I work in the FiDi in San Francisco and live 40 miles away, on the hills above Stanford. I've spent a lot of time trying to engineer my commute in order to not be one of those people spending two hours per day in a single-occupancy car, unable to read or work.
I failed.
I failed.
If you value your time at more than $11.25 per hour, commuting by car in the Bay Area is *the most economical choice*. Here are my numbers. 
A California tax *credit* that a household like mine has *no business* getting, coupled with underpriced EV leases due to CA automaker legislation, means California taxpayers pay for two/thirds of my car ownership. This is a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
Meanwhile public transportation is extremely expensive, especially compared to quality. "But you can work on the train!": no. At the Palo Alto station, it's already standing-room only. In my car, I can take work calls.
The above numbers are conservative: they assume my wife drives me to the train, doesn't assign any utility to having one more car for weekends etc, nor to the flexibility of not having to depend on public transportation timetables or availability of public bikes.
The Bay Area is on the surface very liberal and governed by supposed liberals, but whose public policy (through both malice/lobbying and incompetence) results in one of the most regressively-managed communities in the developed world.
Negative externalities for rich people go unpriced or even subsidized (you can always find parking for free in downtown Palo Alto, one of the richest communities in the world; freeways are everywhere and 95% free, gas is cheap AF).
Coda: I used to live in Lake Como, Italy, and commute to Milan. Same commute, 40 miles. Here are the current numbers. Only a cretin would drive, no matter how rich.Italy is hardly a well-managed nation, so this gives you a sense of how bad the government is in the Bay Area.
Red states like Texas or Utah are much more de facto liberal (pro-growth, pro-social-mobility) than SFBA in terms of policy. SFBA remains a special place only because of the private individuals coming here every day, and despite its government.
Once you scratch past the surface (words), and look at the substance (prices), SFBA is de facto the most reactionary local government in the United States.
