SRPGO Commuter Spotlight: Subha Ramachandran

Subha Ramachandran is a 20-year Bay Area resident who works at SAP in the Research Park, and currently calls the East Bay home. She’s seen commute times and traffic congestion increase over the years, and started driving a Tesla to make her 3-hour round-trip commutes a bit cleaner.

But after experiencing a significant life event this year, Subha decided to place a higher value on her time and resolved to not drive to work anymore.

In her words: “My work schedule is dynamic given my global role, so this took some effort. Change always takes effort initially, but it’s been totally worth it. When I accomplished my goal of not driving for a month it was motivating to continue, and every monthly milestone since then has further reinforced my decision and motivation.”

Now in the third month of no driving to work, she makes her way to SAP either by the DB1 bus, or by carpooling with a colleague or a match through the Scoop app.

When Subha takes the bus, she makes a 15-minute walk to and from home, which adds some exercise to her commutes. With her carpool trips, it’s been a good social and professional networking experience: “I wouldn’t have met these other professionals in the Research Park if I hadn’t started carpooling,” she says.

Subha shared her inspiring story on LinkedIn recently. Here are more of her words with a lovely photo to capture what she’s gained by shifting out of the driver’s seat: