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Comment by santaclaus | Hacker News Reader

> In the Bay Area, you’re unlikely to have easy access to San Francisco at all if you’re not in San Francisco proper.

Eh? It is pretty easy to get to San Francisco from Oakland or Berkeley. Hell, its easier to get to fidi or soma from Oakland than from parts of San Francisco.

Edit: For the downvoters, I’m genuinely curious how BART from Oakland to San Fran is considerd hard? I was simply contesting the point that there is nowhere in the bay with easy access to San Francisco! Now San Jose to San Francisco? Maybe not.

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Yeah, this is bizarre. I used to live near MacArthur BART and my commute into the city took ~20 mins. I could EASILY get to: the ballpark, anywhere along market, anywhere in the mission, SFO.

I now live in El Cerrito, which makes people go "Oh god, how long is your commute?". 31 minutes. That's it. People seem to think it's a different planet, but I can't even get through a full podcast on the ride home.

Totally agree with you on the last part. It's WAY easier to get to FiDi/SOMA/The Mission/Embarcadero or the Ballpark area from Oakland on BART than it would be to get there from: The Presidio, Sunset, Richmond district, etc.

>I now live in El Cerrito, which makes people go "Oh god, how long is your commute?". 31 minutes. That's it. People seem to think it's a different planet, but I can't even get through a full podcast on the ride home

Shhhhhhh... don't let people know about El Cerrito ;)

I don't disagree with the sentiment here, but want to add a few comments: If you have to walk once you get off of Bart (and let's be honest, the Bart stops are pretty well spaced out), your commute goes up. SF transit (the 38 Geary, the N) might seem slower, but you typically don't have to walk as far when you get off. Also, depending on time of day, Muni runs more frequently than the specific Bart lines. Compared with NY Metro (or most other major cities), Bart stops are spread thin.

And quick nit on the Presidio: it's a lovely place to live and if you live there, there is a free shuttle to downtown called the Presidigo that's easy and efficient.

> Compared with NY Metro

You end up walking a lot in NYC, too, it isn't some panacea. I had a ~25 minute walk from the N train to my apartment in Queens when I lived in New York.

Only if: a) You live near BART b) Your destination is near BART

And there's also the fact that even if a+b are true for you it's very expensive (~$4-5 each way compared to $2.25 in NYC), overcrowded, and has horrible latency. The fact that on a Friday night at 9pm the trains are running 20m apart is embarassing.

> $2.25 in NYC

$2.75 now! Depends where you are going on BART on how the fares match up to NYC. I'm often traveling from West Oakland to Downtown Berkeley, which is 2 bucks, and hence cheaper than NYC.

Yeah, I live in Marin, and it's a 30 minute ferry ride to work or a 40-50 minute bus ride, which literally takes me door to door (oh, and it has comfy seats and free wi-fi!)

When I tell people where I live, they think I'm crazy for living in the middle of nowhere.

But, it's honestly great. On the weekend, I have the option of a 10 minute drive to an ancient redwood grove, a 20 minute drive to a national seashore, a 30 minute drive to Napa, a 10 minute walk to empty land and mountains, or a 15 minute drive into San Francisco. Or, I have the option to take the ferry into the city, drink as much as I want, and then take the bus back home.

This is cited in the article.

Here's a map of areas within 45 min public transit access of Powell Street BART: https://www.mapnificent.net/bayarea/#12/37.8342/-122.2933/27...

To the articles point, it's basically:

* All of SF

* Downtown Oakland and Berkeley

* Other areas next to BART

To be fair this isn't considering driving or biking to BART + Ferry stations, which is leaving out a lot of other areas. But I think the general pattern holds.

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