The Great Office Move of 2011 is complete and today is my third day of commuting to the Santa Clara campus (formerly known, incidentally, as the Agnew Asylum for the Insane).

• I like my new commute. Door to door via bus and bike from my front door to the office was an hour and five minutes for me this morning. This is at least a half hour shorter than my previous commute.
• Most of my commute is along the Guadalupe River Trail (GRT) in San Jose. I avoid most of the gravel portion by cycling on Airport Boulevard and hop back on the trail (northbound) by the old rental car lot.
• GRT where it passes underneath Trimble Road is a mud pit. I had been playing Frogger across Trimble at the trail juntion. This morning, though, I biked contraflow on the sidewalk to cross Trimble at the light for De La Cruz. Instead of circling back to the trail, though, I continued straight on De La Cruz, which turns into Agnew Road at Montague Expressway, which takes me right to my office. And I get to avoid Montague Expressway altogether.
• Before this morning, I usually hopped the bridge guard rail to leave GRT at Montague. The other alternative is continuing to Thamien Park and cycling through extremely traffic calmed neighborhoods between Lick Mill Blvd and Agnew Road. You can see my GPS tracks here at Strava.com.
• Several colleagues this morning griped about the one hour commute along Hwy 101 from their homes in Mountain View, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. Palo Alto is less than 15 miles away. People can bike that distance in about an hour with a little bit of effort.
• There’s a corporate shuttle bus with WiFi onboard from Mountain View Caltrain to this campus. At least one of my colleagues takes this shuttle.
• One of my non-biking car-free colleagues who lives in Mountain View takes VTA light rail to 1st Street, then walks the mile from the station to the campus.
• I’ve posted a bike map on my office wall highlighting my route to work. Several colleagues have popped in asking for suggestions on the best way to bike from their homes.
• Draw a box bounded by Los Gatos, Stanford, Menlo Park, Highway 101 to SJC, downtown San Jose and back to Los Gatos. That area describes most of my bicycling in the South Bay. I’m looking forward to new lunchtime explorations into Alviso, Milpitas with maybe a few ventures into the foothills as well.