I hope, perhaps naively, that the positive focus this article gets on HackerNews seeds if not the beginning of change but at least the awareness of just how terrible Silicon Valley transit is.

I'm native to the Bay Area but am studying my Masters in Computer Science outside of California and come back every so often to interview, visit friends, and help out my family. Both of my parents work so I don't have access to their cars. I've never had a car (only driven my parents cars on weekends in high school) and because I'll be finishing up my education soon I haven't felt the need to buy one of my own. For reference, I live with my parents currently in the San Jose / Morgan Hill beyond the commonly serviced Caltrains zones (but still in their extra commute-serviced zones).

Visiting friends, attending interviews, or just taking in the sights somewhere is something I've gotten used to doing on public transit since I've never had a car. The VTA is awful. Most of their schedules use timepoints rather than actual stops for scheduling (is this the case to allow busses slack time in between timepoints?), even on the Light Rail which is not as traffic sensitive as the bus. My nearby Light Rail station isn't even listed on the the schedules for most of the VTA schedules.

Google Maps is just awful at planning trips using VTA. It takes a definite know-how of how the system works to use it effectively. In contrast to what other posts have discussed, using Caltrains to get to San Francisco makes the trip from San Jose to San Francisco relatively painless; I take a 30 minute bus to a Caltrains stop and take a train directly into San Francisco. The main San Jose transit hub (and the best serviced Caltrains stop in the area), the San Jose Diridon, is inaccessible on my Light Rail route, the Blue Line (or the 901). To reach Diridon I can either take a bus from another nearby transit station or take the Blue Line North to the SJ Convention Center, transfer to the Green line, and then go South. Using the Light Rail exclusively is a death sentence however. Using the Light Rail to move from my Light Rail station to Mountain View takes 2 hours. Making the detour at the Convention Center to switch Lines and then using Caltrains is still faster.

Trying to visit Santana Row is awful. I take the Light Rail to a stop from where I can take a bus (the 323) which takes me to Santana Row, all in all a 15-20 minute drive from my home under normal conditions. To visit a friend in Union City I have to take the Light Rail then transfer to a bus (the 181), then transfer to BART Fremont and ride BART to BART Union City. We live, ostensibly, 25 min. away in normal traffic, but actually live 3-4 transfers of public transit away. Awful.

Safety is another huge issue on the VTA but a smaller issue on BART and mostly nonexistent on Caltrains. I rarely feel safe enough to take out my expensive smartphone on VTA. If I can get onto the Caltrains quickly the increase in fare is worth the safety I have to now use my electronics. BART is a mixed bag, but is definitely safe enough.

That said, VTA is cheap. An 8 hour Light Rail pass is $4, and a single bus ride is $2. I can take a single bus to downtown Palo Alto and back and spend $4 on the round trip. I can ride into downtown San Jose and pay $2 - $4 depending on how long I stay, pay nothing for parking, and not have to worry about my car at all. A trip into San Francisco is expensive ($22 round trip, $18 for two Caltrains trips, and $4 for two VTA bus rides), but is still cheaper than gas and parking isn't an issue.

I really wish the various local governments in the Valley took charge of things and created a safe, unified transit system. The Clipper Card has gone a long way in making it much more painless to endure the many transfers needed to get from my home to any location of interest. It's hard though. The suburbs of the Bay Area is very much dominated by cars.