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Project Insomnia

Project Insomnia is many things, but in this context it is simply a "braindump" of whatever I happen to be thinking/reading/watching/doing at the moment. Parental guidance suggested.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Making the big loop

I check 511.org's Traffic and Driving Times Map before leaving for work every morning and before heading for home every afternoon. Between Palo Alto and Berkeley there are at least four major routes I can take, with various options on each--all depending on traffic speeds and "incidents" along the possible routes. So far this week, it's been 101-80 (Bay Bridge) all three mornings. Evenings, it was San Pablo-580-880-84 (Dumbarton Bridge) last night and 80-880-92-101 (San Mateo Bridge) on Monday night. So I'm doing the big loop all around the Bay. I would not have believed that driving through the City would be faster than any alternative, but given the messes on 880 northbound over the last couple of mornings, it has been.

I'm still evaluating the possibilities of taking transit. If I drive to the Millbrae BART station, I could pick up the 8:18 Richmond train arriving in North Berkeley with enough time to walk to the office by 9:30. It still means leaving earlier, but not as early as taking Caltrain from Palo Alto to Millbrae. On the other side of the Bay, there's the possibility of driving to Union City to pick up the 8:36 Richmond train, also getting me to the office on time. The BART Web site insists that the Fremont station is the closest to Palo Alto, but Yahoo Maps confirms that Union City is 12.8 miles/22 minutes, while Fremont is 16.2 miles, 27 minutes from home. This option costs $7.70 round trip plus $2 in bridge tolls (going up to $3 in October). The Millbrae option costs $8.30 round trip with no tolls. Right now I'm spending probably $9 or so for gas each day (80 miles round trip, 19 MPG), so it all seems to come out pretty even.

This of course leads to the unpleasant possibility that someone will murder me for my train reservation.
|| Andrew, 10:02 AM || ||

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