...but I made it in to work just fine on the bike.

I took Grant road from the apartment all the way till it dead-ends into 237 and from there took a chunk of the Steven's Creek Trail from the trailhead till it reaches Mountain View. And then I got on the VTA rail line the rest of the way.

I'm finding that the helmet is good for avoiding getting branches in the face... even though otherwise it's largely a placebo as far as safety goes.

It took longer, but not that much longer than with the car. And driving is really wasted time because I'm not getting anything else done while I'm driving. Also, given that it's downhill, I got a good cadence going at full speed.