People in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

rely on a complex multimodal

transportation infrastructure Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, and ...

consisting of roads,

bridges A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

, highways, rail, tunnels, airports,

seaports A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

, and bike and pedestrian paths. The development, maintenance, and operation of these different modes of transportation are overseen by various agencies, including the California Department of Transportation (

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

), the

Association of Bay Area Governments The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is a regional planning agency incorporating various local governments in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It encompasses nine counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay. Those counties are ...

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA or San Francisco MTA) is an agency created by consolidation of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), the Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT), and the Taxicab Commission. The agen ...

, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. These and other organizations collectively manage several

interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

s and state routes, two subway networks, two

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

agencies, eight trans-bay bridges, transbay ferry service, local

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

service, three

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

s, and an extensive network of roads, tunnels, and bike paths. A 2011

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

study ranked the San Francisco MSA and the San Jose MSA sixteenth and second, respectively, on transit coverage to job access. Another nationwide study, conducted by the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 2014, ranked the San Francisco MSA second and San Jose MSA tenth. In 2012 it was the joint winner of the Sustainable Transport Award. Despite this, the San Francisco Bay Area remains the second most traffic-congested region in the country with a declining per capita use of public transit. In 2013, the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan statistical area (San Francisco MSA) had the second lowest percentage of workers who commuted by private automobile (69.8 percent), with 7.6 percent of area workers traveling via bus. During the period starting in 2006 and ending in 2013, the San Francisco MSA had the greatest percentage decline of workers commuting by automobile (3.8 percent) among MSAs with more than a half million residents.

Airports

San Francisco International Airport at night

The Bay Area has four airports served by commercial airlines, three of which are international airports. In addition to these airports, there are many general aviation airports in the region. *

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...

(SFO) *:The busiest in the region, and a major international hub airport in California second only to

LAX Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

(

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

). Hub to

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

and

Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the numb ...

. *

San Jose International Airport Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport , commonly known simply as San Jose International Airport, is a city-owned public airport in San Jose, California, United States. It is named after San Jose native Norman Mineta, former United Sta ...

(SJC) *:The second-busiest and fastest-growing airport in the Bay Area. It serves as a focus city for Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines. *

Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States, 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the Port of Oakland and has domestic passenger f ...

(OAK) *:The third-busiest airport in the region and a hub for

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

. Oakland International Airport is the oldest of the Bay Area's civilian airports still in use. The site was chosen due to good weather conditions for aircraft operations. *

Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport is 7 miles (11 km) northwest of downtown Santa Rosa, California, in Sonoma County, California, United States. The airport is named after Charles M. Schulz, the famed cartoonist of the ''Peanuts'' ...

(STS) *:The smallest of the Bay Area airports served by commercial airlines.

Airport Transportation

All major Bay Area airports are situated next to freeways and are served by public transportation, ride-share services, and various private shuttle bus operators.

Airport Rail Connections

*San Francisco Airport can be directly accessed through

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

at the

San Francisco International Airport station San Francisco International Airport station (often abbreviated SFO or SFIA) is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) terminal station located adjacent to Garage G inside the San Francisco International Airport. The elevated station is a transfer point ...

adjacent to the International Terminal. Using BART, riders can also transfer to

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far ...

at the nearby

Millbrae station Millbrae station is an intermodal transit station serving Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Caltrain, located in Millbrae, California. The station is the terminal station for BART on the San Francisco Peninsula, served by two lines: The before ...

. SFO also has an inter-terminal AirTrain service. *San Jose Airport is accessible through VTA Route 60 bus that connects riders to

VTA Light rail VTA Light Rail is a light rail system in San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County, California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, and consists of of network comprising three main lines on stand ...

and other bus and rail services at the nearby

Santa Clara Transit Center Santa Clara Transit Center (also called Santa Clara–University by Amtrak) is a railway station in downtown Santa Clara, California. It is served by Caltrain, Amtrak ''Capitol Corridor'', and Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) trains. It is the pl ...

, Metro/Airport station and

Milpitas station Milpitas station, also known as Milpitas Transit Center, is an intermodal transit station located near the intersection of East Capitol Avenue and Montague Expressway in Milpitas, California. The station is served by the Berryessa/North San Jos� ...

. The airport also operates an inter-terminal shuttle bus. *Oakland Airport can be accessed through BART's

Coliseum–Oakland International Airport line The Coliseum–Oakland International Airport line, also known informally as the BART to OAK line, is an automated guideway transit (AGT) system operated by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) between BART's Coliseum station and Oakland International ...

, which connects users to BART mainline services at

Oakland Coliseum station The Oakland Coliseum station complex is located in the East Oakland area of Oakland, California, United States. The complex consists of two separate stations, Amtrak's Oakland Coliseum station, and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s Coliseum stati ...

. *Sonoma County Airport is directly connected to

SMART Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * ''SMart'', a children's television ser ...

commuter rail at the

Sonoma County Airport station Sonoma County Airport station is a Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit train station in Santa Rosa, east of Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport. It opened to preview service on July 1, 2017; full commuter service commenced on August 25, 2017. ...

Public transportation

Public transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area is quite extensive, including one

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

system, three

lines, two light rail systems, two ferry systems,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

inter-city rail services, and four major overlapping bus agencies, in addition to dozens of smaller ones. Most agencies accept the

Clipper Card The Clipper card is a reloadable contactless smart card used for automated fare collection in the San Francisco Bay Area. First introduced as TransLink in 2002 by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) as a pilot program, it was rebrand ...

, a reloadable universal electronic payment card. An extensive rail infrastructure that provides a mix of services exists within the nine Bay Area counties.

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which uses ...

, commonly known as BART, provides

service between

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and Contra Costa,

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.

, which runs on the right-of-way of the historic

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

, provides commuter rail service on the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo A ...

, linking the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Gilroy, and numerous peninsula cities in between. The

Millbrae Intermodal Terminal Millbrae station is an intermodal transit station serving Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Caltrain, located in Millbrae, California. The station is the terminal station for BART on the San Francisco Peninsula, served by two lines: The before ...

provides transfers between Caltrain and BART. The

Altamont Corridor Express The Altamont Corridor Express (also known as ACE, formerly Altamont Commuter Express) is a commuter rail service in California, connecting Stockton and San Jose during peak hours only. ACE is named for the Altamont Pass, through which it runs ...

, commonly known as ACE, also provides commuter rail service, but from the Central Valley into

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

, terminating at San Jose’s

Diridon Station San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose, California. It also serves as a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County Supervisor ...

. To the north,

Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) is a rail line and bicycle-pedestrian pathway project in Sonoma and Marin counties of the U.S. state of California. When completed, the entire system will serve a corridor between Cloverdale in north ...

(SMART) line provides commuter rail service in Sonoma and

Marin Marin (French) or Marín (Spanish "sailor") may refer to: People * Marin (name), including a list of persons with the given name or surname * MaRin, in-game name of professional South Korean ''League of Legends'' player Jang Gyeong-hwan (born 19 ...

counties. In addition,

has a presence throughout the Bay Area. There are two intercity services, the ''

Capitol Corridor The ''Capitol Corridor'' is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two points most trains operate between, San ...

'' connects Bay Area cities to

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

and the ''

San Joaquins The ''San Joaquins'' is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak in California's San Joaquin Valley. Six daily round trips run between its southern terminus at Bakersfield and Stockton, with onward service to Sacramento (all round trips) an ...

'' connects to cities across the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

. Additionally, there are two long-distance services, the ''

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formati ...

'' offers service to Seattle and Los Angeles, while

California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overal ...

runs to Chicago via Denver. The Bay Area also has two light rail systems: one run by

San Francisco Municipal Railway The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...

called

Muni Metro Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...

, which operates within the city of San Francisco, and the other run by the

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, more commonly known simply as the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), is a special district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement project ...

, which operates within Santa Clara County. A series of overlapping bus agencies provide additional public transit coverage to Bay Area regions both served and not served by rail transit. The four largest agencies,

Muni Muni may refer to: Municipal * A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like *Municipal bond *Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky *"Muni", slang for a mu ...

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

SamTrans SamTrans (stylized as samTrans; officially the San Mateo County Transit District) is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into porti ...

, and VTA operate within the City of San Francisco, East Bay, the Peninsula, and South Bay respectively, although their service areas generally overlap with neighboring agencies and numerous smaller agencies. All of these agencies also provide limited

night bus service Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, refers to the public transport services operated during the night hours. These services are operated, mainly using buses but in certain cases using trams (or streetcars), not including inte ...

, which are intended to "shadow" the rail routes that are closed during the nighttime hours for maintenance. In addition, the four bus agencies are each independently pursuing constructing

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

systems by developing separated right-of-ways and traffic signaling on busy corridors, including on Geary and Van Ness for Muni, El Camino Real for SamTrans and VTA, and International Boulevard for AC Transit. Although BART and certain bus agencies provide travel over (or under) the

San Francisco bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

Golden Gate Ferry Golden Gate Ferry is a commuter ferry service operated by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District in San Francisco Bay, part of the Bay Area of Northern California, United States. Regular service is run to the Ferry Building ...

and

San Francisco Bay Ferry San Francisco Bay Ferry is a public transit passenger ferry service in the San Francisco Bay, administered by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday a ...

provide ferry service across the bay. Most systems allow bicycles onto their systems with no additional charge. In addition, Bay Area residents may rent bicycles from the

Bay Wheels Bay Wheels is a regional public bicycle sharing system in California's San Francisco Bay Area. It is operated by Motivate in a partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Bay Whe ...

bike share in certain parts of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.

Rapid transit

Commuter rail

Long-distance and intercity rail

Light rail

Bus services and stations

The

Transbay Terminal The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...

serves as the terminus for long-range bus service (such as

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...

and

BoltBus BoltBus was an intercity bus common carrier and a division of Greyhound Lines that operated from March 2008 until July 2021 in the northeast and western United States and British Columbia, Canada. As least one ticket on every bus was randomly s ...

) and as a hub for regional bus systems

(

& Contra Costa counties),

WestCAT WestCAT is a public transportation service in western Contra Costa County (north of Oakland, CA). It is a service of the Western Contra Costa Transit Authority. The Western Contra Costa County Transit (WestCAT) was established in August 1977 as a ...

(

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

), and

Golden Gate Transit Golden Gate Transit (GGT) is a public transportation system serving the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It primarily serves Marin County, Sonoma County, and San Francisco, and also provides limited ser ...

(Marin and Sonoma Counties).

Megabus Megabus may refer to: *Megabus (Europe), a low-cost coach service with services in Europe owned by ComfortDelGro. *Megabus (North America) Megabus, branded as megabus.com, is an intercity bus service of Coach USA/ Coach Canada operating in the ...

recently relaunched intercity bus service in California and Nevada. San Francisco riders can choose from three routes (SF-San Jose-LA, SF-Oakland-LA, & SF-Sacramento-Reno). The San Francisco stop is located in front of the Caltrain Station. Other intercity bus services include

California Shuttle Bus California Shuttle Bus was a private bus company that provides daily bus services between Los Angeles and San Francisco, making one stop in San Jose, California, San Jose. Founded in 2003, the company used 47-seat charter buses from MCI.Hoang Transportation, and USAsia. There are several

bus station A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is l ...

s in the San Francisco Bay Area including

Fairfield Transportation Center The Fairfield Transportation Center or FTC is a bus station in Fairfield, California, United States. The facility serves as a bus hub for transportation on local, commuter, and long-distance bus services. There are plans to expand the center. Casu ...

Richmond Parkway Transit Center The Richmond Parkway Transit Center or RPTC is a park and ride lot and bus terminal located in Richmond, California. It is named after the adjacent Richmond Parkway. It serves as a transfer point for the WestCAT and AC Transit. It is located on the ...

, Naglee Park and Ride,

Hercules Transit Center Hercules Transit Center is a major commuter hub in the western Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County city of Hercules, California. It is anchored by WestCAT bus services. The center was originally on San Pablo Avenue. In August 2009 ...

, Curtola Park & Ride, Eastmont Transit Center,

San Rafael Transit Center The San Rafael Transportation Center (also called C. Paul Bettini Transportation Center) is an intermodal passenger transport, intermodal transportation center located in downtown San Rafael, California. It is a primary transfer point for several ...

and many bus bays at BART stations.

Major bus agencies

Minor bus agencies

Several other transit agencies (including

San Benito Transit The San Benito County Local Transportation Authority (LTA) is the public transportation agency of San Benito County, California, immediately south of Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County). LTA provides fixed route inter-county and intra-city service ...

, Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority, San Joaquin RTD,

Rio Vista Delta Breeze Rio Vista Delta Breeze is a bus transit service based in Rio Vista, California. Service and operations It offers flex fixed-route local service in the cities of Rio Vista and Isleton in addition to commuter service to the Fairfield Transportati ...

, Mendocino Transit, and

Santa Cruz Metro Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (SCMTD), or simply Santa Cruz METRO, provides bus service throughout Santa Cruz County, California. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . Santa Cruz METRO also operates the High ...

) operate regional service from outside the Bay Area to transit stations in the Bay Area. Private bus companies operate an additional 800 buses, often referred to as tech shuttles. If combined, private shuttles would be the 7th largest transportation provider in the Bay Area.

Ferries

There are also private ferries from Emeryville, Berkeley, and Richmond.

Bike and Scooter Sharing

Bay Area Bike Share launch in San Jose CA

(launched as Bay Area Bike Share) is a regional public

bicycle sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...

that serves the cities of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

Emeryville Emeryville may refer to: * Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San ...

, and San Jose. The bicycles are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to anyone who purchases a membership, with three options, annual fee of , for three days or for 24 hours. Any rider may take unlimited trips of up to 30 minutes, as measured from the time the bike is withdrawn from a dock to the time it is returned. Bikes can be picked up at any of the stations using a key fob or electronic code, and dropping them off at any station. Longer trips incur additional fees starting at for the first additional half-hour, since the idea of bike sharing is to make bicycles available for short trips. A replacement fee of $1,200 is charged if a rented bike is lost. Several companies also operate dockless bicycle sharing systems in the Bay Area such as

Jump Bikes Jump (stylized as JUMP) is a dockless scooter and electric bicycle sharing system operating in the United States, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Australia. The bikes are a bright red orange and we ...

Lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

, and

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

. These dockless systems differ from the Ford GoBike system in that bicycles can be parked freely on the street (or at a bicycle rack in the case of Jump) and do not need to be docked at a designation station. Currently, Jump is the only dockless bicycle sharing company that operates in San Francisco while other competing companies operate dockless systems in other Bay Area cities such as South San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. In 2018, several companies started offering dockless

scooter-sharing system A scooter-sharing system is a shared transport service in which Motorized scooter, electric motorized scooters (also referred to as e-scooters) are made available to use for short-term rentals. E-scooters are typically "dockless", meaning that t ...

s in Bay Area cities such as San Francisco and Oakland. These systems offer electric kick scooters for rent, similar to dockless bicycle sharing systems. Some operators, such as Lime, operate both scooter and bicycle sharing systems. These shared scooters were temporarily banned in San Francisco during summer 2018, but are available under two operators:

Skip Skip or Skips may refer to: Acronyms * SKIP (Skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), a human gene * Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocol * SKIP of New York (Sick Kids need Involved People), a non-profit agency aidin ...

and

Scoot Networks Scoot Networks (est. in 2011), also known as just Scoot or Scoot Rides, is an American company which provides public electric scooter and electric bicycle sharing systems. The company is based in San Francisco, California. History Scoot was ...

Public Transportation Statistics

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in San Francisco, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 77 min. 23% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 13 min, while 17% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 9.1 km, while 20% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Freeways and highways

The Bay Area possesses an extensive freeway and highway system (although it is not as extensive as

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

Trans-bay crossings

The Peninsula to the South Bay

The freeway system in Santa Clara county is augmented by the

Santa Clara County expressway system There are 21 routes assigned to the "G" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "G" zone includes county highways in Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz co ...

North Bay

East Bay

Named interchanges

The Alemany Maze is the interchange between the

James Lick Freeway James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

(

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

) and Interstate 280. The

MacArthur Maze The MacArthur Maze (or simply the Maze, also called the Distribution Structure) is a large freeway interchange near the east end of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in Oakland, California. It splits Bay Bridge traffic into three freeways— ...

is the interchange between the

Eastshore Freeway Interstate 80 (I-80) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. The segment of I-80 in California runs east from San Francisco across the San Francisco� ...

Nimitz Freeway Nimitz may refer to: People * Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966), fleet admiral of the United States Navy * Chester Nimitz Jr. (1915–2002), an American officer and submarine commander * Jack Nimitz (1930–2009), American musician Named for Fl ...

, and

MacArthur Freeway MacArthur or Macarthur may refer to: Places * Macarthur, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra, Australia * Macarthur, New South Wales, a region of Metropolitan Sydney, Australia ** Division of Macarthur ** Macarthur railway station * ...

at the east end of the Bay Bridge. The

Joe Colla Interchange The Joe Colla Interchange is a highway interchange in San Jose, California, United States, connecting Interstate 280 (I-280), I-680, and U.S. Route 101 (US 101). It is named after Joe Colla, a former councilman of San Jose, who also ...

is the interchange between

US 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

I-280 Interstate 280 may refer to multiple highways, all of which are or were related to Interstate 80: * Interstate 280 (California), a north–south freeway running from San Jose to San Francisco * Interstate 280 (Iowa–Illinois), part of the beltway ...

, and I-680. Both I-280 and I-680's southern termini is located as this interchange.

San Francisco streets

Due to its unique geography, and the

freeway revolts Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that favor vehicles. Many freeway r ...

of the late 1950s, San Francisco is one of the few American cities served primarily by

arterial roads An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roa ...

for most trips within city limits, rather than a freeway network supplemented by arterial roads. San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge at night

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

begins at the approach to the Bay Bridge and is the only direct automobile link to the East Bay.

connects to the western terminus of Interstate 80 and provides access to the south of the city along San Francisco Bay toward

. Northward, the routing for U.S. 101 uses arterial streets

Mission Street Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in Daly City and San Francisco, California that runs from Daly City's southern border to San Francisco's northeast waterfront. The street and San Francisco's Mission District through which it r ...

(northbound) and South Van Ness Avenue (southbound),

Van Ness Avenue Van Ness Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed Van Ness Avenue in honor of the city's sixth mayor, James Van Ness. The main part of Van Ness Avenue runs fro ...

, Lombard Street, Richardson Avenue, and Doyle Drive to connect to the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

, the only direct automobile link to

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

and the North Bay. Golden Gate Bridge 1926

State Route 1 also enters San Francisco from the north via the Golden Gate Bridge, but turns south away from the routing of U.S. 101, first onto Park Presidio Blvd through Golden Gate Park, and then bisecting the west side of the city as the 19th Avenue arterial thoroughfare, joining with Interstate 280 at the city's southern border. Interstate 280 continues south from San Francisco. Interstate 280 also turns to the east along the southern edge of the city, terminating just south of the Bay Bridge in the

South of Market South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, situated just south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of the city's museums ...

neighborhood. After the

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

, city leaders decided to demolish the

Embarcadero Freeway Embarcadero, the Spanish word for wharf, may also refer specifically to: Places * Embarcadero (Oakland), California * Embarcadero (San Diego), California ** Embarcadero Circle, waterfront re-development project in San Diego * Embarcadero (San Fran ...

, and a portion of the

Central Freeway The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile (1.5 km) elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway (US 101 and I-80) with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is part ...

, converting them into street-level boulevards. State Route 35 enters the city from the south as

Skyline Boulevard A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skylines ...

, following city streets until it terminates at its intersection with Highway 1. State Route 82 enters San Francisco from the south as

, following the path of the historic El Camino Real and terminating shortly thereafter at its junction with 280. Major east–west thoroughfares include

Geary Boulevard Geary Boulevard (designated as Geary Street east of Van Ness Avenue) is a major east–west thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, United States, beginning downtown at Market Street near Market Street's intersection with Kearny Street, and ...

, the

Lincoln Way The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 191 ...

Fell Street A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, pa ...

corridor, and

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

Portola Drive Portola may refer to: * ''Portola'' (album), a 1998 album by Rose Melberg * Portola, California * Portola, San Francisco, California People with the surname * Gaspar de Portolá (ca. 1717-aft.1784), Spanish soldier, first governor of the Californi ...

. The Western Terminus of the historic transcontinental

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

, the first road across America, is in San Francisco's

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...

San Francisco Bay Trail

The San Francisco Bay Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian trail that will eventually allow continuous travel around the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. As of 2016, 350 miles (560 km) of trail have been completed, while the full plan calls for a trail over 500 miles (805 km) long that link the shoreline of nine counties, passing through 47 cities and crossing seven toll bridges. Sections of the Bay Trail exist in all nine Bay Area counties. The longest continuous segments include 26 miles (41 km) primarily on gravel levees between East Palo Alto and San Jose in Santa Clara County; 25 miles (40 km) in San Mateo County between Millbrae and San Carlos; 17 miles (27 km) in central Alameda County from San Leandro to Hayward; and 15 miles (24 km) along the shoreline and on city streets through Richmond in Contra Costa County. The northernmost trail section passes through San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Bridges

Due to the central location of the San Francisco Bay, eight

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or ''toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road. ...

s cross the Bay or Bay tributaries. Each of the bridges collect separate tolls, and all of them accept payment through

FasTrak FasTrak is the electronic toll collection (ETC) system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads, toll bridges, and high-occupancy toll lanes along the California Freeway and E ...

, an electronic toll collection system used in the state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Seven of these eight bridges are owned directly by the State of California, while the Golden Gate Bridge is owned and operated by the

Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District is a special-purpose district that owns and operates three regional transportation assets in the San Francisco Bay Area: the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden Gate Ferry system and ...

Seaports

The Port of San Francisco was once the largest and busiest seaport on the West Coast. It featured rows of Pier, piers perpendicular to the shore, where cargo from the moored ships was handled by cranes and manual labor and transported to nearby warehouses. The port handled cargo to and from trans-Pacific and Atlantic destinations, and was the West Coast center of the West Coast lumber trade, lumber trade. The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike, an important episode in the history of the Labor unions in the United States, American labor movement, brought most ports to a standstill. The advent of container shipping made pier-based ports obsolete, and most commercial berths moved to the Port of Oakland and Port of Richmond (California), Port of Richmond. A few active berths specializing in break bulk cargo remain alongside the Islais Creek Channel. The port currently uses Pier 35 (San Francisco), Pier 35 to handle the 60–80 cruise ship calls and 200,000 passengers that come to San Francisco. Itineraries from San Francisco usually include round trip cruises to Alaska and Mexico. The James R. Herman Cruise Terminal Project at Pier 27 (San Francisco), Pier 27 opened in 2014 as a replacement. The previous primary terminal at Pier 35 had neither the sufficient capacity to allow for the increasing length and passenger capacity of new cruise ships nor the amenities needed for an international cruise terminal. On March 16, 2013, Princess Cruises ''Grand Princess'' became the first ship to home port in San Francisco year round. The ship offers cruises to Alaska, California Coasts, Hawaii, and Mexico.'' Grand Princess '' will be stationed in San Francisco until April 2014. Princess will also operate other ships during the summer of 2014, making it the only cruise line home porting year round in San Francisco.

References

External links

Bay Area Shuttles directory

Live Toll Prices for San Francisco Bay Area Bridges

Employee Transportation San Francisco Bay Area
{{DEFAULTSORT:Transportation In The San Francisco Bay Area Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area freeways, San Francisco Bay Area-related lists