Cable Cars and other San Francisco, CA Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: This might be downright sacrilege to write, but the San Francisco Cable Cars are one of the biggest ripoffs in the city. All trips are $5 no matter how far your journey...one block or the length of the route. The longest route is perhaps 2 miles and takes about 15-20 minute to ride end to end. You probably want to ride just once to say you did it, bit the Cable Car is not how you want to get from place to place in the city. The only good deal with the Cable Cars is their inclusion in the Monthly, 7-Day, and 3-Day Muni passes.

If you just want to get around town the Muni covers much, much more of the city and regular fares are just $1.50. The BART is another great option, but only runs up and down Market Street in San Francisco and is a little more expensive.

The Cable Cars are famous for a reason... this is the last remaining permanent, manually operated cable car system in the world, and began full operation in 1873 on Clay Street. The cable cars operate by gripping a steel cable loop that constantly runs between the tracks below the surface of the street at a steady 9.5 MPH, ideal for transiting the city's steep, often wet hills. The 1906 earthquake brought a major decline to the industry as many lines were replaced with electric streetcars, except the steepest routes. There are three of perhaps 15 original cable car routes still in existence: California Street, Powell-Hyde, and Powell-Mason lines, with the California Street line being the oldest still in existence, first opening in 1878.

Yes, I have ridden the cable cars once. I was one of the lucky 40 percent who get a free trip by jumping on in the middle of the route rather than at the end of a line. Wonder why these babies are always packed? This is the fifth largest tourist attraction in San Francisco after the Golden Gate Bridge, Fishermans Wharf, Chinatown, and Union Square.

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Website: http://www.sfcablecar.com/

'Mode': TO
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: If you drive to San Francisco you will find that parking can be a nightmare. According to the SFMTA there are 450,000 registered vehicles in the city and some 35,000 more bring commuters into the city limits each day. Street parking downtown in anywhere that is remotely interesting can be impossible, especially with their confusing rules and regulations about double parking, street sweeping, and temporary street closures, and parking garages are insanely expensive (though cheaper than Manhattan!). In various trips to the city I have tried different parking options from hotel lots (in Oakland) and parking garages (in SoMa, Union Square, Fishermans Wharf, and Oakland) to street paring (Chinatown and Japantown) and parking at BART stations in Fremont and Daly City.

San Francisco has 23,000 parking meters that cost anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00 an hour. They accept nickels, dimes, and quarters, as well as smart cards. Motorcycle rates are just $0.10 to $0.25 an hour at meters. Most meters have hours of operation from wither 7 am or 9 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday, but in some areas, like Fishermans Wharf, the meters are in effect seven days a week. Most meters are on the street, but some are in the 21 city-owned metered lots downtown.

San Francisco also operates 19 parking garages with about 12,500 parking spaces. These are mostly located in the city center and daily rates range from about $15 in Japantown to $33.50 in the Financial District. We've parked at a few of these lots around Union Square where rates are at least $25 a day, and once at Fishermans Wharf for around $5 an hour.

In my opinion one of the best bets to to park at outlying BART stations and take the public transportation. I have done this on three occasions, twice at Daly City and once in Fremont. At both stations parking is free on weekends and holidays. In fact, the standard rates are just $2 outside the city.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: For me, this is one of the things I had to do in San Francisco...take the ferry across the bay. From Oakland to downtown the ride costs about $5.50 ($4.25 with military discount) and unveils some beautiful scenery. Leaving Oakland, you will see the industrialized area along the dock including huge ships, giant cranes, and piles of crushed cars. As you get into the open bay, the city of San Francisco appears in front of you along with the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Under the Bay Bridge you will catch a glimpse of Alcatraz, while the other side of the ferry offers a view of AT&T Park. Near the end of the journey you pass under the Bay Bridge and dock of the city pier at the bottom of Market Street (during the day the ferry goes to Pier 39). The entire trip takes just 25-30 minutes, and is beautiful. If you can get on the ferry that leaves at sunset, you will see a unique scene as the sun sets behind San Francisco.

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Phone: 800-735-2922
Website: http://www.goldengateferry.org/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: The San Francisco Municipal Railway is called the Muni, and includes the historic streetcars, cable cars, and buses, but not the BART subway system or CalTrain. The Muni operates 24/7 and carries some 200 million passengers each year. Bus, historic streetcar, and Metro trips for adults cost $1.50, including a free transfer while the cable cars rip off tourists at $5 for a short ride over the hill. The Muni routes are very complex and seem to require at least one transfer to get anywhere unless you are along the waterfront or Market Street (the F-line runs this entire route)

The historic streetcars have been in operation since the system was begun in 1962. The first historic streetcar (from Hamburg Germany) was purchased in 1979 and since then street cars have been acquired from 14 American cities and 7 international cities.

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Website: http://www.sfmta.com/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: Known in southern California as the Pacific Coast Highway, in the central part of the state as the Cabrillo Highway, and in the north as Shoreline Highway. It traverses some of the most beautiful parts of the Pacific Coast including Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, and Pigeon Point Lighthouse State Historic Park, all within an hour south of San Francisco.

Further from the city, the highway traverses some stunning coastline including Monterey Bay. Highway 1 hugs the coast around Monterey Bay hitting Santa Cruz, Marina, and the edge of Monterey, before cutting off the Monterey Peninsula for a few miles (skipping Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, and much of Carmel) to , then it's back along the ocean. Other great spots along the highway include the entire Big Sur coastline, and great parks such as Natural Bridges State Beach, Año Nuevo State Park, and Pigeon Point Lighthouse State Historic Park, Point Lobos State Reserve, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, the Hearts Castle at San Simeon, and Morrow Bay.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: The Bay Area Regional Transportation Service actually has more stops in East Bay than it does on the west side of the bay in San Francisco. The key stops for tourists are along Market Street and include Embarcadero Station near the Ferry Building, Montgomery Street Station near China Town and North Beach, Powell Street Station at Union Square, and finally San Francisco International Airport Station. Unfortunately this leaves some fo the key areas of the city isolated from the BART including Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Monster (Candlestick) Park, and even the downtown AT&T Park. Luckily, most of these areas are connected via the Muni or by the cablecars.

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Website: www.bart.gov

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the top tourist sights in San Francisco, and driving across the bridge is a great experience. The bridge was completed in 1938 and covers 1.7 miles across the Golden Gate. Some parking is located at either end of the bridge for those who want to walk, but it can be packed when the weather is nice and on weekends.

Tolls are collected southbound only and cost $5 per car; northbound traffic is free! Bicycles are allowed 24/7, but pedestrian traffic is only allowed during daylight hours.

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Phone: 415-921-5858
Website: http://www.goldengatebridge.org/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: San Francisco is a hilly city with streets so steep you occasionally can see just the hood of your car and the sky...no sign of the road! To make it worse, many of the uphill streets have stop signs at very steep places, making very difficult if you drive a standard transmission like me...I think I smelled burning clutch more than once. Good news is the city is fashioned on a strict grid pattern with very few exceptions, making it easy to find your way.

Another difficulty to keep in mind are the cable cars and Muni trains that run at street level and have stations in the middle of the street, often in the middle of two lanes of traffic in the same direction, means you have to choose to drive on one side of the station or the other.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: San Francisco airport is located about 14 miles south of downtown San Francisco along Highway 101. It is accessible by car, public bus, or BART, and the CalTrain takes you to the nearby Milbrae BART station. Long-term parking is available for $12 per hour while short-term parking is $1 for each 12 minutes ($5 per hour). The airport's AirTrain connects all the terminals, the rental car counters, and all parking areas except long-term parking, which has a shuttle bus to and from the airport.

SFO offers wireless internet access, but they charge a fee. From my recent travels it seems that about 75% of American airports have free wireless for their customers, so I'm not sure why this airport is so cheap that it has to charge.

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Website: http://www.flysfo.com/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: Built from 1933 to 1936, the bridge has an eastern and a western span connected at Yerba Buena Island. Tolls are charged for west-bound traffic only (Oakland to San Francisco) and the cost is $3, expected to rise to $4 to help finance the new eastern span that is still under construction. The Bay Bridge carries 280,000 commuters each day across its two-mile, double-decked spans.

On 29 April 2007, sections of the Oakland side of the bridge were destroyed when a tanker truck hauling fuel wrecked and caught fire melting and collapsing portions of I-80 and I-580 onto I-880.

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