You never get those three hours a day back. That's why property is so much cheaper there vs. Palo Alto. People are trading their time for cheaper housing. See if you can find a traffic cam watching the Dumbarton Bridge and watch how well traffic flows between 4-6 every day. And realize there's miles of backup getting onto that bridge. Seriously, I worked in Palo Alto and the Northern end of Sunnyvale was as far away as I was willing to be. Pay the price to buy back that time with your family.