Arriving at San Jose International Airport on a flight from New York City, I elected to rely on public transit to get around during my three day trip to the San Mateo County coast of California.  As a born and bred San Franciscan who is a frequent flier, it is somewhat surprising that I'd never flown into/out of this tidy, little airport serving California's second most populous city after Los Angeles.  San Jose is 50 miles south of San Francisco and not exactly a tourist mecca, unlike its famous urban neighbor to the north.  Connecting San Francisco, located at the 7-mile-wide northern tip of the peninsula of the same name, and San Jose, at the southern end, is an unbroken line of suburban sameness.

Cal Train – Heavy Rail Suburban Transit

To traverse these 50 miles of suburbs between the two cities, one can take Cal Train, which operates a fleet of double-decker trains which on weekends runs only once per hour.  On the weekdays, the train line runs a few express trains during the morning and evening commutes, but if one misses an express and has to take a local train, he or she must endure a 22-stop journey lasting an hour and a half.  Furthermore, if a passenger must transfer between a train and a bus, additional time must be factored into the equation to account for walking and waiting during the trip.  And it is no mistake in calling it a trip, as it is an arduous and lengthy haul.  To get more people out of their cars, public transportation must become a priority of the American government in the 21^st century, just as highway building was in the 20^th.

Transit Interconnectivity in San Mateo County

Interconnectivity in a discussion of public transit refers to the ease involved in transferring from a train to a bus, for example.  Also, interconnectivity concerns all the aspects of a single trip such as the quality of vehicles, whether a service is local or express, how long one must walk and wait, methods of payment – i.e. is one fare card used on all modes, condition of the stations and bus-stops, and the frequency and reliability of the modes.  One thing that is glaringly apparent about the Bay Area is that there are at least 100 planning and transportation agencies, including more than one regional organization, with often competing interests, as evidenced in the number of awkward transfers, multiple payment methods required, and time-consuming journeys.  It's no wonder most suburbanites drive.

SamTrans – Commuter and Local Bus Routes

SamTrans is San Mateo County's public bus system, covering a large area all the way from downtown San Francisco south to Palo Alto, a distance of 36 miles.  During my short stay in San Mateo County, population 725,000, I took Sam Trans buses twice and each of those two trips could have been much shorter with fewer stops and reduced transfer times.  Earlier today, for example, I took three buses to go from Redwood City to Montara, on the ocean side of the peninsula, for a distance of 24 miles.  Driving door to door would have taken me 40 minutes, but the bus trip, including the walk to the bus stop not necessary if I'd been driving door-to-door, took me a numbing three hours and ten minutes!  It isn't surprising that buses are not the most popular way form of transit in America.

Life Without a Car on the San Francisco Peninsula

Living without a car is mind-blowingly tough in the San Mateo county suburbs of San Francisco, at least if a person must commute everyday using multiple modes of transit.  It is not only degrading, with nary a bus shelter at stops and little accountability by the bus company to the passenger with regards to posting time schedules at a majority of stops.  At stops with bus shelters, times are not shown, just frequencies, which means that one never knows when, or even if, a bus will turn up.  There are other issues like a no free transfer policy and a lack of schedule coordination – buses connecting with others requiring unruly wait times – including one on this authors trip of over an hour.  This is all a direct and sad result of the policy of the U.S. government over the past 60 years to prioritize cars at the expense of a smart mix of modes allowing people to live in cities and towns with options to walk, bike, drive, or take public transit.  In the early 1900's, most cities had streetcar lines and many bicycle riders, as well as complete, walkable streets.  Without giving up its love-affair with cars, America could again be a country of walkable places and high-quality transit.