All commutes suck. But some commutes are craaaazy. Just ask Silicon Valley’s tech workers.
Protocol did, and what they found sounds exhausting.
It’s a story of thousands of people and very long days
Many tech companies shuttle their employees to work — it’s a pretty common perk. But rising housing prices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco are driving people far away from their jobs.
- Protocol estimated that the area for tech-shuttle service approaches 3k square miles. That’s bigger than the state of Delaware. (!)
- In one case, Protocol tracked down a tech bus in a parking lot at 2:30am — in the town of Salida. That’s more than an hour away from the Tesla factory in Fremont.
- Facebook alone transports more than 6k people on 80 routes each day. Its new campus in Menlo Park has its own bus depot — sorta like a private Port Authority.
In one case, a big tech company decided that the wheels on the bus should stop going ‘round. eBay discontinued its service in January because not enough people were using it.
We’d like to know: How do you roll on your commute?
Whether you commute by car, train, bus, or just into pants (remote workers FTW), we’d like to hear about it. How far do you go, how long does it take, and what makes you late? Tell us more by filling out our survey.