San Rafael <-> Santa clara commute (San Francisco, Oakland: apartment, transfer to)

[mikem2015]

HI,

My wife has a job offer in San Rafael, and I have an offer in Santa Clara.
We realize its a long commute, but we are hoping to find some reasonable/semi reasonable commute options. Hopefully within 1 hour for each of us. Public transport options to her office are really appreciated.

Her office address is-
111 McInnis Pkwy, San Rafael, CA
Her office is 6 miles from Larkaspur ferry terminal but we don't know if its bikeable. She is willing to take the Larkaspur ferry and bike the distance but we dont know if the roads are bike friendly.


Mine is bikeable from train stations.
5453 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA


Oakland seems good commute for me via train and reasonable but is it safe? Someone warned us that it might not be safe. Any good apartment suggestions near oakland train stations will be appreciated.

Thanks so much for your help.

[cardinal2007]

Marin County is not exactly transit friendly, particularly to commute to, as opposed to from.

Your best bet would be to find a place near Jack London Square in Oakland, you can bike to the station there, then bike from the Santa Clara, Great America station to work. Your wife would then have to drive to work.

6 miles is a lot of ground to cover, and you can cover that in 20 minutes on a bike if you're on a trail, but Google Maps is estimating 40 minutes from the Ferry terminal to the office by bike, even if she could take a ferry, she would have to live in the Ferry Terminal in SF to make it work. The only way to make her have a 1hr commute to work with public transit including a bike segment is to live across the bay in Richmond, CA, she takes the bus across 40 minutes, then bikes the remaining 20 minutes to work.

Unfortunately for you, the train will take 80 minutes from Richmond to Santa Clara, then your bike ride.

I think Jack London Square with her driving out to Marin Co. is your best bet.

[bentobox34]

Yep Cardinal pretty much covered it.

I was thinking about options on the other side of the Bay near Caltrain, but your office is nowhere near the Caltrain line. You would have to transfer to light rail in Mountain View - just the transfer time and light rail ride itself would be 40 minutes.

Basically the only option that makes sense for at least one of you to have a transit commute is to live in the East Bay between Oakland and Richmond.

Safe neighborhoods in Oakland is a huge topic. I'd suggest going over to the San Francisco - Oakland forum and typing "Oakland safe neighborhoods" into the search function to unearth probably hundreds of threads on the topic. My own personal suggestion, if you want to be within biking distance of the train station, would be to live in the areas northeast or northwest of Lake Merritt known as Adam's Point and Cleveland Heights. Your wife will be able to jump right on 580 from there (although traffic is horrible until you get north of the Bay Bridge junction).

Richmond is considered pretty much universally bad, from what I hear, except an area called Richmond Annex.

You should also look into the cities in between, such as Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito. These would lengthen your train commute but would ease traffic stress for your wife, so it's a trade-off.

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

Marin County is not exactly transit friendly, particularly to commute to, as opposed to from.

Your best bet would be to find a place near Jack London Square in Oakland, you can bike to the station there, then bike from the Santa Clara, Great America station to work. Your wife would then have to drive to work.

6 miles is a lot of ground to cover, and you can cover that in 20 minutes on a bike if you're on a trail, but Google Maps is estimating 40 minutes from the Ferry terminal to the office by bike, even if she could take a ferry, she would have to live in the Ferry Terminal in SF to make it work. The only way to make her have a 1hr commute to work with public transit including a bike segment is to live across the bay in Richmond, CA, she takes the bus across 40 minutes, then bikes the remaining 20 minutes to work.

Unfortunately for you, the train will take 80 minutes from Richmond to Santa Clara, then your bike ride.

I think Jack London Square with her driving out to Marin Co. is your best bet.

Train links:
Info:
Capitol Corridor Trains ::
Schedules:
Capitol Corridor Trains :: Route And Schedules :: Train Schedules
Bike information:
Capitol Corridor Trains :: On Board :: Bikes On Board

You will be limited in the number of trains you can take, but you're looking at roughly 55 minutes station to station from Oakland Jack London Sq, to Santa Clara/Great America, so if you live next to the station you may make it just under the wire, Google Maps says 5 min from station to your office, but it does say to cut through the Santa Clara golf course driving range building. This is a tough nut to crack, I'm not sure of any suggestion to move further south in Oakland, though the train will clearly work for you, then your wife mixes with SF bound traffic, making the it most likely over 1hr driving.

[MediocreButArrogant]

I used to work on Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. That bike ride from Larkspur Landing to San Rafael is one of the flatter parts of Marin County, but there is at least one significant long hill, and the streets aren't particularly bike-friendly. Also, it rains on average 1 in 6 days, and average rainfall is 35+ inches. So I think biking the last bit is out of the question.

I was actually thinking something like Pleasanton/San Ramon, with you taking ACE, and your wife driving to San Rafael.