For many people who settled down in the San Ramon – Pleasanton “Outer Bay” area, the “compromise”, if you will, has been with the commute. Though Tri valley is considered within the catchment area of the economic engine that is Silicon valley, the commute could be anything but easy. But then where else would you find nice, new houses at the price with top notch education?
Anyhow (with the premise that majority of Indians work in IT) some people do get to do a manageable commute to the local Chevron or Sybase or Oracle offices. But for a vast majority, if they don’t get to work from home, there is no other way but to head out on 680 or 580. Yes, you can get to beat the traffic if you head out at 6 or 11. Or it may not be as bad if after a short commute, BART can take you to the city.
But Car pools are surely something that come to the rescue of the commuters who have to go to bay area. There is a carpool lane from Dublin to Livermore (from Airway Blvd to GreenVille Rod), but its eastbound only, so only helps in evening rush hour as people head home to Livermore, and even beyond to Tracy. During office hours, the car pool between Alcosta and Livorna help commuters between Alamo to San Ramon on 680. Finally if you are travelling southbound on 680, from start of Fremont uptil Milpitas (Route 84 to 237) you can enjoy the carpool, again during office rush hours.
Unfortunately the 580/680 intersection in Pleasanton/Dublin is a real bottle neck during rush hours, and there is no carpool till Hayward on 580 or till Sunol on 680. Many Pleasanton folks are rather happy to take Sunol Blvd exit to reach their homes in the evenings. Fortunately, 880 does have carpool lanes, and there is battle still to be won once you reach 880.
So over all riding with someone else does make sense, and thus a need to turn the car into a ‘high occupancy vehicle’. There also are Park and Ride points like in Danville (Sycamore Valley Rd & 680) or Dublin (Koll Center and Tassajara Rd), Pleasanton (Johnson Dr and Stoneridge), San Ramon (Bollinger Canyon & 680) and a few in Livermore where you can meet carpool partners or your vanpool in a central location. Many lots also feature easy access to transit connections. You don’t even need a car to use a Park & Ride lot since many lots offer bike lockers. Car pooling is convenient and less-expensive, and you can even cross toll bridges for free. Additionally, carpooling helps reduce vehicle emissions to help keep our air cleaner. All you need is one or two other people to make it work (who work close by and have same timings). Carpool with neighbors, coworkers, family, friends. If you are looking for any desi people to carpool with, feel free to use this site to connect as many people search for car pool partners. There are many other websites – the ridematch services, classifieds, Craigslist, etc. which can help you to find a partner. And don’t frown when you search on google and even find people discussing issues like how do or would spouses react if you carpool with a person of opposite sex in routine! Go carpooling!
