Northern California - moving to San Jose

I will be moving to San Jose around the end of November and I was wondering what the commuting is like in San Jose. I am coming from Fort Collins, CO where the commuting is great and cars share the road with cyclists.
Thanks for any information.

- Logistics

Not from commuting but from general riding I'd say it's highly dependent upon where your commute takes you. What part of SJ are you moving to? And where are you commuting to? Might want to check out The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (http://svbcbikes.org/ for additional info) for additional info.

In general it's a "bike friendly" culture, but of course no place is immune to impatient/intolerant drivers.

I will be moving to San Jose around the end of November and I was wondering what the commuting is like in San Jose. I am coming from Fort Collins, CO where the commuting is great and cars share the road with cyclists.
Thanks for any information.

- Logistics

Welcome to California! I commute everyday and my ride down coming form downtown is pretty good. I take a river trail out to the airport and then hook up on First street which has a huge bike lane. Morning is excellent but at 5:00, it gets congested. Still a good commute. When you get here, drop me a line and we'll do some rides.

I just moved up from so cal and live about 10 mins driving away. I take the Light Rail to downtown and bike or skate everywhere when I'm there. It's definitely a non-car friendly place! I have friends from Fort Collins who ride bmx. You do any of that?

Non-bike friendly? Compared to SoCal? I find that a bit hard to believe...

San Jose may not be as friendly for bikers as other places, but it's certainly a good place to ride a bike! I've been bike commuting since 1995, and very rarely have had any problems with motorists. Being out in the hills seems to draw the idiot drivers out more than commute hours do!

I ride in and out of downtown, north San Jose, Berryessa, and west San Jose rather frequently. There are very few places you can't easily get to on a bike. I live in Sunnyvale, and that part of the valley is even better for cyclists...

I live in Sunnyvale and do a 12-mile commute to downtown San Jose two or three times a week. It's a less bike-friendly place than say, Palo Alto, but by no means hostile. I don't think I've ever been honked at on my commute. Some drivers are oblivious and do dumb things, but that's not unique to SJ.

Good routes aren't usually obvious. The main roads tend to be bad choices, and bike lanes are sporadic or nonexistent in some places. Best choices are quiet suburb streets and slow two-lane streets. Sometimes there are pedestrian bridges or pathways to bypass main roads, which can make a commute a lot faster.

Non-bike friendly? Compared to SoCal? I find that a bit hard to believe...

San Jose may not be as friendly for bikers as other places, but it's certainly a good place to ride a bike! I've been bike commuting since 1995, and very rarely have had any problems with motorists. Being out in the hills seems to draw the idiot drivers out more than commute hours do!

I ride in and out of downtown, north San Jose, Berryessa, and west San Jose rather frequently. There are very few places you can't easily get to on a bike. I live in Sunnyvale, and that part of the valley is even better for cyclists...

I think he said non-car friendly. But back to topic, San Jose, or Bay Area in general is pretty good about sharing the road. I used to live downtown, 2 blocks from the City hall. A bike will definitely get you everywhere you need to be. What part of San Jose are you moving to?

Whoops... :twitchy:

The area is certainly mostly friendly to cars as well. Just depends on where your commute takes you.

San Jose is a great place to bike commute. Excellent weather, excellent roads (well, mostly around San Jose but San Jose isn't that bad), lots of bike routes, drivers accostomed to cyclists (generally), trains with bike cars going up and down the penninsula.

Check out the San Jose Bike Party here http://www.sjbikeparty.org/ . 4000 bicyclists last Friday night.