If you work at Facebook you probably take the Facebook bus, which is ~1 hour 30 minutes door to door (I’m guessing based on the Ward-Street-to-Google travel time).
Things you can do on a train that you can’t do driving: read, write, meditate, watch a movie, talk to a friend online, knit (and similar handcrafts), plan/schedule things, study, answer emails. It’s not a great time for any work where you really need to be in flow or where you need equipment that takes up a lot of space, but otherwise there are a lot of goals you can advance while sitting on a train.
Things that you can do driving: listen to music, listen to a podcast or audiobook, talk to the people you’re carpooling with if you’re carpooling, talk to your kid if you happen to use an on-site daycare that you’re taking them to, maybe call someone on a carphone, that’s… about it. All five of those things, of course, can also be done on a train. And of course distracted driving can literally kill you or a child, while the worst case scenario for distracted train-taking is missing your stop.
The Google bus has wifi (I believe Facebook bus does as well) which means you can do more things because you have Internet on your laptop and not just your phone.
Taking public transit also improves your health and has a variety of positive externalities on e.g. the environment.
If you work at Facebook you probably take the Facebook bus, which is ~1 hour 30 minutes door to door (I’m guessing based on the Ward-Street-to-Google travel time).
Things you can do on a train that you can’t do driving: read, write, meditate, watch a movie, talk to a friend online, knit (and similar handcrafts), plan/schedule things, study, answer emails. It’s not a great time for any work where you really need to be in flow or where you need equipment that takes up a lot of space, but otherwise there are a lot of goals you can advance while sitting on a train.
Things that you can do driving: listen to music, listen to a podcast or audiobook, talk to the people you’re carpooling with if you’re carpooling, talk to your kid if you happen to use an on-site daycare that you’re taking them to, maybe call someone on a carphone, that’s… about it. All five of those things, of course, can also be done on a train. And of course distracted driving can literally kill you or a child, while the worst case scenario for distracted train-taking is missing your stop.
The Google bus has wifi (I believe Facebook bus does as well) which means you can do more things because you have Internet on your laptop and not just your phone.
Taking public transit also improves your health and has a variety of positive externalities on e.g. the environment.