Measuring my options to reach the SF airport

On this particular Saturday, I would not recommend BART because they are maintaining the tracks between Glen Park and Daly City stations (@OP they’re two stations between downtown SF and SFO). Bart has set up a free bus bridge between the two stations, and anticipates delays of up to 60 minutes for all trains that go through the area.

In my experience, the most cost efficient (only 4 bucks), and sometimes time efficient, way of getting from downtown SF to SFO is the Sam Trans KX or 292 bus routes. KX only runs on weekday commute hours. 292 runs all days. There are stops along Mission St., (parallel to and one block south of Market) and takes an hour.

The main benefit of taking 292 and KX, IMO, is there are 4 stops at SFO: 1 on each of the international terminals and 2 near the domestic terminals. You can just hop off at your terminal. The SFO Bart station is at International Terminal G, and up to 15 minutes walking/Airtrain ride away from the other terminals.

When that time is factored in, the bus drive time is not as noticeable. However, the 292 is not advised if you have more that 1 check in luggage, and it may have one or two (usually quiet) homeless people on it.

Edit 9/21/2016. Bart has finished maintenance so there are no scheduled delays between SF and SFO.

I don’t know if this should be an answer or a comment but just to add to what @birryree and @Zach Lipton said about BART. Just to warn you, they are fixing a part of the track between the Glen Park and Daly City stations so it will take a little longer to get to the airport if you’re traveling to the airport on one of the weekends there is construction.

https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2016/news20160615-2

The question seems to be specific to a particular time in a particular place, but here are more generalized suggestions:

Google Maps and IOS Maps have public transit information for some cities. Often Google will tell you the cost (I do not know whether it is accurate). Google pretends to have more flexibility, but when you change the date you want to travel, it still shows you the next one from “right now.”

Rome2Rio: if you can get it to accept the address of your destination as the starting point, and someplace far away as the destination, it will give you an estimate on taxi to the airport. Again, I do not know whether the price is correct.

San Francisco Airport-bound BART trains leave from all San Francisco BART stations and go to the airport without a change of train. It’s a good idea to check the schedule, as trains may only run every 20 minutes outside of peak periods. Trains serving the airport will be say San Francisco International Airport (SFIA) on the electronic signs and announcements. The trip is scheduled to take about 32 minutes from Montgomery (add/subtract 2-3 minutes for other downtown stations) and has a standard fare of $8.95 from the downtown stations.

BART will take you directly to the international terminal. From there, Terminal 3 (used by United) is a short walk (or train ride if you wish), while Terminals 1 and 2 are accessible by the airport’s AirTrain (or a longer walk if you prefer).

Note that some subway stations in San Francisco only serve the Muni Metro system, not BART. All BART stations are shown on the map birryree helpfully posted. Muni stations like Van Ness, Church, and Castro will not take you to the airport without a transfer to BART. In your case, Powell or Montgomery are likely your closest stations; both serve BART. Inside the station, be sure to use the BART ticket machines and faregates, not the Muni ones, as some visitors end up on the wrong subway! The stations are staffed if you have questions.

Besides BART, you do have other options. A taxi is likely to cost on the order of $40-$50, perhaps more, depending on traffic. Uber and Lyft will be significantly cheaper, you can get real-time fare estimates for those services using the apps, and you can make them even cheaper (at the cost of time) if you use UberPOOL or Lyft Line to share a ride with another passenger. Without surge pricing, Uber estimates around $25-$31 for Uber X from your area to the airport.

A car may be faster than BART–it’s about 20 minutes driving time with no traffic.

Summary: If you’re near a BART station, and it sounds like you are, and are able to carry your luggage, I’d take BART. Otherwise, I would take Uber or Lyft.

So, I’ll preface and say that if all else fails, just ask someone, like the staff at your hotel or someone on the street. People will generally be very helpful.

That said, here’s a station map of the BART:

As you can see, all the BART train lines share a lot of the same stations on the San Francisco side, but you will want to be on the Yellow line that heads toward San Francisco International Airport/Milbrae.

Where you are in the city (near Market Street), you should be able to go into any BART station and take the yellow line toward the airport.

Finding the Closest BART Station

The BART site has a directions page that lets you find directions to the nearest.

Alternatively, you can use Google Maps to find the closest BART station by asking for directions to San Francisco International Airport via public transit. It will give you walking directions to get to the nearest BART station.

Cost of BART Trip

This depends on what station you’re taking, but the fare is probably going to be something like $9 USD.

You can also calculate the fare on BART’s Fare Calculator page.

Alternative Options

I’d recommend the BART, overall – it’s less susceptible to traffic compared to taking something like an Uber or taxi, and it’s also fairly easy to navigate.

However, since you want more options:

• Uber (or Lyft) – According to my Uber fare estimate, it will cost something between $25-35 to get from downtown SF to the airport. UberPool (a shared version of Uber if you managed to get one) would make it more like $20 USD. I’d recommend this option as an alternative to BART, and they will pick you up where you are.

• Regular taxi – Taxis are generally more expensive than Uber/Lyft for getting to airports, so I’d say a taxi from downtown SF to SFO (the distance is ~23 km or so) is probably $45-50 USD.

• Bus – I have only ridden buses in San Franciso once, so I’m not very familiar with them. However, the SamTrans bus system has buses that will go through SFO. Cost is $4 USD.

• Private shuttle – There are companies like GoLorries that allow you to book private shuttles (shared or individual) that go from downtown to SFO. For shared rides, the cost is typically around $17-20 USD. I don’t have experience with these, and they may require you to go to specific locations for pick up.