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Anyone commute year round from WC to downtown SF?

imdrax

imdrax

Mom Shocker
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Location
Piedmont
Moto(s)
Z1000
I landed a job in FIDI and am planning to move to Walnut creek and commute on moto. It looks to be about 25miles one way. I have a couple main questions for anyone with a similar commute.

1. Is it worth it over taking bart in terms of time/money/effort?

2. Parking in FIDI, street or find a monthly fee structure?

3. I know its pretty wet alot of times throughout the year, do you ride through it or bart on the heavy days?

4. Its a corporate job so I will be shirt/tie/shoes, any bag suggestions that can wear nice on the bike and stay professional with still being able to carry my boots/laptop/maybe jacket?(thinking Chrome Bag)

5. Lastly, anyone with a similar situation to Q#4, do you leave your helmet strapped to the bike, and boots in a tank/tail bag?

Thanks for any input im trying to really decide how important its going to be to live close to bart when I move or if I can pull off the moto commute for 80-90% of the year. FYI: been riding for 10 years and a few of those I didnt have a car and was 100% moto but not a daily commute so....
 
Please, for fuck's sake, stop using "FiDi" as an indicator of the SF downtown area......:thumbdown

lame lame lame [imo]
 
What's wrong with shortening it to fidi if my job is in the financial district? What should I write? Financial district? It's the fucking Internet you douchebag, I'm not going to sit and write out San Francisco and financial district everytime.

BTW if I type FIDI in google maps it will drop a fucking pin on my job so go play your moms titties or something.
 
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Seems like nobody wanted to give there opinion on my core issues. If the person hating on me shortening FIDI (which my iPhone autospells even) then they shouldn't be using SF in the same sentence to hate.
 
imdrax said:
Thanks for any input im trying to really decide how important its going to be to live close to bart when I move or if I can pull off the moto commute for 80-90% of the year. FYI: been riding for 10 years and a few of those I didnt have a car and was 100% moto but not a daily commute so....
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I vote for both options, get a place near BART and ride in to work too. If you are forced to ride every day you might soon grow to hate it.

I think they are building some new apartments in Walnut Creek right now, and there are already a ton of them within reasonable walking distance to the BART station.
 
I used to Bart from Fremont to Embarcadero every day last summer, it ran on time for the most part. Just get in a good rhythm and you'll make the trains you want. Bart was great for keeping me on time getting into work also.

I was going to say just ride every day, but I can understand how that would be stressful on the bridge everyday. I would check and see how much Bart will cost you (don't forget daily parking) vs how much bridge toll is and weigh it against the freedom to move about whenever you want.
 
imdrax said:
What's wrong with shortening it to fidi if my job is in the financial district? What should I write? Financial district? It's the fucking Internet you douchebag, I'm not going to sit and write out San Francisco and financial district everytime.
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It's called the Barbary Coast. :x

It's totally not. I work in the Battery Gulch, another made up name in the same vein as NoNoPa, and I say it's 'just north of the FiDi all the time'.

I know folks who commute in from WC on BART every day, they like it well enough. Might want to take the train on Friday because happy hours tend to break out in this neighborhood with alarming frequency. If you do ride, the Pay By Phone app is your friend when parking at meters, both because payment is so easy and because you get a receipt.
 
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bart = basically always running tardy.
I ride from EC to SFCC daily, rain or shine.
If you got to be in suit and tie riding may take extra work but if it's just slacks and button down shirt (like me) then overpants and a jacket work just fine.
Meters around the civic center vary from 60c/hour to 25c/hour, I imagine meters in the financial district are more expensive and fill up earlier.
when riding in the rain the bottom hem of my pants will get wet and wick up the pants leg, but I don't have to be pretty pretty at work.
Coming from WC the tunnel will probably become a source of frustration, being able to use bart as alternative would be nice.
 
imdrax said:
What's wrong with shortening it to fidi if my job is in the financial district? What should I write? Financial district? It's the fucking Internet you douchebag, I'm not going to sit and write out San Francisco and financial district everytime.

BTW if I type FIDI in google maps it will drop a fucking pin on my job so go play your moms titties or something.
Click to expand...

:rofl :cry :rofl

BART
 
Bridge toll + parking works out to BART fare one way. Factor in gas and tires and riding is probably a bit more expensive if you live within easy walking distance of BART.

Door-to-door, riding is probably a bit faster if you're comfortable with lane splitting. Much faster if you're commuting in off-hours when BART doesn't run as frequently.

BART is highly compatible with drinking (worst that can happen is you wake up in Pittsburg), riding, not so much. Could put a damper on your social life.

Rain is not that big a deal, probably 10 days a year with heavy rain.

Chrome bags are great but you need a top case.

Parking is generally pretty easy, particularly if you don't mind walking a few blocks.
 
I used to do Lafayette to "FiDi" (People say SoMa, and NoPa but no one says FiDi) in the early 2000s, Sutter and Montgomery. Parking is not hard, I used to park next to the Sharper Image store on Sansome, the MC parking is still there, the store is not, Etrade now? Half a dozen other MC parking arrays near there. If you get there at 8:30am there is plenty of parking. At 8:45 it is full. It used to be $.10/hour but now it is more like $.75/hour. If you add $2.50* for toll, you are paying $8.50 + gas. BART will be $9.70 round trip so the cost is a wash.

I ride every day. The rain is not a problem as long as your visor does not fog up and you have rain gear. The real problem for me was the temperature. At 7:30 in the morning in December, it can be around freezing east of the Caldecott. I used to get ice cream headaches when I rode in the cold. Once through the tunnel it is rarely colder than 40 degrees so overpants and a fleece under your jacket are fine. I used to pray for rain in the winter because it meant that it wasn't going to be cold.

The bike was a faster commute by a half hour.

*With a Fastrack, the toll only gets charged about every other time so factor that into your calcs
 
I vote to have multiple options (at least bart or bike) for corporate job. If you could wear jeans and hoody when you wanted then mabye bike 100%. You really have to wear a tie???? I wear suits often but almost never a tie.

Better advice, don't move to WC.
 
Seems like a fine commute. It might be worth looking into monthly moto parking, I know there are some lots not far from there that have moto specific parking. Otherwise I think it's like $0.70 an hour at a metered spot, but at least you can park all day.

As noted get a top case or something that can hold your helmet, you really don't want to leave your exposed for 8 hours a day.
 
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