Hey! While I don’t think I can help you with the transportation aspect, I think I can give some insight in making the decision between the two schools. I personally have to decide between Yale or Stanford as an admit for the Class of 2027 and I think some things to consider mostly is everything you listed, like the vibe, transportation, all of that.

I personally did another deep dive in researching both Stanford and Yale and saw everything I loved and didn’t love, from going through the websites to getting current students opinions from past posts on Reddit and Quora. Ultimately, I think what got me to ultimately decide on Stanford is that after I finally got my Yale financial aid, I saw that I would be attending Stanford for free while Yale would make me pay about 5k per year (which isn’t too bad compared to my peers of course, but it’s still something vs. nothing). Hopefully my little response helped and I wish you the best of luck!!