the tired me

So far, public transportation hasn't exactly been easy. Its not that I'm opposed to it, I'm just wondering why they can't make it more convenient around here. Around the world, people rely on buses, trains, and cabs, and they're able to get where they need to go with relative ease. But I'm realizing that for me, probably cuz I don't live very close to a big city and because I don't think the US is really the King of Convenient Public Transportation, getting to work suddenly has been taking longer, is more expensive, and is a downright pain in the ass.


First of all, it actually took me a while to plan the route. Nothing comes near my house. Caltrain, the South Bay Area's train system, comes only as far as Gilroy, which is about 20 miles from me. And they actually have only 3 trains that come all the way down, most others go only as far as San Jose, 45 miles away. So 3 possible trains each way. THEN, none of them go close to work. At least not walking distance close. So I had a few options:

• Take the train to the downtown San Jose station and get on a downtown shuttle (25 min drive to Gilroy, 50 minutes on the train, up to 15 minute wait for the shuttle, about 7-8 minutes on the shuttle, and dropped off a few blocks from work)


• Take the train to a station south of downtown and find an alternate mode of transport to work (there's a light rail that gets there in about 5 minutes so seemed like that would work in theory (25 minute drive to Gilroy, 42 minutes on the train, 5 minute light rail ride, and dropped off almost in front of work). It's actually not that bad, takes only a few min longer than it takes me to drive and park.

So of course I opted for #2, and I tried that on my first day. And I discovered that Light Rail was designed by retards. Its slow, it's painful, apparently its often late. But the worst thing was that it's not at all set to coordinate with Caltrain. The afternoon light rail is actually scheduled to arrive a minute or two after Caltrain takes off. So basically, I came running up, and the train was just pulling away. AWESOME, I wonder what genius decided that would be the best schedule. Unlike Caltrain, light rail runs every 15 minutes, so I guess its not a huge deal to take the earlier one or wait an extra 15 minute in the morning (because the morning was totally off too, did I mention -- I got off Caltrain just as a light rail train was taking off, apparently a minute or two BEFORE Caltrain is set to get there). But here's the thing. When I drive all the way from home, the whole trip takes me about 55 minutes. So I'm already spending WAY more time getting to work. I don't also want to spend a bunch of time waiting at each turn. Its one thing if I could just get on near the house and hang out til I got to work. But each time I transferred, I had to wait, and it all adds up. I don't want to be spending 2 hrs each way on my commute.

The other thing is that my work is super particular about working a full 8 and a half hour day. I'm sure I've complained about how we have to sign in and out. So dammit, I'm not ready to work even a minute more than I have to. But with the lack of train frequency, and the lack of coordination between the different modes of transportation, I couldn't make the train work without having to work a half hr extra every day (or barely missing the train by 2 minutes in the afternoon). Which all pretty much resulted in me leaving the house at 6:05 AM and coming home at 6pm. Ugh. With almost 4 of those hours spent commuting (and actually, most of that excess time spent waiting somewhere - which has also been fun with the recent cold spell).

But, it was relaxing to not have to drive. I didn't have to sit in traffic. I didn't have drive into work half asleep still. And I didn't have to pay for parking (plus my work reimbures a bit for using public transportation), so it actually did end up being a bit cheaper. Not to mention the costs of wear and tear on my car, the gas, the more frequent oil checks all associated with driving. So I kept looking for ways to maximize the process, and came up with option #3:

• Take the train in the morning and the bus in the afternoon. The bus comes right in front of work. It runs a little more frequently, and drops off at the Caltrain station where I left my car in the morning. So that seemed like the way to go.

EXCEPT, you know what? The bus is MISERABLE! OMG, people actually take that stupid thing every day???? You can't lean back, the seats are really uncomfortable. It was super crowded, so I amost couldn't sit down, and when I did, I was scrunched in pretty tightly between a couple of people. It stunk. And it stopped like EVERY TWO SECONDS. Dude, it was supposed to be an express bus, and actually cost more because it was an express bus. But no, apparently express just means it gets on the freeway, makes good time for a while, and then just gets off the freeway a lot to accommodate every single person on the stupid thing except me. People in Morgan Hill, for example, need to be dropped off right in front of their house. Once, and I kid you not, we stopped just before a light, waited at the red light, crossed the intersection, and stopped again. Like seriously folks, you could have walked to the stop faster than it took. It took the bus a half hour to go the same distance it would have taken me 7 minutes to drive. I know, cuz the next time I drove, I timed it. By the time we got to my car in Gilroy, there were only a few people left on the bus. I think most everyone else had decided to get off and walk the rest of the way.

I might have tried it again just to give it one more shot, but I was nauseous for the rest of the night, and couldn't imagine coming home like that everyday. The bus came to screeching halts. There were random bumps for no reason. And overall, it just felt like I was in an hour long earthquake or roller coaster ride. It doesn't take much for me get motion sickness, either, so that option is a definite no go.

So I'm still trying to figure out the best way to go. Next time, I'm working on option number #4:

• Take the latest possible Caltrain in the morning + light rail (shortest wait time between Caltrain and Light Rail with this option plus I get to get off south of downtown which gives me less total train time). The whole route is actually well coordinated so total travel time in the morning is just 1hr 15 minutes, only about 15 minutes longer than what it would take me to drive. Then take a bus in the afternoon to the train station, which would get me to the Caltrain station with just enough time to spare (as opposed to light rail which would make me get there after Caltrain leaves). If it works, it would let me take the first possible train in the afternoon, thus reducing my overall commute time. It pretty much requires me running to everything (so maybe no more heels to work) but if it works, it'll be the best option yet.
  

Is your head spinning yet? Cuz I know mine is. And this is seriously the way I felt for a whole week or more while I was trying to route all this out. In a way, it was a bit addictive. I spent every free moment at work for an entire week perusing bus and rail maps (totally cutting in on my blog and websurfing time, hence the preparation I referred to in my previous post). And of course things always look all right on paper, but it's a lot less fun putting it all into action. Cuz that requires that everything runs exactly on time, including me. Which is a huge IF. So I've been running into all sorts of those issues too, but I'll save that for the next post. And here I thought that the freaks would be my biggest worry.