[so33]

> Living in downtown Palo Alto probably costs 100% more than living in Pleasanton, which is roughly a one hour commute.

As I understand, there’s heavy resistance to building any sort of density in Palo Alto. That will, of course, skew the cost of living. I believe that people are constantly priced out of the city as well (i.e. they wanted to stay but couldn’t).

> I wonder if this is one of the reasons big tech companies run buses — to make the commute less painful and blend into the background of life.

The American perception toward public transit is that it is unreliable, crowded, dirty and/or filled with poor people. Knowing that there will be a seat on a clean bus to take you home without much worry is a major sell and can convince people to ditch their cars (whether or not the equivalent public transit commute actually matches the above perception).

When I was in a situation where I could take the “tech buses” regularly, they for sure helped make a long commute bearable.