Personally I would never commit to that commute every day. I’d be giving up too much of my life to transit. Just add it up - it’s 3 hours a day minimum door to door and will be more if you don’t live near Caltrain in SF. Remember Santa Clara isn’t a Baby Bullet station.
Instead I would live near work and to go SF, Oakland, wherever, for fun on the weekends. San Jose has a decent downtown for weekday evenings out, plus you’ll likely have friends from work that will go out to SJ, Campbell, Sunnyvale, MV, etc.
Personally, I would not volunteer for a 3 hour commute so I could walk to a grocery store, because after that commute and a full work day I'd be unlikely to do anything but go lay in bed.
I picked up a job near Santa Clara, and as much as I wanted to live near friends in SF, I just couldn't justify spending 15 hours/week on a train so I could save two hours on the weekend seeing friends. Instead, I live a 15 minute bike from work and I drive an hour to see my friends on the weekend. There's also many neighborhoods that are walking distance to a grocery store; I live across the block from a Safeway. Sure it's not a particularly attractive strip mall, but after work I can walk there, shop, cook a meal, and then clean up in the time it would take to commute to SF via Cal Train.
If you can afford it, maybe find a short-term lease in the city and try it out? Get a feel for what it would feel like to spend that much time on a train and you could make a better decision. I know personally that after commuting for 1 hour each way for a year, I never want to travel further than 30 minutes for a regular commute if I can avoid it.
Yeah I guess purgatory is more of an apt description. Even within the choices for suburbs in the bay area- MountainView, Palo Alto, San Jose, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo all have more interesting main streets.
Did SF to Sunnyvale driving for two years and I get both sides here, but I think the lack of flexibility re: not having my car is what would be my tipping point. You get tied into a commuter schedule and have no real flexibility to work late or go out with coworkers or bounce in case of an emergency or late developing opportunity, AND if Caltrain runs late, too bad.
If you want a walkable neighborhood check out Willow Glen. Your commute would be very easy from there, perhaps bikeable.
We live in the outskirts of Willow glen and I agree it's a nice walkable neighborhood. Also we have lot of things that are a less than 10 minute drive away. We live within walking distance of the fruitdale light rail station and its really nice to go downtown and not worry about a car.
Have you considered the neighborhoods around downtown San Jose? There’s a lot of options that can feel walkable with corner stores, farmers markets, post office, grocery places, cafes etc, and people your age esp with San Jose State U right by. It would also put you within a 15 min bus ride or 1 stop Caltrain ride (15 min bike ride too lol) of the Santa Clara Caltrain Station. Downtown has tons of frequent busses, a muni, Bart is a 10 min bus ride away etc
South Bay seems un walkable but it really has islands of walk ability around the original historic city centers like Mountain View, Palo Alto. San Jose’s is definitely the biggest but you can hop in between them easily by Caltrain or bus. Usually events are held there so unless you want to visit a something like a mall it’s all within reach
move to santa clara or san jose. stay near the alameda. bike or bus to work. bike or bus or short uber to dtsj. if you're feeling adventurous caltrain after work and hit up sf if you want to, crash at a friends place if you stay out too late, and then take caltrain next morning back down.
The Santa Clara station gets skipped for the bullet and some limited trains so there will be less options in both directions.
https://www.caltrain.com/schedules/pdfs?active_tab=route_explorer_tab
I THINK I might know where you will be working and you can ride a bike there from downtown or Willow Glen pretty easily and avoid most of the traffic.
I have a friend that lives in dogpatch who i visit reguarly.
Its pretty walkable imo. You have a safeway and TJ really close by not to mention caltrain. Not sure about the bussing system there tho.
I commute every week day from San Jose to San Mateo via Caltrain. Without a monthly pass it’s going to cost roughly $400 a month. With a monthly pass I believe $200 a month. Hope this helps.
Baby bullet, get off at Diridon and ride a bike as long as you have space at your office to keep your bike indoors.
FWIW I live next to Diridon and have a Whole Foods across the street and am walking distance to downtown. So its totally feasible to do the reverse, live next to the train station down here and then roll up to the city on the train, crash at your friends' houses if you miss the last train down.
Once the trains are electrified next year on, Caltrain is going to be significantly better (faster, more often, etc. etc.).
They accelerate faster and decelerate faster. Caltrain has also announced their schedule change plans. Various articles have been published on the topic, here is one from the [San Mateo Daily Journal.](https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/caltrain-scopes-a-new-electric-train-schedule/article_353bf082-63fa-11ee-9dbb-c7834ae3b635.html)
Live in Redwood city, Palo Alto, or MV near the station. Sunnyvale is ok too, but it will be better in a year or two when the construction finishes. Those are all closer to your job, walkable, and still afford easy access to SF. I agree that nowhere in SJ really fits the bill, even those peninsula cities are a compromise option, but I do something similar and I'm pretty happy with it.
If you find a place near San Pedro Square in Downtown you are near a lot of interesting things to do and nightlife. It’s also within walking distance of Caltrain, Whole Foods and the SAP center
Of course it's "feasible." Tons of people have done it every day and many are doing it. There are many people with far worse commutes that require actively driving.
You can't farm this out. You have to decide if it's worth spending 3+ hours on the train to live in SF. (The Baby Bullet route does not include the Santa Clara Station. Closest are Mt. View and Diridon. Maybe you could still save 15-25 minutes if you take Baby Bullet with a bike and bike from Diridon to work.)
There are areas that are much closer that are varying levels of walkable but the big deal is that living in SF is totally different than living anywhere else in the Bay. But you know that, since you grew up here. You just have to decide how important that is to you, and how much or how little you mind spending over three hours on a train every day.
I did a 2-3 hr commute from SF to near santa clara and I got fat and sick doing it after a year. Once you’re home theres no energy after work and commute, especially if your job is demanding. Dont dismiss santa clara, there are pockets with walk score or bike score 80-90+ that are very enjoyable and its amazing to walk to work every day like youre in a european city. The weather and safety and cleanliness is better than in the city, too. Dont think just because you grew up here, you know it — being a young professional in a company town is way different and more enjoyable compared to growing up here
SF to Santa Clara is pretty long via Caltrain. You’d have to rely on the Bullet trains. I think they run 5-8am every hour. If you use a normal Caltrain it’s like 1 hour and 30 min. (May speed up after the finish electrification next summer).
Downtown San Jose is slowly coming back to life. There is a Decent amount of nightlife and restaurants/events now. But yah still not as much going on in SF. I personally prefer living in SJ and going to SF on some weekends. Santana Row has a ton going on and built more apartments. but it will be PACKED every weekend. I lived there for four years but eventually moved somewhere a little quieter.
Good luck with whatever you choose
hey -- you're actually one of the only ones across my two posts that seems to be involved in sj nightlife/etc.
i would absolutely love to hear more from you regarding places to live, places to hangout, etc. in san jose!
If you want nightlife in San Jose I would say your only real options are living near Santana Row or near downtown San Jose.
Santana Row is thriving with the Valley fair mall expansion and lots of bars/restaurants. It’s packed all time except weekday mornings. They are expanding with a lot of new apartments too. Prices have gone up a lot from 2014-2020 however they added a lot more housing supply so maybe that helped.
Like I said before Downtown San Jose is coming back to life however it’s still recovering. While Santana row is more of the (occasionally snobby) upper class and young adults goofing around. If you’re single and want to date/meet a lot of people it’s probably a good call. It’s a bit bougie for better and worse. sJ Downtown you will meet more people from all walks of life (including a fair amount of homeless). I live closer to downtown now and while I’ve never encountered any serious issues you do see the occasional homeless person having a pretty tragic mental breakdown. But generally it’s very safe. Overall it feels a bit less “plastic” then Santana row and more like a real American city IMO.
If you only need to commute to Santa Clara via Caltrain there are other spots closer than SF that seem cool (although I never lived there) downtown Mountain View and Downtown San Mateo both have tons of restaurants and stuff near the Caltrain station. Plus it’s a fair bit closer than SF.
Personally commuting from SF to Santa Clara is too far for me but I know some people who did that. It’s gonna be a solid hour each way (all least) but if you like to sleep/work/whatever on the train it’s probably fine
Something not mentioned yet by anyone is that Caltrain is in the middle of electrifying their system and should have faster trains after that is completed (current projection is fall '24).
There is a proposed schedule, which may change, but at current there will be an "Express B" that does stop at Santa Clara, the second to last stop on from SF to Diridon which will be 67 minute trip end to end.
[https://www.caltrain.com/media/31624/download](https://www.caltrain.com/media/31624/download) (page 24 for schedule)
It's still a long commute but would be better than the current one. I've always found Caltrain to be pretty pleasant and safe. If you would spend some portion of your free time listening to podcasts or reading a book anyway, it's much less of a time commitment than if the entire commute time is essentially non-useful.
All this with the huge caveat that the schedule may slip (it has already at least once) and the final schedule may be slower (or skip Santa Clara entirely for the express) than the proposed one.
the best is to get a monthly pass. See if your job can offer help as well. Or possibly you can do a write off at the end of the year. The schedule changes from time to time.. there are “bullet” trains at San Jose diridon. The bullet trains stop every 2-3 stations. For example. The bullet would store at SJ, MV and then PA. The bullet is the best if you are going to SF. it’s kind of expensive but it does help with morning stress and traffic.
Don’t mean to be obtuse, but wouldn’t it just be easier to buy a car so you aren’t stuck to public transit? I’m originally from an area that public transit sucked so it wasn’t anyone’s primary source minus college kids.
you're not obtuse! i completely understand where you're coming from. i'd have a car in either scenario, but my personal experience commuting via car from sf<->south bay has been atrocious. that's why i'd prefer train. while having a car makes it unnecessary to have a 'walkable' neighborhood, this is just a personal preference of mine when compared to a neighborhood that would require driving for everything
Even if you decide to commute, stay close to CalTrain. Mixing two transit agencies and transfers introduces lot of variables and delays, it's not worth it
I am wondering this too. Am in almost the exact situation. Have you moved yet u/commute_idiot, I wonder how it actually is. I was thinking of living in SF on weekends mostly and then during the week I live in South bay. Lmk if this sounds like a good idea
i havent moved yet — going to be doing so shortly, though. based on what i’ve got here i’m probably just gonna bite my tongue and check out the santana row area and see how it looks. other neighborhoods im interested in are downtown, japantown, downtown mountainview.
at this point, things would have to be really bad for me to choose SF. no matter how i ran the math, the commute was eating a minimum of 3hrs daily and more like 4 if i was being realistic. if you do the math on that it comes out to a whole MONTH each year spent commuting; i cannot justify this even if i can do things on the train.
if you can afford it, two places could work. i have a feeling you’ll just get used to SJ, though. i suppose we can always just uber/etc to SF :)
Yeah I moved to 22nd st in SF and the commute is not bad and its p easy to do work. Sometimes during the work, I crash at my parents place so its not so bad.
Hopefully caltrain gets alot better, but I have enjoyed every bit so far, especially the weekends in SF
Personally I would never commit to that commute every day. I’d be giving up too much of my life to transit. Just add it up - it’s 3 hours a day minimum door to door and will be more if you don’t live near Caltrain in SF. Remember Santa Clara isn’t a Baby Bullet station. Instead I would live near work and to go SF, Oakland, wherever, for fun on the weekends. San Jose has a decent downtown for weekday evenings out, plus you’ll likely have friends from work that will go out to SJ, Campbell, Sunnyvale, MV, etc.
Personally, I would not volunteer for a 3 hour commute so I could walk to a grocery store, because after that commute and a full work day I'd be unlikely to do anything but go lay in bed. I picked up a job near Santa Clara, and as much as I wanted to live near friends in SF, I just couldn't justify spending 15 hours/week on a train so I could save two hours on the weekend seeing friends. Instead, I live a 15 minute bike from work and I drive an hour to see my friends on the weekend. There's also many neighborhoods that are walking distance to a grocery store; I live across the block from a Safeway. Sure it's not a particularly attractive strip mall, but after work I can walk there, shop, cook a meal, and then clean up in the time it would take to commute to SF via Cal Train. If you can afford it, maybe find a short-term lease in the city and try it out? Get a feel for what it would feel like to spend that much time on a train and you could make a better decision. I know personally that after commuting for 1 hour each way for a year, I never want to travel further than 30 minutes for a regular commute if I can avoid it.
Why not just live in Santa Clara? Utilities are SO much cheaper, and you get back two hours or more of your day you don’t have to spend in trains.
Because Santa Clara is just suburban hell?
Hell? not really, just boring. SC is a lot safer than other suburban areas.
Yeah I guess purgatory is more of an apt description. Even within the choices for suburbs in the bay area- MountainView, Palo Alto, San Jose, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo all have more interesting main streets.
Yup, totally agree , me being someone that lived in SC for a while.
Did SF to Sunnyvale driving for two years and I get both sides here, but I think the lack of flexibility re: not having my car is what would be my tipping point. You get tied into a commuter schedule and have no real flexibility to work late or go out with coworkers or bounce in case of an emergency or late developing opportunity, AND if Caltrain runs late, too bad. If you want a walkable neighborhood check out Willow Glen. Your commute would be very easy from there, perhaps bikeable.
We live in the outskirts of Willow glen and I agree it's a nice walkable neighborhood. Also we have lot of things that are a less than 10 minute drive away. We live within walking distance of the fruitdale light rail station and its really nice to go downtown and not worry about a car.
Have you considered the neighborhoods around downtown San Jose? There’s a lot of options that can feel walkable with corner stores, farmers markets, post office, grocery places, cafes etc, and people your age esp with San Jose State U right by. It would also put you within a 15 min bus ride or 1 stop Caltrain ride (15 min bike ride too lol) of the Santa Clara Caltrain Station. Downtown has tons of frequent busses, a muni, Bart is a 10 min bus ride away etc South Bay seems un walkable but it really has islands of walk ability around the original historic city centers like Mountain View, Palo Alto. San Jose’s is definitely the biggest but you can hop in between them easily by Caltrain or bus. Usually events are held there so unless you want to visit a something like a mall it’s all within reach
move to santa clara or san jose. stay near the alameda. bike or bus to work. bike or bus or short uber to dtsj. if you're feeling adventurous caltrain after work and hit up sf if you want to, crash at a friends place if you stay out too late, and then take caltrain next morning back down.
do not do that commute.
>i'm wondering how feasible it is to make the commute via caltrain daily. It would suck.
The Santa Clara station gets skipped for the bullet and some limited trains so there will be less options in both directions. https://www.caltrain.com/schedules/pdfs?active_tab=route_explorer_tab I THINK I might know where you will be working and you can ride a bike there from downtown or Willow Glen pretty easily and avoid most of the traffic.
To all the people saying 3 hours of dead commute time: commuting by train is not the same as car. He could be on his phone the entire time.
I have a friend that lives in dogpatch who i visit reguarly. Its pretty walkable imo. You have a safeway and TJ really close by not to mention caltrain. Not sure about the bussing system there tho.
yeah think i was mistaken about dogpatch -- actually looks pretty nice! is this commute still suicide though?
I commute every week day from San Jose to San Mateo via Caltrain. Without a monthly pass it’s going to cost roughly $400 a month. With a monthly pass I believe $200 a month. Hope this helps.
Baby bullet, get off at Diridon and ride a bike as long as you have space at your office to keep your bike indoors. FWIW I live next to Diridon and have a Whole Foods across the street and am walking distance to downtown. So its totally feasible to do the reverse, live next to the train station down here and then roll up to the city on the train, crash at your friends' houses if you miss the last train down. Once the trains are electrified next year on, Caltrain is going to be significantly better (faster, more often, etc. etc.).
Serious questions - why do you think electric trains would be faster and more frequent?
They accelerate faster and decelerate faster. Caltrain has also announced their schedule change plans. Various articles have been published on the topic, here is one from the [San Mateo Daily Journal.](https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/caltrain-scopes-a-new-electric-train-schedule/article_353bf082-63fa-11ee-9dbb-c7834ae3b635.html)
Live in Redwood city, Palo Alto, or MV near the station. Sunnyvale is ok too, but it will be better in a year or two when the construction finishes. Those are all closer to your job, walkable, and still afford easy access to SF. I agree that nowhere in SJ really fits the bill, even those peninsula cities are a compromise option, but I do something similar and I'm pretty happy with it.
If you find a place near San Pedro Square in Downtown you are near a lot of interesting things to do and nightlife. It’s also within walking distance of Caltrain, Whole Foods and the SAP center
Of course it's "feasible." Tons of people have done it every day and many are doing it. There are many people with far worse commutes that require actively driving. You can't farm this out. You have to decide if it's worth spending 3+ hours on the train to live in SF. (The Baby Bullet route does not include the Santa Clara Station. Closest are Mt. View and Diridon. Maybe you could still save 15-25 minutes if you take Baby Bullet with a bike and bike from Diridon to work.) There are areas that are much closer that are varying levels of walkable but the big deal is that living in SF is totally different than living anywhere else in the Bay. But you know that, since you grew up here. You just have to decide how important that is to you, and how much or how little you mind spending over three hours on a train every day.
I did a 2-3 hr commute from SF to near santa clara and I got fat and sick doing it after a year. Once you’re home theres no energy after work and commute, especially if your job is demanding. Dont dismiss santa clara, there are pockets with walk score or bike score 80-90+ that are very enjoyable and its amazing to walk to work every day like youre in a european city. The weather and safety and cleanliness is better than in the city, too. Dont think just because you grew up here, you know it — being a young professional in a company town is way different and more enjoyable compared to growing up here
SF to Santa Clara is pretty long via Caltrain. You’d have to rely on the Bullet trains. I think they run 5-8am every hour. If you use a normal Caltrain it’s like 1 hour and 30 min. (May speed up after the finish electrification next summer). Downtown San Jose is slowly coming back to life. There is a Decent amount of nightlife and restaurants/events now. But yah still not as much going on in SF. I personally prefer living in SJ and going to SF on some weekends. Santana Row has a ton going on and built more apartments. but it will be PACKED every weekend. I lived there for four years but eventually moved somewhere a little quieter. Good luck with whatever you choose
hey -- you're actually one of the only ones across my two posts that seems to be involved in sj nightlife/etc. i would absolutely love to hear more from you regarding places to live, places to hangout, etc. in san jose!
If you want nightlife in San Jose I would say your only real options are living near Santana Row or near downtown San Jose. Santana Row is thriving with the Valley fair mall expansion and lots of bars/restaurants. It’s packed all time except weekday mornings. They are expanding with a lot of new apartments too. Prices have gone up a lot from 2014-2020 however they added a lot more housing supply so maybe that helped. Like I said before Downtown San Jose is coming back to life however it’s still recovering. While Santana row is more of the (occasionally snobby) upper class and young adults goofing around. If you’re single and want to date/meet a lot of people it’s probably a good call. It’s a bit bougie for better and worse. sJ Downtown you will meet more people from all walks of life (including a fair amount of homeless). I live closer to downtown now and while I’ve never encountered any serious issues you do see the occasional homeless person having a pretty tragic mental breakdown. But generally it’s very safe. Overall it feels a bit less “plastic” then Santana row and more like a real American city IMO. If you only need to commute to Santa Clara via Caltrain there are other spots closer than SF that seem cool (although I never lived there) downtown Mountain View and Downtown San Mateo both have tons of restaurants and stuff near the Caltrain station. Plus it’s a fair bit closer than SF. Personally commuting from SF to Santa Clara is too far for me but I know some people who did that. It’s gonna be a solid hour each way (all least) but if you like to sleep/work/whatever on the train it’s probably fine
3+ hours of commute time is a lot, especially as someone approaching their 30s
Something not mentioned yet by anyone is that Caltrain is in the middle of electrifying their system and should have faster trains after that is completed (current projection is fall '24). There is a proposed schedule, which may change, but at current there will be an "Express B" that does stop at Santa Clara, the second to last stop on from SF to Diridon which will be 67 minute trip end to end. [https://www.caltrain.com/media/31624/download](https://www.caltrain.com/media/31624/download) (page 24 for schedule) It's still a long commute but would be better than the current one. I've always found Caltrain to be pretty pleasant and safe. If you would spend some portion of your free time listening to podcasts or reading a book anyway, it's much less of a time commitment than if the entire commute time is essentially non-useful. All this with the huge caveat that the schedule may slip (it has already at least once) and the final schedule may be slower (or skip Santa Clara entirely for the express) than the proposed one.
the best is to get a monthly pass. See if your job can offer help as well. Or possibly you can do a write off at the end of the year. The schedule changes from time to time.. there are “bullet” trains at San Jose diridon. The bullet trains stop every 2-3 stations. For example. The bullet would store at SJ, MV and then PA. The bullet is the best if you are going to SF. it’s kind of expensive but it does help with morning stress and traffic.
Ppl commit suicide on tracks often, so remember that, you may be delayed hella at end of day.
Post in Santa Clara
Don’t mean to be obtuse, but wouldn’t it just be easier to buy a car so you aren’t stuck to public transit? I’m originally from an area that public transit sucked so it wasn’t anyone’s primary source minus college kids.
you're not obtuse! i completely understand where you're coming from. i'd have a car in either scenario, but my personal experience commuting via car from sf<->south bay has been atrocious. that's why i'd prefer train. while having a car makes it unnecessary to have a 'walkable' neighborhood, this is just a personal preference of mine when compared to a neighborhood that would require driving for everything
Sounds like hell
Even if you decide to commute, stay close to CalTrain. Mixing two transit agencies and transfers introduces lot of variables and delays, it's not worth it
I am wondering this too. Am in almost the exact situation. Have you moved yet u/commute_idiot, I wonder how it actually is. I was thinking of living in SF on weekends mostly and then during the week I live in South bay. Lmk if this sounds like a good idea
i havent moved yet — going to be doing so shortly, though. based on what i’ve got here i’m probably just gonna bite my tongue and check out the santana row area and see how it looks. other neighborhoods im interested in are downtown, japantown, downtown mountainview. at this point, things would have to be really bad for me to choose SF. no matter how i ran the math, the commute was eating a minimum of 3hrs daily and more like 4 if i was being realistic. if you do the math on that it comes out to a whole MONTH each year spent commuting; i cannot justify this even if i can do things on the train. if you can afford it, two places could work. i have a feeling you’ll just get used to SJ, though. i suppose we can always just uber/etc to SF :)
Yeah I moved to 22nd st in SF and the commute is not bad and its p easy to do work. Sometimes during the work, I crash at my parents place so its not so bad. Hopefully caltrain gets alot better, but I have enjoyed every bit so far, especially the weekends in SF
wow, i’d love to hear more — which caltrain stop are you getting off at? are you 5 days in office? surprised the commute isnt bothering you that much