San Francisco questions

Quoted message said:

Later this year (July) I'm planning a trip ending in San Francisco,
and I'm not familiar at all with the city. Perhaps someone could
give me a couple of hints. (To give you some idea, a few years ago I
rode north from the airport, and wound up on the 101 Freeway for a
couple of miles, I don't know how I did that!)

I'm hoping to stay at the Fisherman's Wharf Youth Hostel in the
Fort Mason area.

How far is it to the Airport?

About 15 miles.

Quoted message said:

Is there a reasonable route that can be followed?

How long would it take?

Yes, but whether you consider it reasonable depends on how comfortable
you are with busy streets.

Quoted message said:

Is there the possibility of taking public transportation, a bus with a
bike rack?

BART (commuter rail/subway) lets you roll your bike on but there are
some restrictions during commute hours. Their schedules (either printed
or on the website) indicate which trains have restrictions.

Quoted message said:

Same questions for Amtrak:

How far is it to the Amtrak station in Oakland?

Is crossing the bridge a hassle, is the route reasonable?

The only bridge that lets you ride across is the Dunbarton (Hwy 84)
which would be quite a ways south. BART will take you across the Bay
Bridge to Oakland. The Lake Merritt BART station is only about half a
mile from Amtrak.

Quoted message said:

Same questions for Amtrak:

How far is it to the Amtrak station in Oakland?

Is crossing the bridge a hassle, is the route reasonable?

How long would it take?

Is there the possibility of taking public transportation, a bus with a
bike rack or some other conveyance?

I haven't yet figured out how to get home, plane or train; I'm
hoping to figure out if I need to leave for the terminal the day of, or
day before, departure.

It has been four years since I lived in the Bay Area, but if I were
traveling via Amtrak, I would go from San Jose instead of Oakland.

There is a train, Caltrain between San Jose and a station at south
side of San Francisco. Their web site with fares and schedules is
here: http://www.caltrain.com/ You still have a mile or two from the
station to Fisherman's Wharf but not too bad to travel. On the other
end, San Jose is both a Caltrain station and an Amtrak "baggage
station".

In contrast, as you found, getting into the airport can be
challenging. I've done it a few times, but there always seemed to be
a "killing zone" in last 100 yards or so into the airport. On
occasion, I've also taken the shuttle bus between Millbrae Caltrain
station and the airport.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

email hidden said:

Later this year (July) I'm planning a trip ending in San Francisco,
and I'm not familiar at all with the city. Perhaps someone could
give me a couple of hints. (To give you some idea, a few years ago I
rode north from the airport, and wound up on the 101 Freeway for a
couple of miles, I don't know how I did that!)

Easy to do.

Quoted message said:

I'm hoping to stay at the Fisherman's Wharf Youth Hostel in the
Fort Mason area.

How far is it to the Airport?

Not that far, but that is not the issue. It is perhaps 16-20 miles by
bike.

Quoted message said:

Is there a reasonable route that can be followed?

Part of the way, but getting from the west side of US 101 to the east
side in the airport are is, shall we say, challenging.

Quoted message said:

How long would it take?

What time of day? Probably 1.5-2 hours.

Quoted message said:

Is there the possibility of taking public transportation, a bus with a
bike rack?

BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit. Ride from the hostel to the Embarcadero
BART station, take BART to the Airport. If you follow Mike V.'s
suggestion to Milbrae, there is no longer a free shuttle to the
airport now that BART goes from the new CalTrain/BART station in
Milbrae to the International terminal at the airport.

Quoted message said:

Same questions for Amtrak:

How far is it to the Amtrak station in Oakland?

Is crossing the bridge a hassle, is the route reasonable?

Can't do it by riding; there is a truck that shuttles bikes and riders
across the bridge, which is closed to cyclists. IME the shuttle is a
bit of a pain, and not reliable if you are in a time crunch. Again,
BART is your friend; take BART from SF to Oakland.

Quoted message said:

How long would it take?

Is there the possibility of taking public transportation, a bus with a
bike rack or some other conveyance?

See above; BART is your friend. Take it from SF-Embarcadero to
Oakland, probably Lake Merrit station or 12th St.

Or you can follow Mike V's suggestion of taking AmTrak from San Jose.
In that case, ride along the Embarcadero to the 4th and Townsend
station in SF, CalTrain to San Jose. Again, do it outside commute
hours. In this case, the time it more important due to numbers. Last
summer they started a new train service, the Baby Bullet, which is an
express to San Jose. Fast, but the downside is that the new trains
have 1/2 to 1/4 the bike carrying capacity of the old trains (16 vs.
32-64 per train) and there is a lot of competition for bike space on
the new trains. Take a regular train or one of the older express
trains with the higher capacity for bikes.

Quoted message said:

I haven't yet figured out how to get home, plane or train; I'm
hoping to figure out if I need to leave for the terminal the day of, or
day before, departure.

Timing will be important; bikes are not allowed on BART trains during
the commute hours, and commute traffic will complicate things.

I take CalTrain and or BART most anytime I want to bike to/from the
city - alleviates a lot of problems.

- rick

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In article <[email hidden]>,

Mike Vermeulen said:

Quoted message said:

Same questions for Amtrak:

How far is it to the Amtrak station in Oakland?

Is crossing the bridge a hassle, is the route reasonable?

How long would it take?

Is there the possibility of taking public transportation, a bus with a
bike rack or some other conveyance?

I haven't yet figured out how to get home, plane or train; I'm
hoping to figure out if I need to leave for the terminal the day of, or
day before, departure.

It has been four years since I lived in the Bay Area, but if I were
traveling via Amtrak, I would go from San Jose instead of Oakland.

There is a train, Caltrain between San Jose and a station at south
side of San Francisco. Their web site with fares and schedules is
here: http://www.caltrain.com/ You still have a mile or two from the
station to Fisherman's Wharf but not too bad to travel. On the other
end, San Jose is both a Caltrain station and an Amtrak "baggage
station".

In contrast, as you found, getting into the airport can be
challenging. I've done it a few times, but there always seemed to be
a "killing zone" in last 100 yards or so into the airport. On
occasion, I've also taken the shuttle bus between Millbrae Caltrain
station and the airport.

_ BART now goes to the SFO Airport more or less directly and would be
highly preferrable to riding to the Airport. The "killing zone"
is much longer since all the changes. I don't much like driving
that stretch of road in a car, I think it would be very unpleasant on a
bike.

http://www.bart.gov/guide/airport/sfo.asp

_ Booker C. Bense

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In article <[email hidden]>,

Rick Warner said:

email hidden said:

Later this year (July) I'm planning a trip ending in San Francisco,
and I'm not familiar at all with the city. Perhaps someone could
give me a couple of hints. (To give you some idea, a few years ago I
rode north from the airport, and wound up on the 101 Freeway for a
couple of miles, I don't know how I did that!)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How far is it to the Amtrak station in Oakland?

Is crossing the bridge a hassle, is the route reasonable?

Can't do it by riding; there is a truck that shuttles bikes and riders
across the bridge, which is closed to cyclists. IME the shuttle is a
bit of a pain, and not reliable if you are in a time crunch. Again,
BART is your friend; take BART from SF to Oakland.

Quoted message said:

How long would it take?

Is there the possibility of taking public transportation, a bus with a
bike rack or some other conveyance?

See above; BART is your friend. Take it from SF-Embarcadero to
Oakland, probably Lake Merrit station or 12th St.

_ I'm just curious, but does anyone know the policy about bikes
on the Oakland-SF ferry? I'm pretty sure you can bring a bike
anytime on that, but I didn't find anything on the web site other
than that you can't bring "gas powered bikes" on the ferry.

http://www.eastbayferry.com/

_ If I'm remembering things correctly, the Amtrak station should
be a few blocks at most from ferry terminal.

_ Booker C. Bense

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On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 19:26:00 +0000 (UTC), Booker C. Bense
<[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

_ I'm just curious, but does anyone know the policy about bikes
on the Oakland-SF ferry? I'm pretty sure you can bring a bike
anytime on that, but I didn't find anything on the web site other
than that you can't bring "gas powered bikes" on the ferry.

http://www.eastbayferry.com/

_ If I'm remembering things correctly, the Amtrak station should
be a few blocks at most from ferry terminal.

Booker,

Might need to clean your glasses; the info was right there:

Bikes
Bikes are welcome on the Ferry, however, gasoline powered bikes are
not allowed aboard due to U.S. Coast Guard regulations. On the
Encinal, bikes must be stored on the first deck fantail in the racks
provided. Space is limited and is on a first come, first served
basis. Bicyclists should wait until other passengers have
disembarked before they depart from the Ferry.

Yes, the ferry terminal is not far from the Amtrak stop.

- rick

Thanks for all the responses! I haven't decided what I'm going to do
yet, but most likely fly instead of Amtrak for the trip home. At least
now it seems it's going to be easier to get to the airport than I
originally thought.

I'll probably figure out the finer details when I get there.

Thanks again for all your responses.

--
Bob Kastigar; [email hidden]
Home: http://www.neiu.edu/~rkastiga Work: http://www.wgntv.com
School: http://www.neiu.edu Play: http://www.neiu.edu/~stagectr
Union: http://www.ibew1220.org (Chicago, IL USA)

"Sweet Old Bob" (or just the initials)

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all the responses! I haven't decided what I'm going to do
yet, but most likely fly instead of Amtrak for the trip home.

Based on my experience with Amtrak (and general consensus), this will
greatly increase your chances of actually making it all the way home ô¿Ô¬

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************