[thelastgallon]

Meanwhile, bay area has companies with market cap of 30T (50T?), has nonexistent/incompatible and the slowest public transit.

1) BART 'works' for a subset of the population.

2) ACE train is one route only, from Stockton to San Jose.

3) Caltrain is one straight line. Caltrain has a bullet train that takes an hour for ~20-30 miles.

4) There is a ferry service for some parts of north bay.

There are probably dozens of other bus systems and ferries and what not, all incompatible and disconnected.

When people from bay area (and the big tech companies) tell you they are the greatest minds on the planet solving (or going to solve) world problems, look at their public transit and think. Then weep/laugh.

Source: I lived in the North bay, East bay and South bay.

[thomasfl]

Private companies and competition, solve a lot of problems in the society. Like making food supply work. Planning and building cities and public transport is something the public sector is better at solving. Clean, nice and walkable cities with a good working public transport system, is important for the local economy to work. City planning is the art of compromises - no body get’s what they want, but overall everybody is better off in the end.

[tsimionescu]

> Private companies and competition, solve a lot of problems in the society. Like making food supply work.

Is there any food market in the developed world that is not heavily subsidized by the state?

[SJC_Hacker]

. Caltrain has a bullet train that takes an hour for ~20-30 miles.

San Jose Didrion to SFO (4th and Townsend} is 48 miles highway distance.

You will not beat the bullet train during rush hour. It would like take you an hour and a half if lucky, probably closer to 2 hours driving

[frollogaston]

BART alone was confusing before they made the trains actually match with the colors on the map, circa 2016. Used to insist on only designating trains by endpoint, except the endpoints changed as they expanded lines, and also changed depending on the day/time. So even a year into daily riding BART to/from work, I took the wrong train a few times.

I went to NYC and also various other countries, easily understood the train/subway system even if it was in a language I don't understand. Except for Italy.

[kurthr]

The morning "bullet" trains (503/507/511) from San Jose Diridon take 1hr to go 48miles with 10 stops. I think electrification and widening to 3 tracks improved times and reduces the likelihood of delays. Certainly, they run more often now, about every 10 minutes at rush hour and every 30min off hours and weekends.

https://www.caltrain.com/?active_tab=route_explorer_tab

[SJC_Hacker]

The transit times seem long, but often beat driving times especially during rush hour

Thw CalTrain being “one line” makes perfect sense because it runs parallel to the Valley

No the system is not perfect, but it is still one of the best in the country, except for NYC and maybe Boston

[msm_]

>No the system is not perfect, but it is still one of the best in the country, except for NYC and maybe Boston

I mean, there are a lot of poorer countries (especially in europe) that manage to solve this in a much better way, so this kind of proves OP point that raw purchasing power is not equivalent to the standard of living.