Buses in suburban Sweden aren't really that bad. In fact I've been experimenting with using buses in San Diego more and more and the main drawbacks are (1) low volume of buses and (2) buses sitting in traffic in rush hour. The first can be solved by putting more buses on the road and the second can be solved by giving buses priority in traffic. Even with these shortcomings, buses in San Diego seem much worse in many people's imagination than they truly are.

I'm not saying that my beliefs here are right, but I would recommend you consider the possibility that yours are wrong.

Are you going within San Diego itself or outside San Diego? Cause Bay Area is pretty large and people aren't usually commuting 5 miles from their houses or something.