Comments on: Bay Area Early Morning Commute

Question: Bay Area Early Morning Commute

mto — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 21:55:14 -0800

Coming from Palo Alto, I need to get to San Francisco by 9am on July 4th. What's the cheapest / fastest way to do this?

I probably won't have access to a car. Caltrain operates on Sunday hours on Holidays, so they can't get me to San Francisco until 9:36am. In particular I need to get to Noe Valley, if it helps.

Can I take a taxi? If so, how much will it be? Should I rent a car for the day? What other options do I have? Also, I don't live in California so don't assume I'm too familiar with services, towns, etc.

If by some miracle I do get access to a car then how long should I expect my commute to take?

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:01:25 -0800

Rent a car, that would cost a fortune in a taxi and it's an easy drive. I'd give myself about an hour to and hour and half to get there and find parking, longer if you're not used to driving in the City.

On the bright side, judging by the traffic over the bridge on Fri afternoon there should be plenty of parking in the city.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:02:52 -0800

btw, if you don't already know about it Bay Area Transit is a good source for public transport info and might offer you some alternatives.

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:11:46 -0800

Why not take the last CalTrain in on Monday night? There are enough 24-hour places in SF that you could chill until 9.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:26:01 -0800

I'm not sure what fshgrl was trying to link to, but the site you want (for future reference) is 511.org.

I do think you're out of luck though from that far distance unless you can get a car (plan at least 45 minutes, depends on traffic) or, as devilsbrigade creatively suggests, get here the night before.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:28:02 -0800

Oh, also you could always take your chances at craigslist rideshare

By: Arthur Dent

Arthur Dent — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:32:40 -0800

Another option would be to get a ride or take SamTrans to San Francisco airport and take bart from there...

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:40:14 -0800

Or call an airport shuttle service - tell them you need to be at the airport before 8am. Then catch BART to 24th st mission stop. Walk to Noe Valley. Why didnt I think of that....

By: marylynn

marylynn — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:18:35 -0800

You can take SamTrans (line KX I believe) from Palo Alto to SF. It makes a few stops on the peninsula up to SFO then shouldn't stop again until it reaches the city. Also, you could look into a bus line that takes you over the Dunbarton bridge to the BART station in Fremont and go around the long way, though that's probably just... the long way.

The other good alternative noted above is the airport shuttle to SFO, then BART into the city. BART looks to be running on a Sunday schedule but is running early in the morning. You might even be able to switch to another airport shuttle at the airport. The cost of a shuttle from PA to SFO is about $20-25 (though it's been about a year since I last took one).

I took a cab from SFO to Palo Alto once (about 4 years ago) and it ran me about $70, so going up to the city is probably a very expensive proposition.

By: tangerine

tangerine — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:19:57 -0800

Check your profile email, mto.

By: zackdog

zackdog — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 00:28:31 -0800

The cheapest way is to hitchhike. Use a sign must be in city by 9 am

By: drstein

drstein — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:42:26 -0800

marylynn - BART goes to Millbrae now, y'know. He only needs to get that far. Pretty easy from Palo Alto on SamTrans. :)