Living in Mountain View possible without car? (San Jose, San Francisco: Home Depot, theatres)

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

But I do agree, you have to deal with an area as it currently exists. The problem with our current transportation paradigm, though, is that it sucks.

That's all I was saying really. Most anyone who lives in a city or even a dense suburb would love to be able to get around efficiently without dealing with traffic or other driving hazards. But until we have really efficient public transit, or perhaps teleportation transporters, it's hard to beat a suitably small car.

Another thing, and this may be getting off topic, but here goes: If you want to talk about being green, saving time, $$, stress… it really doesn't get any better than telecommuting. It's ironic how so many big employers tout their green initiatives, subsidize transit options and provide shuttles and things, but are relatively stingy when it comes to their WFH policies. Fortunately my company allows it pretty liberally and I've been doing it successfully full time now for going on 6 years. And at commute 0 miles per day and the extra 2 hours I have which I can be working instead of driving, I conserve far more resources than I would occupying a seat or two on a bus, train or even in a carpool. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad for NOT doing that, just a plug for it if any employers are reading this and possibly on the fence about allowing it. ALLOW IT, it's for more productive and pleasant for everyone, CDF time notwithstanding :-)

[fashionguy]

It is definitely doable if you stay close to downtown MV and downtown PA, but it is not nearly as convenient as having a car to drive around especially during the weekend. It significantly limits where you can go. There are so many cars on the road for a reason. South Bay and the Peninsula are not very public transit oriented.

Originally Posted by Ardency

Hi all,

I'll be starting a job with Google in MV this summer. My girlfriend and I are moving from the east coast, combined income of 90k, and will be renting together. Her job will also most likely be in downtown MV, on Castro street.

In trying to make MV affordable for us, I'm wondering about the feasibility of living without a car there. Should I not even consider it, or can it be done if we live in the right area (close to downtown, groceries, etc)?

A couple of related questions:
- How bike-friendly is MV? Are there actual paths that I could ride on to get to/from work, or do I have to ride with traffic?
- In the event my girlfriend's job ended up being in Palo Alto or Sunnyvale, can those downtown areas be accessed easily via public transit (plus a little walking) from downtown MV?

Thanks for the help!

[fashionguy]

I would exclude downtown SJ from the list. And downtown Oakland is only up there because it has easy BART access to downtown SF. Downtown SJ is void of any kind of main stream retail and that slow street-car like light rail in downtown does not go to Valley Fair/Santana Row.

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

You're making too much sense Azmordean. Let these "urbanist-till-I-die" hipster kids ride it out in MV Castro for a year, they'll learn

OP, aside from the sarcastic remark above, the "no-car" lifestyle can only be realized by living in SF, Downtown Oakland, and Downtown San Jose. Those are the only 3 places that you can have a normal life without a car. Other than them, every other "downtowns" are just outdoor malls that you need to drive to in order to "walk" them

[HDL]

I think you folks miss the point. When I was in my 20's living in the South Bay, I was always on the go. I might head to Santa Cruz for dinner, or up to San Francisco to the Zoo, Exploratorium or Pier 39, down to the Monterey Aquarium, up to Tahoe to ski or gamble - on and on.

Living in Silicon Valley without a car may be doable for some and even honorable. But does it make any sense really ??? Especially for someone moving to the area from the east coast who really isn't even familiar enough to know that parking normally isn't an issue unless your talking about San Francisco.

OP, expect to get a car at some point. Put it in your budget to buy or lease one car. Believe me, you'll need it !

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by HDL

I think you folks miss the point.

No, we did not miss the point. All of us are pointing out to OP that it's best to get a car in the Bay Area.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by fashionguy

I would exclude downtown SJ from the list. And downtown Oakland is only up there because it has easy BART access to downtown SF. Downtown SJ is void of any kind of main stream retail

You exclude Downtown SJ, and yet also goes on and say that it's "doable" in DT MV and DT PA?

Mainstream retail in Downtown SJ includes Ross, San Jose Market Center (Target, Marshall's, Michael's, Trader Joes', Office Depot, Payless Shoes, and a crapload of other "suburban amenities" and restaurants), and OSH for hardware supplies. There's also a Lowe's Hardware on Coleman Landing but you will need a bike to access it through the Guadalupe River Trail. Downtown core has several supermarkets including Whole Foods, Safeway, Grocery Outlet, and Dai Thanh Supermarket. It has several gyms, crapload of auto repair stores, bike shops, car rentals, 2-3 movie theatres, etc.

The only thing that Downtown Core lacks is an electronics store such as Radio Shack or Best Buy.

If you jump on the light rail and head 20-30 minutes south on the Santa Teresa-Alum Rock line, you will literally be dropped at the door of Oakridge Mall, where you can have all that Target, Macy's, Sears, JCPenneys, Home Depot, Office Depot, and a ton of food options and other retail stores (including ELECTRONICS stores) both inside the mall and in the immediate corners at Blossom Hill/Santa Teresa.

If you're winded from Downtown San Jose, you can always jump on the lightrail and go to Downtown Campbell and Downtown Willow Glen for more shopping, but those will be of the boutique varieties instead of functional usage.

Originally Posted by fashionguy

and that slow street-car like light rail in downtown does not go to Valley Fair/Santana Row.

First off, the light rail is slow in Downtown Core for a reason: IT'S THE DOWNTOWN CORE! You want the thing to whiz along at 30 mph and run the pedestrians over, especially the semi-sober ones on the weekends and happy hours? And there are only 6-7 stops in Downtown Core, just enough to serve most of its residents/workers.

Once outside of Downtown, light rail chugs along at 50 mph in its southern sections. It's the slower 35-mph northern section heading towards Tasman where lightrail got most of its detractors from.

I agree that Santana Row/Valleyfair should be linked by lightrail to Downtown. But we need a lot of money for that. ALOT. I would vote for a bond to do that extension, but most of San Jose's citizens are suburban-minded folks and would throw up a fight.

But you don't need to get linked to Valley Fair to do your mainstream retail from Downtown. As I've discussed above, Oakridge Mall and San Jose Market Center can serve that purpose perfectly fine.

And heck, if you want to do outlet shopping, you can also jump on the light rail from Downtown, head north, grit your teeth through the northern section, and land at the front door of Great Mall in Milpitas

I still stand by my observation that Downtown SJ, Downtown Oakland, and most of San Francisco, are the only places that you can live "car-free"--or at least as close to "car-free" as possible. No other places come close to these three.

[Azmordean]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

No, we did not miss the point. All of us are pointing out to OP that it's best to get a car in the Bay Area.

Yeah and somewhat ironically, while DTSJ is livable without a car, actually I'd say one of the main advantages to DTSJ over, say, SF, is you can have a reasonably urban lifestyle while still owning a car cheaply thanks to newer buildings with garages and whatnot (unlike SF where parking is either street nightmare, or a garage space that costs as much per month as a new Audi).

I'd actually love to move to DTSJ myself . The commute to Mountain View just kills it for me. I'm spoiled and prefer under 20min!

[Ardency]

Thanks for the input, everyone! I'm moving from the Boston area, so I think I need to realize that the Bay Area's public transit isn't nearly as extensive as it is here. At the end of the day, I would really like to have a car so I have the freedom to explore California, a place I've never lived before. Glad to know that it's not much of a hassle owning one in the SV suburbs. It's also interesting to hear that doing so is feasible in DTSJ as well.

What would the commute time be like from DTSJ to Google?

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by Ardency

Thanks for the input, everyone! I'm moving from the Boston area, so I think I need to realize that the Bay Area's public transit isn't nearly as extensive as it is here. At the end of the day, I would really like to have a car so I have the freedom to explore California, a place I've never lived before. Glad to know that it's not much of a hassle owning one in the SV suburbs. It's also interesting to hear that doing so is feasible in DTSJ as well.

What would the commute time be like from DTSJ to Google?

You should definitely get a car. Like Azmordean has stated, get at least ONE car, a nice, used 4-cylinder Honda or something--gets you great gas mileage, dependable, and saves on maintenance. You don't need to drive it everyday to work; just use it for the weekend getaways (with your bikes on the racks), for grocery/shopping/Costco trips, and for road trips. And then you can use public trans/bikes for work commute and general daily activities.

Commuting by car from Downtown SJ to Mountain View will take about 45 mins to an hour, or more. If you can come into the office at 10 AM, then the trip is a bit better, because you can jump on the carpool lane at 9 AM.

For public trans, you can take Caltrain from Diridon Station in Downtown San Jose to Mountain View, that would be about 20 minutes. At Castro Mountain View station, jump off and bike about 15-20 minutes to the Googleplex. If you catch the Baby Bullet you'll save 5 minutes off your train ride. Total trip time would be about 45 minutes, give or take 5 minutes.

You can also take lightrail from Downtown SJ which goes to Mountain View as well, but it's going to be over 1.5 hours for one-way trip. I tried it already, that's how I know And you will still need to do that 15-20 minutes bike ride from the lightrail drop off at Castro Street (the light rail and Caltrain stations in Mountain View are next to each other).

Remember, if you buy the long-term Caltrain pass, you also get to use VTA light rail for free for that term So you can use Caltrain for your commute, and lightrail for getting around Downtown San Jose.

Finally, ask Google if there're vanpools or buses available to pick you up in Downtown SJ (or close to there).

And if luck goes your way, then possibly in 2 years when Google move to SJ, you can ask to transfer to the SJ office. Then you can live in Downtown and take the lightrail up to North 1st and be at work in 20 minutes

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by Ardency

Thanks for the input, everyone! I'm moving from the Boston area, so I think I need to realize that the Bay Area's public transit isn't nearly as extensive as it is here. At the end of the day, I would really like to have a car so I have the freedom to explore California, a place I've never lived before. Glad to know that it's not much of a hassle owning one in the SV suburbs. It's also interesting to hear that doing so is feasible in DTSJ as well.

What would the commute time be like from DTSJ to Google?

There is a shuttle that leaves from SJSU to Google, they make less stops at rush hour so they all take about 40m-1hr. Driving will take 50m-70m in rush hour, 20m without traffic. There can be parking issues there that add to time to get to the office. If you work in MV and your gf works on Castro St., you should probably move there, you can even room with people from Google to save money if you want, unless you really prefer the bigger downtown, and yes DTSJ is much better connected to the nearby neighborhood than MV. If your girlfriend is working on Castro St. the baby bullet from Diridon to MV is 15 min, but you have to get to Diridon which is on the other side of 87 from downtown, halfway to the "The Alameda" neighborhood, the light rail goes there from DTSJ, there is the DASH shuttle to the station and you can bike to the station really quick.