoga that starts at 7pm... I get off work in Richmond at 5pm, so this is obviously going to be a tight squeeze. Doesn't matter if we're running a little late, but obviously I would like to get there close to on time. So what's my best option here? I'm thinking of the following:

- I-80 to 580, and STAY on 580 until it connects you to 880 in Hayward (to avoid the bad 880 traffic near Oakland/Alameda)

- I-80 to 580 to 880 in Oakland, as Google Maps suggests

- I-80 to San Francisco, then hop on 280 or 101

- Public transportation... but how? I could park at any of the BART stations between El Cerrito & Emeryville, but then I'm not sure what to do (unfortunately the Trip Planner on 511.org isn't working). Is this a logical possibility?? I'd much prefer this to driving in Friday rush-hour traffic!! Then I could just take BART/train back, and pick up my car to drive home.

Last edited by gizmo980; 07-09-2008 at 11:15 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-09-2008, 05:46 PM
 
Location: San Diego
110 posts, read 377,073 times
Reputation: 67
That's a tough one. I would just do the 80 to 580 to 880 slog and take the Dumbarton Bridge to 101. 580 to Hayward has really bad traffic at that time so I don't think it would save you any time.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2008, 05:53 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,360 posts, read 51,970,126 times
Reputation: 23808
Hmmmm... thinking maybe I'll skip out of work at 4:30, but I'm a little short on hours this week. Thanks for the advice!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2008, 06:14 PM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
802 posts, read 2,265,828 times
Reputation: 257
What part of Santa Clara are heading to? If you are close to the I-280 side, you might consider taking I-80 to San Francisco, go south on US-101, cut over on I-380 to I-280 and head south.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2008, 06:17 PM
 
655 posts, read 1,984,436 times
Reputation: 375
You could also conceivably take the Capitol Corridor, if you have a place to leave your car (and your friend can pick you up and/or has a car too). While the trains aren't always on time, they do have a real-time tracker so you could check its progress out of Sacramento and see when it will be arriving. There's one scheduled to leave Richmond at 5 pm and arrive in Santa Clara at 6:30. Still cutting it close, but since you can check both 511 for traffic and Amtrak for real-time Capitol Corridor status, you could wait and make the decision day-of. (There are also Berkeley and Emeryville Amtrak stations, which might be smarter places to leave your car if you plan to go get it late on a Friday night--and you can get there from Richmond on the frontage road, which can be super useful if it's trafficky.)

(Oh, and agreed on going through the city if 511 says the bridge isn't bad--it's much faster if you can get through SF before traffic heats up.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2008, 07:36 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,163,263 times
Reputation: 3631
Take the Bay Bridge and use your shortcut to 280 if you want any hope of making it on time. 280 flies until you get to about Magdalena Ave in Los Altos.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2008, 10:49 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,360 posts, read 51,970,126 times
Reputation: 23808
Wow... so many ideas! My friend lives closer to 101 off San Tomas, but maybe 280 is my best bet. Guess I'll just keep 511.org on my desktop from 4-5pm, and use that to decide. I'm also going to research this Capitol Corridor idea, since I haven't heard of that before. Thanks everyone!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-09-2008, 11:24 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,360 posts, read 51,970,126 times
Reputation: 23808
I looked up the Capital Corridor, and it seems perfect! If I leave work a little early & make the 5:00 train, my friend said she'd pick me up in Santa Clara. Unless the traffic looks unusually light, I think that might be the way to go... would be nice to finally finish my book, LOL.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-10-2008, 10:48 AM
 
655 posts, read 1,984,436 times
Reputation: 375
You might have already looked at this, but I just thought of it--remember that Capitol Corridor is a commuter line so it doesn't run after commute hours, in case you're planning to head back later in the night. Not a deal breaker since Richmond also has BART service so you could grab the last Santa Clara Caltrain and transfer at Millbrae, but E'ville and Berkeley might be trickier to get back to. (Alternatively, there are trains that run on Saturdays, too.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-10-2008, 11:39 AM
 
Location: San Diego
110 posts, read 377,073 times
Reputation: 67
I think she lives in SF so she just needs to catch the Santa Clara station Caltrain
before the last one leaves. If she misses the last train out of Santa Clara she could always break the window of one of the cars in the parking lot and sleep in the back seat until the morning train arrives.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:12 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top