(The following story by Janis Mara appeared on the Contra Costa Times website on September 5.)
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Every weekday morning, commuter Bradley Jackson rolls out of bed, gulps a cup of coffee and walks seven blocks to the Amtrak station in Martinez, where he moved largely to be close to the train.
Jackson is one of a growing number of Bay Area commuters for whom proximity to public transit is a major factor in housing decisions as gas continues to hover near $4 a gallon. The area’s population is expected to grow by 2 million people from 2010 to 2035, and as many as half of these people will likely locate within walking distance of public transportation, according to a soon-to-be-released report by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
“People are shrinking the distance between home and work, and access to public transit is part of the equation,” said John Goodwin of the MTC.
“The trend is toward reducing commute times,” said Dave Stark, government affairs director of the Pleasanton-based Bay East Association of Realtors. “People are moving closer to where they work and closer to public transportation,” he said.
“My wife and I looked all over Alameda and Contra Costa counties,” said Jackson, a quality assurance manager at Bayer HealthCare in Berkeley. “A location close to the train station was tops on our list.”
Jackson moved to the Bay Area in 2002, renting in Sacramento at first and driving about 80 miles each way to his job at Bayer.
“Within two weeks, it was like, ‘I have to find public transit,'” Jackson said.
When he hopped aboard Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor train, it was love at first ride.
“Amtrak has Wi-Fi and work tables, so by the time I get to work, I’ve already responded to incoming e-mails,” said Jackson. “I always get a seat. There’s bathrooms, a lounge.”
The couple eventually moved to Martinez, seven blocks from the Amtrak station.
Jackson’s commute cost: $160 a month for a card allowing unlimited Amtrak rides. He estimates that if he drove the approximately 26 miles to work each way five days a week in his 15 miles-per-gallon car, his costs would be around $280.
With regard to the train commute, other Bay Area residents are apparently on board, so to speak, with Jackson. The Capitol Corridor, Amtrak’s major commuter train service with stops from San Jose to Sacramento, saw a nearly 33 percent jump this year compared with July of last year, to more than 160,000 passengers.
Other public transit agencies are reporting increased numbers as well. For example, BART ridership has jumped 6 percent compared with a year ago.
“Most people say they want to be near BART because they work in San Francisco,” said Ira Serkes, a Berkeley Realtor with more than 20 years experience.
“We did a couple of things purposefully when we moved down here from Oregon,” said Marianne Koch of Berkeley, a management professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. “One was to limit our search for a house to places close enough to public transportation.
“We committed to only using public transit to get to work. A lot of our neighbors think we’re nuts.”
Koch literally goes to great lengths to take public transportation. She walks two or more miles five days a week to get to the BART station.
This accomplishes two things: It helps her get more exercise, and “we are doing our tiny bit to help reduce our carbon footprint,” said Koch, who bought her home in November.
Switching from driving to taking mass transit can reduce an individual’s annual carbon footprint about 10 percent, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
Koch spends about $125 a month on BART tickets and bus fares; she hops on AC Transit’s G or FX bus when it’s raining.
She estimates that gas for her 26-mile commute in her 20 mpg car would cost about $100 a month and paying a $4 toll five days a week would run her $80 a month. Parking in the downtown area near Golden Gate University can easily run $20 a day.
“Proximity to BART was one of the guiding factors in selecting our home, and in choosing our previous apartment, which was also within walking distance of Concord BART,” said Justin Gerdes, who purchased a home in Concord with his wife Carlyn last year.
“Carlyn and I can walk the 10 minutes to and from the BART station every workday to commute to work,” said Gerdes.
The 33-mile commute to his job in San Francisco’s Fillmore district could easily eat up an hour and a half each way by car in rush-hour traffic. As it is, Gerdes’ commute takes about an hour, “and I get a lot of reading done on the train,” he said.
While Marianne Koch conceded that her two-mile hikes to BART aren’t always comfortable, she said, “We all need to do things that take us out of our comfort zone. How are we going to teach our kids how to redeem the planet? We have to act on what we believe.”