Commuting from SF to milpitas? (San Jose, San Francisco: home, neighborhoods, living) - San Francisco - Oakland - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

nabla · 11-04-2009, 03:46 PM

Hi there,

I'm a 23 years old European guy, and just got a job in a tech company in Milpitas, CA.

Right now I have to find the place where I'm gonna live, and I was wondering if it would be possible to live in SF, and commute everyday to work, using the BART for example to get to Fremont, and then my car to Milpitas (yeah...).

I know it's quite far, and I won't drive the whole way from SF to Milpitas, but one hour of train seems allright. You can do stuff during that time.
So I was thinking to live somewhere really close to a bart station in SF and just take the train. Do you think it's doable or just crazy ?
The reason why I wanna live in SF is that the south bay area looks kinda lame... especially for a European guy that is not used to quiet, boring american suburbs.
So far I've seen Santa Clara, San Jose and Milpitas. SF looks pretty awesome...

So, thanks for any insight! I'm especially interested by someone that is already doing this.

skyao · 11-04-2009, 04:16 PM

i dont think that commute is feasible using BART. You may be able to take Caltrains but even then its at least a 1.5 hour commute door to door.

I am not even sure how you would get to Milpitas using BART as it only goes to SFO Airport. Would you take the BART to Fremont and drive? That sounds miserable.

I know people who drive from SF to Milpitas every day for work. Driving is 1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on where you live in SF and what time you leave every day.

nabla · 11-04-2009, 04:52 PM

I prefer BART (or Caltrain) because you can do something else during the time you take it (like sleeping, maybe working?). If I have to drive then the time is just lost, but yeah it's not a great solution either.

skyao · 11-04-2009, 06:00 PM

BART is probably going to be really really logistically difficult. I dont think this one is feasible.

CalTrain is your best bet but I am thinking a 2 hour commute door to door on average. Could be longer depending on where you live in SF and where you work in milpitas.

mstnghu2 · 11-04-2009, 06:20 PM

I know people who have worse commutes than this, but I personally would never consider doing this commute. The SF Bay Area is a huge place (9 counties with over 7 million people) and many people who move here from other places think SF is the center of everything. However, there is life outside of the city of SF in the Bay Area. I would consider living somewhere much closer. There are so many other nice places to live in the Bay Area where you could be happy. That's not to say that SF isn't a great city, but just that it's close enough that you could visit often, but not have to live there and suffer a hellish daily commute. You don't have to live in SF to experience the benefits of living close to it. Most Bay Area residents like to take advantage of all the great things the region has to offer, without having to actually live in The City. The San Jose/San Francisco/Oakland Metropolitan area has many different neighborhoods/suburbs and I don't think you should just limit yourself to the city of San Francisco itself. SF is typically only about an hour from Milpitas and the San Jose area in general, so it's easy to visit. I wouldn't want to commute everyday to and from SF though. I used to commute from south San Jose to Fremont (the only city in between San Jose and Fremont is Milpitas) and I used to hate that commute. I'd explore other options if I were you.

cardinal2007 · 11-05-2009, 12:36 PM

With regards to BART there is one snag I see with leaving a car at Fremont. Over the weekend if you leave a car parked over the weekend, you can park for free over the weekend after 3pm, but you have to pay for the next day if you don't leave by 4am, there is a 24hr limit rule, but it is waved for the weekend, provided you leave by 2AM on Monday, parking is free on weekends.

BART - Parking
BART - Fremont

Parking on Caltrain doesn't seem to be helpful either, you can get a monthly pass, which would help in terms of paying, but it would be more expensive than BART ($30/mo vs $1/day for BART). But you have a 24hr limit, that doesn't seem to be waived for weekends. I don't think you will have luck leaving a car at a Caltrain or BART station over the weekend consistently.

tjtv · 11-05-2009, 02:33 PM

It's a long commute, but not impossible.

If you seriously want to do it, then you should try to make it as easy as possible. This would require living within a short walk of the Caltrain station in SF. Then you can take the 45 minute baby bullet from SF -> Mountain View. From Mountain View, it's a straight shot against traffic on 237 over to Milpitas, which should take about 20 minutes. Assuming you have a short enough walk in SF, your total door-to-door commute time on average will be 1 hour 20minutes in the morning, probably a big longer on the way home .

BayAreaHillbilly · 11-05-2009, 07:43 PM

Been there done that. Horrible commute either by car or transit. It is actually possible to take busses from the Fremont BART to Milpitas, but that is one time consuming commute. Cal Train, fuggedibout it - by the time you add up how long it takes to ride to Mt. View then light rail across then the bus, it's even longer than BART and busses.

Sooooo ... when I had that commute, unless my car was in the shop, I slogged down 101 and across on 237 everyday.

If you do go for this, live somewhere in the City where you don't have to spend much time on surface streets getting to the Fwy - e.g. Outer Mission, Bernal Hts, Glen Park, Parkside, etc.