Sacramento RTO

I work for the California government. When I was hired in 2024, State staff were working from home 4 days a week and in office 1 day a week. That quickly changed to 3 days a week at home and 2 days a week in office. In March 2025, Governor Newsom ordered staff back in office for 4 days a week by July 2025. Unions argued and got the return to office (RTO) delayed until July 2026.

There was a strong expectation that the RTO order would not happen in July 2026. There was no real reason to do so for our work. 90% of the staff and management were against it. Newsom claimed it was to revitalize Sacramento’s downtown district, but that’s not State staff’s responsibility. That point also ignores that while working from home we spend our disposable income in our home neighborhoods and that with RTO we’d have less disposable income overall due to commuting costs.

The RTO order moved forward anyways. My small protest was to change how I commuted to work. Prior to RTO implementation, I was driving in 2 days a week and parking in the State garage. Fearing that the garage would get filled up, I switched to public transit.

The best method for commuting from Davis to Sacramento I could find was biking from my house to the Davis train station. From there I take my bike on the train to Sacramento and then bike from there to my office downtown. The State also pays for my monthly train pass so my commute costs are down to $0. And I’ve got daily exercise scheduled!

Here’s some photos of my new commute.

The Davis Green Belt I start on.
An underpass that leads to a baseball field.
The local baseball field on my way to work.
The big overpass I have to bike up over the highway AND railroad.
View from the top of the overpass.
At the bottom of the overpass is a cutoff.
Take the cutoff for a shortcut to downtown.
The shortcut goes through the local brewery’s parking lot.
Done with the shortcut. There’s the street!
School bus converted into an RV.
Arrived downtown and almost at the train station.
Davis Train Station!
Good job, my snazzy bike.

My train ride.

The train is here!
Time to get on.
View of the Davis Train Station from the train.
There are racks on the train for bikes, but sometimes they’re full.
Countryside between Davis and Sacramento.
Coming into Sacramento.
When we go over the river it means the train is almost at the Sacramento Train Station.
Time to get off.
And into the crush of commuters!

Moving from the train to the office.

You have to go through a tunnel under the tracks to get to the station building.
It’s a big tunnel.
On the other side there’s a small arboretum with local plants and some cute birds.
The Sacramento Train Station building!
Time to start biking to work again.
But we have to wait for the tram to go by sometimes.
And we’re here!

Then my time in the office.

Riding the elevator up.
My office setup.
Wonderful bike shares a cubicle with me.

I have since gotten a key to the bike cages at my building and my bike lives there during the workday instead of in my cubicle.

On to the journey home!

Heading back through Sacramento.
There’s a hill on the way back due to one-way street stuff.
And down the hill! Wheeee!
Coming up on the train station
Crossing over the light rail tracks to go to the railroad stop.
Time to get off my bike and walk the rest of the way.
Down under to get to the train.
The tunnel once more!
And back up towards the railroad tracks and the train.

Another train ride.

I usually hang my bike up instead of keeping it next to my seat.
There’s lots of these hooks to hang up bikes in the “bike car” of the train.
Leaving the station.
Rolling through West Sacramento.
And out into the wild area between Sacramento and Davis.

And then back through Davis to my house.

My route back through Davis is pretty much the same, with one difference.
To avoid an unprotected left turn on 45mph 2nd Street, I go down 5th Street instead.

That’s my new daily commute! I’m interested in other ways people are getting to work as the digital world is changing. Post your commute in the comments!