Commuting in the Bay Area is becoming Hell.

[Lonusca]

73. As a transplant, here is my impression

I've been here about 20 years now. Originally from MA.

It's kind of like what folks from Maine say - "You can't get there from here". At least not easily.

For example - BART should ring the Bay. It doesn't, and you cannot go to Silicon Valley/San Jose at all via BART.

For an area thats really not big at all, depending on where you are starting AND ending - it can be very easy, or next to impossible to get there. The actual area covered by public transit is insufficient. You may have to go on several different transit agencies in a relatively short distance, and there's little inter-agency coordination

However - we really are not that "old" of an area if you think of it. Nobody 40 years ago would have thought to build commuter rail/BART type of service in the locations where it is now needed. And now the systems could never afford the land or infrastructure to do it.

As far as roads go - what seem to be missing here are the roads like Route 9, or Route 2. Roads that might not be an interstate, but move along from town to town. There's few "shortcuts" or alternate routes here. If you are not on an interstate, you're not going very far very fast