I live in the bay area and really empathize with your situation. Luckily, I can bike straight to work currently.

What time are you getting on BART? If you are working 9-5 hours and getting to BART by 8am-ish, the cars are insanely crowded. I always feel awkward, claustrophobic and self-conscious if I'm on BART during prime commuting hours, even when I'm well groomed and showered. The freedom of a solo bike ride is the antithesis of crowded BART. That transition would be hard for me.

Can you work later hours? Like 10 - 6? I like getting to work later and staying later. In the bay area, I think commute traffic is at it's worst 7:30 - 8:30 and then again 4:30pm to 6:30pm ish.


You could try to spot a homeless person at the station and enter the train and stand next to them. Most likely, their smell will be much worse than yours... Not sure if there are many of them boarding BART at Rockridge in the morning...


I feel that showering+deodorant in the morning before I ride makes a difference in smell when I get to work, but I don’t have much climbing on my commute.


Might be pricey, but this could be a good alternative:
Best Bicycle Commute to and From San Francisco San Francisco 2012 - Alameda/Oakland Ferry, Ferry Building - SF Weekly


Too bad you can only ride part way across the bay bridge, with the new span. There really should be some kind of service where you can bike up to the bay bridge and easily hop on a boat or something that would just ferry bikes. If I had the money, I think it would be cool to create some kind of service like that at all the bridges that don't allow bikes on them.