Contra Costa County Commute

Buses

BART

 

For current traffic conditions, go to www.511.org

The Contra Costa commute is always being improved and always exasperating not all people but many.

If you understand why, it will perhaps help you decide how you want to commute.

Contra Costa is served by six freeways — Highways, 4, 24 and 242, Interstates 680, 580 and 80. See Map.

BART (commute rail) runs three lines that serve west, central, east and south Contra Costa (but not all cities). Amtrac also carries commuters.

County Connection, AC Transit and other companies run buses throughout the county.

All these freeways and systems have been improved, some substantially. Billions will be spent to make them even better. Yet, the experts are wary about predicting faster commutes. The reasons:

• More drivers, more vehicles. Between 1990 and 2006, the county’s population went from 803,732 to 1,029,377, an increase of 225,645 or 36 percent. As an approximation based on car and truck registrations, for every 100 people, nevermind their age, 80 vehicles. This pattern repeats itself throughout the Bay Area. The Bay Area and the outlying communities will continue to grow and add vehicles.

• Solo drivers. Despite pleadings and rewards, about seven of every 10 car commuters drives alone.

• Parking. San Francisco, the destination for many commuters, has historically been hostile to the car, perceiving it the enemy of civic values. The City builds garages but never enough. When the 1989 earthquake damaged roads, San Francisco demolished and did not replace several access ramps and the Embarcadero Freeway. Oakland, also short of parking, is notorious for aggressive ticketing. Likewise Berkeley. If you win a Nobel, UC Berkeley honors you by awarding a free parking space.

• Mother Nature’s bottlenecks, which are expensive to fix. Contra Costa is bordered on three sides by water. Six major bridges and one tunnel have been built to get over and under the water (and in 2007, another bridge will be added, at Martinez.) Because of the water, traffic is channeled to the bridges, often overloading them. On Fridays and holiday weekends, many people head for the mountains, adding to the congestion. Backups extend for miles.

Every bridge comes with a toll plaza, a political bottleneck.

Willow Pass, the steep hill leading to East Contra Costa. Trucks have to gear down for hills; this slows traffic.

The Caldecott Tunnels. These three tunnels pierce the Berkeley Hills, which sit astride Highway 24, the Central County’s main road to the Bay Bridge. In the morning, two tunnels are open west, one east; in the evening, two east, one west. At peak hours, backups in both directions. Even on weekends, the Caldecott often grinds along. Another tunnel to be drilled, opening in maybe five years.

• The Exurbs. Antioch, Brentwood, Stockton, Modesto Tracy, Fairfield, Vacaville, etc., the farm towns of only a few years ago are turning into suburbs of the metropolis. Very few jobs in these towns. People used to commute 30 miles and arrive home exhausted. Now one-way commutes of 60 to 80 miles are common. Along Highway 4 in Contra Costa, the backups start about 3:30 p.m. and sometimes don’t dissolve until after 7 p.m.

The Contradictions

Wider freeways, more tunnels and bridges, rebuilding interchanges and freeway ramps — all help. The car, the most versatile way to get around, remains king and many of the transit dollars go to making life easier for the car commuter. But many of the improvements are self-defeating or limiting.

Another tunnel at the Caldecott – faster drive to the snarl at the Bay Bridge and the parking shortage in the City. Or Oakland or Berkeley.

Widening Highway 4. Faster drive to the pokey, two-lane roads of the East County.

Population increases, more housing. Inevitably, more cars and trucks on the road, nullifying the improvements. And many of the improvements will take years to make.

If you are moving to or around Contra Costa or the region, do the drive before you buy or rent. See if you can take it.

If you can’t, try for a home or apartment closer to the job, switch jobs if you can, or stagger your hours to avoid commute peaks or see if you can tele-work at least a few days a week at home.

Or take a bus or BART or an Amtrac or the Altamont Express.

Contra Costa County Bus Service

• The County Connection runs buses throughout Central Contra Costa. Towns served include Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Concord, Walnut Creek, Clayton, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, San Ramon, Danville, Alamo, Pleasanton (Stoneridge Mall). One route ties in El Sobrante with the central county.

New service to Dougherty Valley in San Ramon.

Also buses to seven BART stations, medical facilities, schools, recreation centers and business parks throughout the Central County. Special buses for events at the Concord (Sleep Train) Pavilion and Cal Bears football games. All buses are equipped with wheelchair lifts and racks for two bikes.

 

www.cccta.org

County Connection runs express buses to BART stations, including the Dublin-Pleasanton station.

Also served by buses are the major job centers of the Central County, including Shadelands Ranch in Walnut Creek and Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. Also, major hospitals and shopping malls, such as SunValley, Willows, Park and Shop, Broadway Shopping Center, Town and Country, and Stoneridge. And city halls, the Amtrak station at Martinez, and many parks.

Express bus from Park-and-Ride lot on Mitchell Drive in Walnut Creek to Altamont Commuter Express in Pleasanton. The Altamont Express is a commute train to Silicon Valley.

If you miss the last BART train out of San Francisco there is a night owl service that starts with Muni in San Francisco to AC Transit buses in Alameda County to County Connection buses at the BART stations.

Free shuttle from Walnut Creek’s Broadway Center to the BART station with stops in the downtown.

Discount passes can be purchased, including a summer pass for the kids. Transfer passes to BART and other bus lines.

County Connection offers employers discounted annual passes to give to their employees. For more information, phone (925) 676-7500. www.cccta.org

• Tri Delta Transit provides bus service to East Contra Costa. Fixed bus routes serve Bay Point, Pittsburg, Antioch. Dial-A-Ride serves Brentwood. Bus service is also available for Bethel Island and Discovery Bay.

For information, call (925) 754-4040. For Dial-A-Ride, (925) 754-3060.

• WestCAT (West Contra Costa County Transit Authority) runs buses through the communities of Crockett, Port Costa, Rodeo, Hercules, Pinole, Montara Bay, Bayview and Tara Hills. The last three are unincorporated neighborhoods near Pinole.

WestCAT also offers Dial-A-Ride, door-to-door service for the elderly and handicapped. In addition, WestCAT buses connect with AC-Transit buses that run to Hilltop Mall Shopping Center and BART stations.

For WestCAT schedules and location of stops, call (510) 724-7433.

• AC Transit serves the West Contra Costa cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo and El Sobrante. Buses run to the BART stations in Richmond and El Cerrito. Phone 511.

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BART

In 2004, BART completed a $1.2 billion renovation to its system, including upgrading car interiors and overhauling fare gates, ticket machines, escalators and elevators.

Here are the Contra Costa BART stations:

For Central and East Contra Costa: Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill (Treat Boulevard), downtown Concord, North Concord, Bay Point-Pittsburg.

For West Contra Costa, two BART stations at El Cerrito, one in downtown Richmond.

For San Ramon Valley, station at Dublin-Pleasanton.

Passengers from Bay Point and Richmond, the last stops in Contra Costa County, are assured seats on the way in. For BART, (925) 676-2278. www.BART.gov

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Altamont Commute Express

Commute rail between Manteca and San Jose. The train can be picked up at Livermore or Pleasanton, near the San Ramon Valley. Phone (800) 411-7245.

Amtrak

Many people use Amtrak’s Capitol trains to commute to Oakland and San Jose. Other trains, depending on destination, may also to the job. Stations at Antioch, Martinez and Richmond. Phone (800) 872-7245.

Suggestions

• Buy BART and bus tickets at supermarkets. The BART ticket will save your sanity and money and speed you through the gate. BART also sells a regional ticket, called “BART PLUS,” that is good on connecting rides on such bus lines as AC Transit, The County Connection, the Martinez Link, and the Muni

• Avoid peak hours. If you can leave for work — it gets earlier every year — about 6:30 a.m. and head home before 4 p.m., you might catch the 6 o’clock news.

• FasTrak. Don't stop at toll booths. Scanner will read your sticker and debit your account. Ask for information-application at toll booths.

• Join a car pool or find two people to ride with you to work. In recent years, the Bay Area has gone for car-pool lanes as a way of punishing the solo driver and rewarding the communal one. The Bay Bridge has a lane for pools. No toll. You whip to the head of the line. So popular is this lane that drivers, shy a body or two, cruise BART stations in search of passengers.

RIDES, phone 817-1717, will help you find a car pool in your town — no charge. In the typical arrangement, passengers meet at one or two spots and are dropped off in one or two destinations. The pools go all over. All that’s needed are passengers and a driver. If you want to set up your own pool, RIDES will help you find passengers. Passengers split the cost which is based on the type of van, mileage and operating expenses. The driver gets a free commute and use of the van.

• Listen to traffic reports on the radio. Helicopters and planes give immediate news of jams. Avoid trouble before you get on the road. For freeway information statewide call (800) 427-7623 or 511 (locally). Or check traffic on internet. www.traffic.511.org

• Airports. BART goes direct to San Francisco International Airport. For Oakland Airport, take BART to Hegenberger Road, and from there a shuttle bus to the terminals. This sounds complicated but our editors say it works well. Local firms run limos and vans to airports. Pickup at home or at hotels.

• Park and Ride. Many people do. They drive their vehicles to certain destinations (BART stations, bus stops, corners, parking lots), park and hitch a ride in the cars, vans and pickups of other car pools. Much is arranged informally.

• Universal number. In an effort to make it simple, government agencies have come up with one number for all or almost all commute information in the Bay Area: 511

• Buy a good map book and keep it in the car. The editors favor Thomas Guides. Sooner than later you will find yourself jammed on the freeway and in desperate need of an alternate route. They’re out there.

Pleasant Hill Road bypasses the bottleneck at Walnut Creek. Treat Boulevard parallels Ygnacio Valley Road, often clogged. Concord Avenue parallels the more congested Clayton Valley Road. San Pablo Avenue, recently improved, is, at times, a better road than I-80 in the West County.

Crow Canyon Road will whisk you toward Oakland when I-580 is jammed.

Brentwood, Oakley and Discovery Bay residents should try Vasco Road to Interstate 580. The road has been greatly improved for much of its length.

• Leave the car home and take a bus to the BART station. Parking is in short supply at many stations. Buses run frequently. County Connection and AC Transit run buses to all the stations.

Miscellaneous

• Second Martinez-Benicia Bridge to open in late 2007. This should make a big difference in commute to Solano County and to getting away to mountains. Toll plaza is being moved from the north side to the south.

• East span of the Bay Bridge under construction. Work scheduled to finish in 2012.

• Highway 4 narrows from four lanes to two in Pittsburg. Voters in 2006 passed transit bond that may yield money to speed widening to Antioch and beyond.

• With the exception of the Golden Gate, $4 fares on all bridges in the Bay Area. The Golden Gate charges $6. All tolls are for one-way; coming back is free. Car poolers cross free.

• More booths are being converted for FasTrak.

• Bye-Bye Call Boxes. An idea of the 1980s, about 3,500 call boxes were installed at regular intervals throughout the Bay Area to help stranded motorists and traffic flow. When accidents occurred, the quicker the highway patrol was notified, the quicker, often, the problem was resolved. In the 1990s, cell phones became popular, and calls from the boxes declined sharply. In 2002, the state decided to remove 1,200 of the boxes in urban areas but leave them in rural locations.