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Ask HN: What's public transportation like in the San Fransico bay area?

4 points by levicampbell ↗ HN
I'm a blind person and I'm looking at applying to YC with a startup idea I'm working on, however because I can't drive I'm wondering what public transportation is like in the San Fransico bay area. is there a website that has information availabke?

8 comments

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davidw
Depends what you're used to I suppose.

The BART system is pretty good, but doesn't really cover Silicon Valley or the South Bay. San Francisco itself seems to be "pretty good", and is also a reasonable place to get around on foot. I could also see Berkeley being good, as it's fairly dense, but perhaps a bit less chaotic than San Francisco.

dstorrs
BART: comfortable, fast, limited locations in the city but reasonably good coverage of East Bay and it will get you to the airports (SFO and Oakland). Price varies based on number of stops but roughly $4 to $8 is a reasonable set of bounds.

Light rail: comfortable, fast, moderately good coverage of the city. Price is fixed ($2 / ride)

Bus: Uncomfortable, slow, but excellent coverage of the city. Price is fixed ($2 / ride)

levicampbell
excelent, thank you! Now to get my code done.
prodigal_erik
In San Francisco, major bus routes are notoriously unreliable. It's not at all uncommon for one to just not show up, and the next one to literally be so full they can't let any more people on. There have been some complaints about the N–Judah turning back before completing its run to the outer sunset, but light rail in the city is much more reliable overall.

As with other suburban sprawl, the valley doesn't have enough density to pull off good service. Buses are infrequent and you may have a long hike to and from the nearest stop. Caltrain is fast and very reliable (IMHO, even fewer delays than BART) if you happen to be travelling between a handful of city centers (some stations have housing nearby), though they haven't decided yet how much service to cut due to budget problems (the worst case was going to be 8–5 commuter-only).

levicampbell
Maybe I need to just move to the metro-Denver area instead, seeing as I know my way around their public transportation really well.
smiler
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_18195662

For the meantime, they found the budget to not cut any of the CalTrain service. I don't live in the Bay Area, but come over to San Jose fairly regularly. The CT is brilliant in my opinion for transit from SFO to SJ and saves hiring a car - long live CT!

corysama
Its worth mentioning that if you are on foot, you'll find that most major intersections have audio indicators along side the pedestrian crossing lights.