Meet Phillip Lopez: An East Bay Sustainable Commute Success Story

Before moving to Newark recently, Phillip drove from Mountain View to the Stanford campus, where he works five days a week at the Hoover Institution as a facilities associate. With a significantly longer and costlier commute (thanks in part to bridge tolls), Phillip reached out with concerns to the sustainable commute team. The team responded a few days later, but by then, Philip had already made a change. “I started taking public transit, he wrote back. It truly is a better way to commute.” With those magic words, we had to ask...
Q. How did you become a convert?
A. My colleague kept telling me how easy it is. She rides the same bus I’d be taking– Line AE-F [which is managed by the Marguerite team and supplements AC Transit’s U Line transbay service to provide riders greater frequency.] She told me it was easy, that the bus would drop me right off at the Oval and she encouraged me to check it out.
Q. And did you?
A. At first, I resisted. I didn’t know where I had to pick up the bus or at what time. I felt overwhelmed by the logistics. I was far from an expert. When I lived in Mountain View, I only took Caltrain to work a few times.
Q. So, how did you make the leap?
A. I went online and got the schedule. It was way easier than I thought. Now, I ride three miles to the Ardenwood Park & Ride in Fremont and store my bike in the bus’ outside luggage department. Then I hop on the double-decker bus, which is luxurious, and free, thanks to Stanford. I take Line AE-F five days a week. Between the AE-F and the AC Transit Line U, the bus comes every fifteen minutes. Very convenient.
Q. What do you do with your free time now that you don’t drive?
A. I relax and go on my phone a lot (laughs).
Q. How much money do you save?
A. In addition to saving on gas and added costs of operating my car, I no longer have to pay for the $7/daily toll and $38 monthly parking permit.