The San Francisco Bay Area has a variety of transportation options with the ideal option varying based on your endpoints, budget, and the time of day.
Ridesharing is very popular here with Uber and Lyft providing on-demand car service through a mobile application. Luxury cars are available at the highest cost with a black car or SUV option, while costs decline significantly if you opt to “carpool” with random and anonymous riders. If you have not yet signed up for Uber or Lyft, ask your fellow RakuNest members if they have signed up and have a discount code for new members so that you can start your account with a credit.
You should anticipate a wait time of 15 minutes for a ridesharing car to arrive at RakuNest – if calling an Uber of a Lyft in San Francisco or another dense area, the wait could be as short as 1 minute.
Taxis are available through ridesharing applications and by hailing them in dense areas. The cost is calculated on a meter that is visible to the rider. Costs for taxis tend to be substantially higher than ridesharing, especially when going long distances and outside of a major city.
If you would like to rent a car, there are several car rental agencies located at the San Francisco Airport and across the Bay Area. The major car rental agencies include Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, National, amongst several others.
If you want to rent a car by the hour, Zipcar and Getaround are the major applications for this service. You likely will need to sign up for the service several days ahead of your first usage to make sure you are approved as a user.
For public transportation, there are city and county buses, Caltrain, and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). City and county buses are not recommended, as they tend to be a slow method of travel. Caltrain is a train that runs from the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco to Gilroy (south of San Jose) that is very popular with commuters. RakuNest members are a 15-minute walk from the Hayward Park Caltrain station, while the Hillsdale and San Mateo Caltrain stations are a short drive away. Information on Caltrain can be found here.
RakuNest members can also use a free shuttle that runs from Crimson House West to and from the Hillsdale Caltrain Station. Details on the schedule and where to pick up the shuttle can be found here.
BART is another option for Bay Area transportation, but it does not come further south than Millbrae (near San Francisco International Airport). Due to poor governance and upkeep, BART provides a low level of hospitality and therefore its usage is not highly recommended for those visiting Silicon Valley.
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