Getting from Millbrae to Palo Alto before Caltrain is running

January 15, 2016 7:11 PM

I don't have a car. I need to get to Palo Alto from the East Bay by 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday. I would prefer not to ride buses and trains for four hours. What should I do?

Apologies for the relatively simple hyper-local question, but: is it actually possible to get an Uber from Millbrae to Palo Alto early in the morning? I (foolishly) signed up to give a talk down there without realizing I'd be scheduled to present so early -- the earliest Caltrain gets me there only about 10 minutes before I'm supposed to start my talk.

I'm coming from the East Bay. There exists a transit-only route that involves going all the way down to San José and back up, but I'd prefer not to take it because four hours on buses in the early morning.

I don't have a car and wouldn't know how to drive one if I did.

Uber (*spit*) claims that they will carry fares from Millbrae to Palo Alto for a relatively reasonable price, but I'm paranoid about whether or not they'll actually do it. If I try to hail an UberX in the early morning from Millbrae, can I expect to actually get a ride, or can I expect to be stranded / stuck splashing out 90 bucks for a cab?

posted by You Can't Tip a Buick to Travel & Transportation around San Francisco, CA (7 answers total)

The SamTrans ECR bus will get you there from Millbrae and runs early on the weekends.
posted by zsazsa at 7:17 PM on January 15, 2016

You definitely can get an Uber. I prefer Lyft, which would also work. I've taken many early morning Uber/Lyfts to the airport.
posted by three_red_balloons at 7:21 PM on January 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I looked into the ECR, but it is badly timed for me -- basically, I'd have to catch one at 6:30, which complicates the East Bay to Peninsula leg of the trip.

I'm going to trust (against my better instincts) to ridehailing services, I suppose.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 7:27 PM on January 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've taken Uber/Lyft between SF, the airport, and Mountain View plenty of times. You should have no problem getting one. MTV <> airport generally costs about $40, so this will probably be in a similar range.
posted by Itaxpica at 7:28 PM on January 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

How about calling an actual taxi service and scheduling a ride from whereever you expect to end up in Millbrae? I was going to suggest Wingz.me, which is a startup that does exactly this, but it looks like their non-airport service is still a pilot. Regular taxi companies should be able to handle your use case fine, though, and you can get a price quote/availability guarantee.
posted by serelliya at 8:47 PM on January 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Re: regular taxi companies...we live in the East Bay and my husband often needs to get to the airport early in the morning. We've had it happen *several* times now that regular taxicab services would not show up for rides scheduled the night before! One time they sent a cab way late (for an airport ride! Booked the day before!) and then berated us on the phone for not being there...I'd had to jump into the car with baby in the back to drive my husband in a hurry because he almost missed his flight. Yeah, that's Taxicabs for you...Now he always uses Uber and hasn't had a problem, no matter the time of day.
posted by The Toad at 4:06 AM on January 16, 2016 [3 favorites]

Seconding the Toad. I once had a scheduled taxi cab fail to show up in the wee hours of a weekend and I almost missed my flight and it was a nightmare. Lyft (I happen to like them better than Uber but they're probably the same) is WAY more reliable and probably cheaper.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:04 AM on January 16, 2016