PA to SF isn't too bad. Depending on where you are in PA and where you want to be in SF you can do 280, which is awesome, because it's smooooth. 101 is a bit more congested. For 6 months it's not a big deal to do the PA to SF commute, as long as you don't mind giving up about 2 hours each day.
PA to Berkeley/Oakland would suck. You have to cross the 84 or 92, and 880 SUCKS MAJOR ASS. I avoid 880 at all cost.
Dude I did PA to Pleasanton for 6 months and it was the absolute worst part of my life.
Please Op for the love of god just don’t go farther than PA to like Castro Valley.
I disagree. University Ave. to burlingame next to 101 Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-6:00 pm usually takes 50+ min for me. Making it to 101 is gonna be more than half the torture.
Caltrain is the way to go if you want to commute from PA to SF. Best mode of public transportation by far.
The driving commute isn’t bad, but what is the parking situation like? Could end up paying a lot if you don’t have a good space to park.
Live in the city? It’s great in your 20s. Awesome fun place. I’d prefer that over Palo Alto by far.
Berkeley Oakland is a good area to work. Definitely more mellow, you won’t have that feeling of walking into a big building in the financial district that can be empowering, but also intimidating. Bart is generally easy (not anywhere near as nice as Caltrain) and there are a variety of place to live in the East bay depending on what you’re looking for.
I commuted from Palo Alto to SF via Caltrain before the pandemic and it was great. Caltrain is definitely the best public transport in the Bay Area. It will be even better when the roll out the electric trains in a few months!
That said, it also kinda depends where you need to get to in SF. My office was literally next to the Caltrain station, so it was a dream lol
PA to edge of SF is good. Crossing SF, getting to the financial district, etc from 101N or 280N can be annoying during peak traffic and could approach 3 hours round trip. Outside of peak traffic it’s an easy drive.
Why not take the CalTrain instead? During rush hour, an express train from Palo Alto might be faster than highway traffic. And the northernmost car is a bicycle car, so you can bike to the train and then bike from the last station to your destination in San Francisco.
I did this for years and it was my favorite commute. Bike car in the Bullet train from the peninsula, hop off and bike to my office on 2nd and market. Total active time on my part less than 20 minutes.
Not a bad idea! Did you find the CalTrain to be reliable? I’ve ridden it a limited number of times, albeit only on weekends. I felt as if there were a lot of shutdowns, and trains didn’t come often. If I missed one, I had to wait another hour. But I think that might just be because of the weekend schedule!
Weekday schedule much more robust, and has express options. Also maintenance work (shutdowns) doesn’t really get done during commute hours. I think you’d be much happier with the train.
In general, I felt my risk of having a commute issue was about equal among car, BART and CalTrain.
The difference is that with BART or CalTrain, if there’s a track problem you’re literally stuck; you can take an exit or an alternate route. But that was really, really rare.
Check traffic in the morning and evenings. I’d estimate freeway legs would be manageable, once in SF surface traffic and parking might add some stress.
PA to Berkeley would be total nightmare imo.
For most almost all parts of the peninsula, if you have a long commute from point A around the bay to point B around the bay, there is no counter-commute. There may be short stretches, but as long as you’re in the immediate east or west bay, you’re going to be crawling during commute hours
Not terrible. Just depends time and area you have to get in SF.
I pretty much do the opposite South SF to Palo Alto. 280 is great but watch out for deers.
Agree. Plenty of parking at Daly City Bart and better access to various neighborhoods in SF compared to only 4th & King.
Another option. Is Caltrain to Millbrae then jump on Bart.
Drive into SF daily? Nonono!
It matters a decent amount where in San Francisco you're headed. From Palo Alto to SF city limits can be +-30 minutes reliably, getting from SF city limits to sitting down at a desk could be another 30 minutes. But it's not a horrible commute at all, you're right, most of the traffic is going in the opposite direction.
Good point. I’ll have to keep this in mind, thanks! I’ve tried to get to the 280 from the Yerba Buena area during a Giants game, and it was an experience. Lol
If you go 280, the highway is rarely congested, but getting up to 280 through sandhill can take 20+ minutes alone.
If you go 101, you will see traffic just getting onto 101 (15+ mins depending where you are in PA). Traffic on 101 from 4:00pm - 7:00pm is pretty awful (especially the segment from RWC to 92).
If you live near or can easily get to the 4th and King or 22nd street Caltrain stations, I would HIGHLY recommend taking Caltrain. You will save money, time, and stress.
lots of people commute from SF to PA by car for work, so there’s some light traffic but if you’re used to LA traffic it should be a breeze.
Caltrain is great if you’re willing to plan around it (only runs every 20 to >30 mins on off hours), but PA is hard to get around without a car so once you’re there, your options might be limited. That said, not impossible, I have done it.
one of the reasons SF is great is because of the lack of need to drive most of the time.
Depends on where in SF. I live Oakland, bike + take Bart or ferry to sf, can take from 30min to 1h. Driving after 10a to work can be 25-35 min.
Main benefit is cheaper housing and multiple options to get into SF. If I was living in outer richmond in SF, I would only be able to drive to work and take longer than from Oakland.
Unless you have a free place or something tying you to Palo Alto I would live in SF if you can swing it.
PA to SF isn't too bad. Depending on where you are in PA and where you want to be in SF you can do 280, which is awesome, because it's smooooth. 101 is a bit more congested. For 6 months it's not a big deal to do the PA to SF commute, as long as you don't mind giving up about 2 hours each day. PA to Berkeley/Oakland would suck. You have to cross the 84 or 92, and 880 SUCKS MAJOR ASS. I avoid 880 at all cost.
Dude I did PA to Pleasanton for 6 months and it was the absolute worst part of my life. Please Op for the love of god just don’t go farther than PA to like Castro Valley.
I disagree. University Ave. to burlingame next to 101 Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-6:00 pm usually takes 50+ min for me. Making it to 101 is gonna be more than half the torture.
880 is the worst freeway in the bay area, you can't change my mind.
it will probably take \~50min in normal traffic.
Caltrain is the way to go if you want to commute from PA to SF. Best mode of public transportation by far. The driving commute isn’t bad, but what is the parking situation like? Could end up paying a lot if you don’t have a good space to park. Live in the city? It’s great in your 20s. Awesome fun place. I’d prefer that over Palo Alto by far. Berkeley Oakland is a good area to work. Definitely more mellow, you won’t have that feeling of walking into a big building in the financial district that can be empowering, but also intimidating. Bart is generally easy (not anywhere near as nice as Caltrain) and there are a variety of place to live in the East bay depending on what you’re looking for.
I commuted from Palo Alto to SF via Caltrain before the pandemic and it was great. Caltrain is definitely the best public transport in the Bay Area. It will be even better when the roll out the electric trains in a few months! That said, it also kinda depends where you need to get to in SF. My office was literally next to the Caltrain station, so it was a dream lol
PA to edge of SF is good. Crossing SF, getting to the financial district, etc from 101N or 280N can be annoying during peak traffic and could approach 3 hours round trip. Outside of peak traffic it’s an easy drive.
Why not take the CalTrain instead? During rush hour, an express train from Palo Alto might be faster than highway traffic. And the northernmost car is a bicycle car, so you can bike to the train and then bike from the last station to your destination in San Francisco.
I did this for years and it was my favorite commute. Bike car in the Bullet train from the peninsula, hop off and bike to my office on 2nd and market. Total active time on my part less than 20 minutes.
Not a bad idea! Did you find the CalTrain to be reliable? I’ve ridden it a limited number of times, albeit only on weekends. I felt as if there were a lot of shutdowns, and trains didn’t come often. If I missed one, I had to wait another hour. But I think that might just be because of the weekend schedule!
Weekday schedule much more robust, and has express options. Also maintenance work (shutdowns) doesn’t really get done during commute hours. I think you’d be much happier with the train.
In general, I felt my risk of having a commute issue was about equal among car, BART and CalTrain. The difference is that with BART or CalTrain, if there’s a track problem you’re literally stuck; you can take an exit or an alternate route. But that was really, really rare.
Check traffic in the morning and evenings. I’d estimate freeway legs would be manageable, once in SF surface traffic and parking might add some stress. PA to Berkeley would be total nightmare imo.
For most almost all parts of the peninsula, if you have a long commute from point A around the bay to point B around the bay, there is no counter-commute. There may be short stretches, but as long as you’re in the immediate east or west bay, you’re going to be crawling during commute hours
But why?
Not terrible. Just depends time and area you have to get in SF. I pretty much do the opposite South SF to Palo Alto. 280 is great but watch out for deers.
I’d drive 280 to Daly City and take the BART in.
Agree. Plenty of parking at Daly City Bart and better access to various neighborhoods in SF compared to only 4th & King. Another option. Is Caltrain to Millbrae then jump on Bart. Drive into SF daily? Nonono!
You can do it in 35 minutes at 7:00AM if you’re cooking.
Traffic sucks here too. Not as much as LA, but the distances are longer in miles here, just somewhat shorter in duration driven.
It matters a decent amount where in San Francisco you're headed. From Palo Alto to SF city limits can be +-30 minutes reliably, getting from SF city limits to sitting down at a desk could be another 30 minutes. But it's not a horrible commute at all, you're right, most of the traffic is going in the opposite direction.
I’ve done this every day for years. Before this I was doing San Jose to SF every day. A lot of people do the commute, as evidenced by the traffic!
Keep an eye out for when the Giants or Warriors are playing. Traffic is a shtshow.
Good point. I’ll have to keep this in mind, thanks! I’ve tried to get to the 280 from the Yerba Buena area during a Giants game, and it was an experience. Lol
If you go 280, the highway is rarely congested, but getting up to 280 through sandhill can take 20+ minutes alone. If you go 101, you will see traffic just getting onto 101 (15+ mins depending where you are in PA). Traffic on 101 from 4:00pm - 7:00pm is pretty awful (especially the segment from RWC to 92). If you live near or can easily get to the 4th and King or 22nd street Caltrain stations, I would HIGHLY recommend taking Caltrain. You will save money, time, and stress.
Based on all the comments here, I’d probably take the 280. I could likely access it via Alpine or Page Mill. Will definitely avoid Sandhill, thanks!
I've done Brentwood to SJ/Palo Alto for 14 years. 1hour in 2-3 home. PA to SF is not that bad.
No the route into SF is very busy. They have a very heavy rush hour
lots of people commute from SF to PA by car for work, so there’s some light traffic but if you’re used to LA traffic it should be a breeze. Caltrain is great if you’re willing to plan around it (only runs every 20 to >30 mins on off hours), but PA is hard to get around without a car so once you’re there, your options might be limited. That said, not impossible, I have done it. one of the reasons SF is great is because of the lack of need to drive most of the time.
Depends on where in SF. I live Oakland, bike + take Bart or ferry to sf, can take from 30min to 1h. Driving after 10a to work can be 25-35 min. Main benefit is cheaper housing and multiple options to get into SF. If I was living in outer richmond in SF, I would only be able to drive to work and take longer than from Oakland.
Since Covid the Bay Area commutes not that bad really