Hacker News Reader

Comment by thebigman433 | Hacker News Reader

Even better than expanding 101 and 280 would be to vastly improve the public transit down the peninsula. There is no reason going from my apartment in SF to San Mateo should take over 90 minutes via public transit. There should be constant rapid busses through SF to every Caltrain stop in the city. Hopefully Caltrains electrification + timing improvements make this all more feasible.

The fact that it’s one of the most technical areas in the world and we’re stuck driving between SF and the valley is a disgrace

View on HN

The fact is that San Mateo was built as a suburb of San Francisco, and the transit choices were built as a function of residents commuting into San Francisco.

Why did you choose to live in San Francisco? You cannot expect the transit system to revolve on a dime around your housing & employment choices.

This is such a weird comment. If transit systems arent built around people's housing and employment, its useless. San Francisco is a huge city, with a significant population that commutes south as well. Even if the transit was originally made for people commuting into SF, it clearly isnt what is needed the most now. Downtown SF office space has significant vacancies, and I would guess there is a similar number of workers commuting south as there are commuting north.

Caltrain's current ridership (very poor) demonstrates the need to change the connecting systems so it is popular again. The idea of having rapid busses connecting to the caltrain stops (especially 22nd and bayshore stations) is hardly a massive thing, and could significantly improve transit across the Bay.

Building robust transit between SF and San Mateo is good for everyone, its not selfishness.

Why is it Caltrain’s fault that you chose to live far from a station, your employer chose to lease offices far from a station, and you chose to work for said employer?

I didnt say its Caltrains fault anywhere, I simply gave suggestions on how they can make public transit down the Bay significantly better, which should be their overall goal. Its also very relevant since their ridership is only <40% of pre-pandemic levels. I dont really understand why you are so against improving public transit access in a corridor that could really benefit. The whole area is a relatively plot of land, it is almost perfect for public transit

> San Francisco is a huge city

It's got under a million people, and is only the second largest in the Bay Area. It's locally very important, but let's not get carried away here.

For that matter, why Caltrain? it should all be Bart.

The name should not matter. There are sometimes good reasons to have more than one operator in a metro area for various reasons. However there needs to be one fare/transfer system across the entire metro with a price cap.

You can have various systems of zones or service levels, but there needs to be a maximum cost it is not possible to exceed to make it easy to budget. People who expect to hit that maximum will not hesitate to use transit or send their kids on it and thus are more likely to decide they don't need the car (even though a car probably costs more most people don't account for the costs of a trip)

They are piloting fares carrying over between transit rides, which could be a great solution for the people who think it’s too expensive. In general, taking public transit is already cheaper than driving, but it would be really really good if we could market that better. Some people think east bay -> SF for 5.50 each way is too expensive, when the bridge toll alone is almost the same price.

Bart would be great, but Caltrain is already there, and is electrified now. I definitely support bringing it all under one roof, but for now I just think it’s important to actually get Caltrain on a functional schedule.

In the future, I’d love if Bart could build an extension past millbrae, but they have some other more important things to do imo

Reply on news.ycombinator.com