Ask HN: How horrible is the SF to Silicon Valley commute?

The commute is horrible, whether by car or Caltrans.

Many firms locate down in the heart of the valley for many reasons including that office space is considerably less expensive, infrastructure is theoretically somewhat more robust, traditionally the biggest money firms are down there, many of the firms down there are related by chains of nepotism, there are fewer "distractions" for workers in those boring areas, executives can afford more posh places down there, ....

The valley proper, back when I worked there, had all the elements of an old-school company town: easy for workers to move into, hard to move out; collusive hiring practices across firms; not much to do beside eat, work, sleep, and pay rent; even its own set of camp-follower brothels. It's an ugly, horrible environment and you're darn right it influences the decisions of some to simply not work there.

SF is notoriously anti-business and the center-of-mass of Silicon Valley is probably somewhere between Palo Alto and San Jose (depending on the sector) which is why businesses have offices on the pennisula and not SF. Also, costs are much cheaper outside of SF. Its not your company's fault if you choose to live in SF and commute.

At least two companies in the South Bay (Google, Yahoo) hire daily shuttles for employees living in San Francisco, and most offer some form of compensation for those who take public transportation. Are you really losing 2-3 hours when you could be processing email on your smartphone, or reading the news and social updates that you would otherwise dick around with during the workday?

Your question is a little bit weird -- you're asking how horrible your own commute is? Or are you asking why more companies don't have SF offices?

For the latter, it seems obvious that real estate and infrastructure are cheaper in the Valley.

For the former, it really depends on where you live in SF.

If you are driving a car to the Valley, how far are you from the 280 or 101? Does your employer allow you to work your schedule around the rush hours? Are you working for a startup where you are expected to put in long hours and possibly even spend a lot of time with coworkers outside of the office?

If you are taking CalTrain, how far are you from the nearest station? I lived in the Sunset for several years and commuted to Palo Alto; it was a bit maddening, mostly due to the long time it took to ride MUNI to CalTrain. Door-to-door was around 100 minutes, but it was 100x less stressful than driving. Plus, I could catch up on news/email on the train. On the rare days that I'd drive in, I'd arrive at work already feeling beaten down.

While it's true that there's plenty of cool stuff going on in the Redwood City-Sunnyvale corridor, I still prefer life in SF. I'll speculate that you'll hear a lot of startup-centric people here bagging on it, but to each his own.

> Why don't companies have offices in SF?

Some do. Perhaps you should ask your company why it doesn't. Or maybe you should work for one that does. Or even work for an SF-based company.

> I can't believe they think it's a good idea for employees to lose 2-3 hours every day in this way.

What fraction of your co-workers commute from SF?

If you live near Soma or Potrero Hill the commute to Mountain View is often faster than the commute to the other side of San Francisco.

I commuted to Google for 4 years. Even with the bus it was tough. I was the same though, living in the valley is not really an option, and I'm glad I didn't.

Some advice:

- live as close as possible to the highway or caltrain. this means soma, potrero, the mission, or noe valley.

- negotiate at least 1 work from home day. friday is the best. (although wednesdays are usually easiest to ask for first)

- work off peak.

It's possible to get your average commute to about 45 minutes, which isn't so bad (still gets old though).

Out of curiosity, what's it like on/from the east side of the Bay? I have a standing invitation to be a roommate in the Concord area. BART to downtown I'm familiar with, but I don't know what to expect if I have to head south.