Can I live in the East Bay comfortably without a car?

Question

I want to work in a pharmaceutical plant. Will I be able to get to my job by public transportation?

Answer 1

It probably would be a lot easier, depending on where you live, when I worked in Sunnyvale not far from AMD I found it a lot less stressful to use public transportation, it takes a bit of planning but once you get it down it is way cool.

Answer 2

I did it for two years. It's sometimes annoying but definitely possible.

Most of the pharmaceutical plants I know of are concentrated in the East Bay around Hayward and Fremont. Your job will probably be too far from the BART to walk. So you'll either have to take BART to bus, or you might be able to take a bus directly.

The BART is great - runs often and is reasonably reliable. I never found the bus system to be reliable. Most lines run every 30 minutes during the day. The bus was often late. On more than one occasion, the bus didn't show up for me, so I had to wait half an hour for the next one. That can be a big problem if you don't have a flexible start time.

A bike is another good option. You can take your bike on the BART, and you only have to worry about rain for a few winter months.

You can check out door to door transit routes and times at http://www.511.org/

Answer 3

There is a BART line that goes out there, and it lives up to its name (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in that it goes really fast. So as long as you set yourself up along one of those stations, or at least along a bus route that goes to one, you'll be set. I once did a sightseeing tour from a friend's house in the North Bay no problem using the local bus, BART and SF Muni. Left in the morning and got back after 10 p.m. There are various regional bus companies. The site below provides information about connecting bus services to each station.

Answer 4

I don't know about that, but it sucks to have no car in general.