San Mateo County Commute

 

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

San Mateo Advantages

Although San Mateo County has its bottlenecks and traffic jams, compared to almost every other county in the Bay Area, it has a short commute.

By short, we’re guessing that many residents will spend a half-hour to 45 minutes, one way, each day getting to and from the job. And a fair number will spend less.

The reasons: local and short-distance jobs, fewer bridges, two freeways and two parkways and alternates to driving, including buses, trains and commute rail (BART).

Also San Francisco International Airport, which is located in mid San Mateo County. If your job frequently puts you on a plane, this might be the county for you.

Overview

The San Mateo commute won’t make sense without this bit of information: half to two-thirds of the county is undeveloped or sparely developed.

The Santa Cruz Mountains run up the middle of the county. With the major exceptions of Half Moon Bay, Pacifica and Daly City, almost everything west of the mountains is farm, park, watershed or open space. Given the anti-growth sentiments of San Mateo residents, this picture is unlikely to change.

Interstate 280 is a good dividing line. To the west of this freeway, very little. To the east, toward the Bay, almost everything: 15 of the county’s 20 cities, about 85 percent of all residents.

Let’s call this sector, Interstate 280 to the Bay, the commute corridor. It runs from Daly City to Menlo Park-East Palo Alto, about 45 miles, and at its widest point, measures about 9 miles.

Within this corridor, a lot of traffic moves north and south, a lesser but substantial amount goes east and west.

Major Roads

For the commute corridor, the major roads:

• Highway 101, the Bayshore Freeway. North-South. The most popular and heaviest trafficked. Runs along the shore and into downtown San Francisco.

• Interstate 280. Lovely freeway. North-South. Second most traveled. Runs along the ridge line, six to nine miles in from the Bay, and intersects with Highway 101 in Daly City. Also runs to downtown San Francisco.

• El Camino Real, the old King’s Highway. North-South. Mostly four-lane, in a few places wider. Travels the length of the county, within a mile or two of Interstate 101. Many businesses are located along El Camino Real.

• Skyline Boulevard. North-South. Mostly four-lane. The frontage road for Interstate 280. Changes to Cañada Road about the City of San Mateo; peters out near Woodside. Of the four north-south roads, the least important but handy for many hill residents.

All these roads are connected to one another by arterial streets or short freeways, the most important of which are: Interstate 380 in San Bruno, Highway 92 in San Mateo and Highway 84, the Woodside Expressway, in Redwood City.

Bridges

Two, both to Alameda County in the East Bay:

• Hayward-San Mateo Bridge, Highway 92, from Foster City to Hayward.

• Dumbarton, Highway 84, from Menlo Park to Fremont

Rail or Commute Rail

• Caltrain, which runs on the old Southern Pacific tracks. North-south. For the most part, parallel to Highway 101, less than a mile to the east. Travels the length of the county and ends in downtown San Francisco. Also goes to many Silicon Valley cities, including Palo Alto and San Jose.

• BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit District). Commute trains. Starts at San Francisco Airport and runs to downtown San Francisco and onto Oakland in Alameda County and to many cities in Contra Costa County.

In San Mateo County, stations at Millbrae, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Colma and Daly City.

• SFO shuttle. From the Millbrae BART station to the airport.

Buses

SamTrans runs almost all the buses in San Mateo County. Service within and to all the cities, with emphasis on BART and Caltrain stations, malls, downtowns, the airport and business roads, such as El Camino Real.

The Good: Job Centers

San Mateo has San Francisco on its north and Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) on its south. Both are job centers with large office and research complexes, major universities and large institutions, such as hospitals.

Many San Mateo residents work, shop or amuse themselves in San Francisco or use their services (the universities). This is especially true for people on the north side of the county. Daly City, Pacifica and South San Francisco are, in effect, suburbs of the City.

Santa Clara Valley starts at Palo Alto, which borders Menlo Park. Palo Alto has Stanford, a major university, large business parks, a medical center and a giant mall.

Just south of Stanford, Mountain View (Google, NASA Ames Research Center, PayPal). The next town over is Sunnyvale (Yahoo), then Santa Clara (Sun), then Cupertino (Apple). We’re hitting just the high lights. These towns have hundreds of high-tech firms employing tens of thousands.

For South San Mateo County — Menlo Park, Redwood City, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley, San Carlos, East Palo Alto, the City of San Mateo — one to 20 miles to many of the giants of Silicon Valley. And it can be argued that these firms are in effect suburbs of the Valley.

Just beyond 20 miles, thousands of more jobs in San Jose and at its large airport.

The Good: Local Jobs

Three job centers:

• San Francisco International Airport. Thousands of jobs, not only at the airport and its airlines but also at the shipping and service firms and hotels that border the airport.

• Silicon Valley, San Mateo. Many high-tech jobs have jumped the confines of the original Silicon Valley and settled in San Mateo County, especially on the south side. These include a large Sun complex in Menlo Park and the Oracle headquarters in Redwood City.

• Biotech. Its big city is South San Francisco, headquarters for Genentech and other firms.

Take almost any city along the Bay you will find hotels or large private firms that employ collectively thousands. Foster City is headquarters for Visa, San Mateo for Franklin Templeton Investments, Daly City has a large convention center, and so on.

If you live in San Bruno or Millbrae or nearby cities and you work at SFO, it may take you less than 10 minutes to get to the job. The same situation applies to any resident with a local job.

Shorter the job, the shorter the commute.

The Good: Bridges

Most long-distance commuters travel north or south, along the corridor. There are no bridges in these directions.

Bridges are the biggest traffic hangup in the Bay Area. Stopping vehicles to collect a toll is one problem.

Forcing vehicles to converge is a far greater problem. Bridges by their nature collect traffic from freeways and streets and funnel it through a narrow passage – the bridge itself.

At peak hours, the funnel often clogs and backs up traffic onto the feeder streets and freeways. The Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate are the worst offenders.

With no bridges to cross, San Mateo drivers can move into San Francisco through two freeways and about 10 arterial streets.

On the south side, entering Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, again two freeways and at least five arterial streets.

Yes, the arterials back up at peak hours but compared to the bridges much less.

As for the commute to the East Bay, often the peak flow from San Mateo goes in the happy direction. In the mornings, many East Bay residents travel west to get to jobs, particularly around the airport. The San Mateo commuters to the East Bay, driving east, run into less traffic (but if they travel any distance in the East Bay, the going will often be slow.)

The Good: Caltrain and BART

Caltrain and BART are oriented north-south, the direction for many commuters. Both serve major job centers, including downtown San Francisco.

Caltrain stops in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose and other high-tech towns.

The Good: the buses

They close the gaps from home to job or train or BART station.

They also tie into the transit systems of Silicon Valley, which has a light-rail system, and San Francisco, which has an often criticized but heavily used MUNI system.

The Bad: the Streets

By confining its development to a narrow strip along the Bay, San Mateo makes it possible for buses and trains to work their benevolence. The great majority of residents are within a walk or short drive to a bus stop or train or BART station or freeway ramp.

All to the good.

The downside: with housing concentrated, the local streets in peak hours and often throughout the day are forced to handle a lot of traffic.

They are not up to this. San Mateo laid out many of its streets well before the 1950s and designed them for the horse or Model T, a small car.

Many of the downtowns were built around the train stations. The railroad was the “freeway” of the county in its formative years.

Only one (Foster City) of the 20 cities was master planned, a modern approach that, through wide arterials, moves traffic quickly to freeway ramps.

The result: you whip down Highway 101, take the exit and come to halt or a crawl.

Aggravating matters, the rail track runs next to Highway 101 and many downtowns. When trains comes, the barriers descend and traffic stops.

Over the last 30 years, the cities have spent millions on rail underpasses and this has greatly improved traffic flow on the arterials. But some problems are insoluble. The train tracks force many streets into dead ends and divert their traffic onto congested arterials; this is not going to change.

San Mateo County has many lovely downtowns that have been lavished with care, money and affection. They are nice to shop, nice to dine, nice to stroll. When it comes to the car, however, they are a pain in the p-toot.

The Bad: San Francisco

It’s tempting to say that the trouble with the San Mateo commute is San Francisco. Not that simple.

San Francisco, by far, has been the most successful county in California in getting people out of their cars and onto buses, streetcars and trains. It’s done this by building rail and bus systems, by discouraging freeways and by shortchanging parking.

San Francisco is a small city, 7.5 miles by 7.5 miles. It was built during the heyday of buses and trains and has never given up on them.

Santa Clara County blossomed after World War II when the car was king. Many of its firms built giant parking lots for their employees. The county and many of its cities are crisscrossed not only by freeways but also by wide boulevards that almost function as freeways.

If you are an environmentalist and worry about global warming, hip, hip for San Francisco. But if you are driving through the City, this “hip, hip” might be sounded through clinched teeth.

San Francisco at peak hours is often a horror, especially in its downtown, where most people work.

Forewarned: if have a downtown job, you will often be stuck in street traffic and stalled on Highway 101. This highway catches a lot of the traffic to San Francisco Airport.

Santa Clara County … well, it has its problems because it has done too good a job of encouraging residents to take to their cars. This has pumped extra traffic onto the streets and freeways, and made the county not as environmentally friendly as many would like.

But Santa Clara probably has made it easier on the drivers. To be fair to the county, it has installed a light-rail system that takes a lot of people off the roads.

The Bad: San Francisco, again

Caltrain and Interstate 280 carry many San Mateo residents to downtown San Francisco. But they end at the periphery of the downtown.

Interstate 280 finishes up about 18 blocks south of Market Street, the main boulevard in the downtown. Many firms are located north of Market Street.

Highway 101 does a bit better, exiting about 10 blocks south of Market Street.

At peak hours, getting to and from the freeway ramps can be agony. At the worst we’ve experienced, about 10 minutes to crawl two blocks.

San Francisco used to have the Embarcadero Freeway, which residents loathed (because it blocked views of the Bay) but motorists loved because it got you around the downtown. When the 1989 earthquake damaged the Embarcadero, San Francisco tore it down and refused to rebuild it.

Without the Embarcadero Freeway, the downtown is a much prettier place. But the traffic … awful!

Caltrain ends at Giant Stadium, about the same place where Interstate 280 finishes. From there, you can walk or take a bus or street car. Not the end of the world but about 15 to 20 minutes extra on your commute.

If you want Market Street as your destination, go BART or go bus. The BART line runs right down Market.

The Sometimes Bad: Highway 1, the Coastal Road

Highway 1 serves Half Moon Bay, Montara, Moss Beach and Pacifica. Every few years, at place called Devil’s Slide, south of Pacifica, winter rains wash out the road. Because the terrain is steep, repairs take months. Drives the coastal residents nuts.

Permanent solution, a tunnel, under construction. Should be financed by 2011.

Other problem: on pleasant summer days, Highway 1 picks up a lot of traffic.

Helpful (we hope) Hints

• Buy a good map book (Thomas Guides) or GPS or directional system.

In many parts of urban California, alternate roads to the freeways are few or non-existent.

In San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco, they are numerous. If Highway 101 is congested, try to get over to Interstate 280 or El Camino Real or Skyline Drive.

If you drive downtown San Francisco, familiarize yourself with the one-way streets and free access points.

For Santa Clara County, the same. Look for the alternate routes.

• SamTrans. Buses … how retro and Old World! But if they work for you, why not. Give them a try. For information, (800) 660-4BUS. www.samtrans.org

• Caltrain. The same. Try it. This system runs “Baby Bullet” (express) trains to downtown San Francisco. Popular. Phone (800) 660-4287. www.caltrain.org

“Baby Bullet” train zips from Downtown San Francisco (at Giants ball park) to San Jose in just under an hour, with stops in Millbrae, San Mateo, Palo Alto and Mountain View. Caltrain offers local service between San Francisco and Gilroy. In addition to above stations, these trains stop at South San Francisco, San Bruno, Burlingame, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Morgan Hill. Weekend service at Atherton station.

• BART. Perhaps the most popular of the freeway alternates and not only for the business commute. Many people who want to shop downtown San Francisco or take in a play, ride BART. The car is just too much of a hassle.

For BART info, schedules, (415) 989-2278. www.BART.Gov.

• Car pooling. RIDES will set you up with a van or connect you with other car poolers. Phone (800) 660-4287. www.rideshare.511.org.

The Bay Area has been steadily adding car pool lanes. If you can buddy up, with even one person, your life will whizz by faster. Some high-occupancy lanes and bridges require three persons to use the diamond lanes.

• If you are using the bridges a lot, buy FasTrak. As you past through the tollgate, a computer reads your “pass,” (positioned on the windshield) and debits the toll from a credit card account. Easy and when the bridges are jammed a real time saver. Applications at the toll plazas or go to www.bayareafastrak.org.

• Look to your employer. The larger may be providing help. Google runs its own bus system that picks up employees from around the Bay.

Miscellaneous

• Between 2000 and 2007, San Mateo increased its population by about 26,000. For every four people, figure three drivers, which is why road improvements often fail to keep up.

• Survey done in the early 2000s showed that about 75 percent of all San Mateo commuters drive alone to work, 3 percent take a bus, 14 percent car pool, 3 percent take BART, 3 percent take Caltrain, 1 percent walk and 1 percent cycle. The average commuter travels at 31 miles an hour, has a one-way commute of 16 miles and takes 31 minutes to get to work.

• Slow down in the fog. In some neighborhoods, it is a real problem.

• Many homes are built directly on streets that were once quiet and pokey but now are carrying a lot of traffic. Point to consider when buying or renting.

• San Francisco in 2007 extended its Third Street line (light rail) to the south side of the City, where there is a good deal of development going on. For information, MUNI (415) 673-MUNI. www.sfmta.com.

• Phone number for almost all transit info, 5-1-1.

• Transit agencies offer transfers and, for frequent commuters and elderly, discounts.