Bay Area commutes just aren’t worth it

Commuting between places like Berkeley or Martinez and San Francisco is honestly wild when you break down the real costs. I used to do that daily grind: my trip was three parts - first a bus to the BART station in the East Bay, then the BART train under the Bay, then another bus once I got into San Francisco. That whole thing took over two hours each way, and if you think BART is cheap, think again - a round trip from the East Bay can run you $20, which adds up to over $5,000 a year if you’re working full time. Driving, on the other hand, is its own headache. Sure, you can make it in about an hour and fifteen minutes if you’re lucky with traffic, but then you’re paying $8 a day just for the Bay Bridge toll, which is $2,000+ a year, and gas is no joke either - if you’re commuting 62 miles round trip from Martinez at California prices, that’s easily $3,500 or more a year. Then pile on insurance, maintenance, tires, and the privilege of trying to find parking in San Francisco, which is anything but free. And let’s not act like cars don’t lose value or come with random surprise costs too. People forget how expensive owning a car really is when you add it all up. But the real issue is that the whole Bay Area transit system isn’t actually set up for people who live far from BART or don’t work right on Market Street. Even if you take BART, there aren’t enough stops in San Francisco, so you usually end up on a Muni bus or paying for an Uber to finish the trip. SF just isn’t walkable like New York, and it shows. Every time bridge tolls go up, BART fares seem to hike too, so it’s not like there’s a clear winner. The ferries move a good number of people, but they’re not exactly picking up all the slack either. I look at how empty BART is compared to NYC subways and wonder - if we actually doubled train service, built an express line, or even made BART free, maybe we’d finally see a packed, efficient system. For now, it shouldn’t be this hard or expensive to ditch your car and take public transit in the Bay Area.