San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is one of the 7 busiest airports in America, yet is one of the better ranked airports for % of flights on time.

AirTrain people mover transports you from all terminals to the BART SFO Transit Station or the SFO Car Rental Center for free. Travelers commuting to San Francisco or Oakland should deboard Airtrain at the BART SFO Station and walk down one level to catch the BART Dublin/Pleasanton Train. For travelers to San Jose, catch the BART Millbrae Train and purchase a Caltrain ticket.

Car Rentals: Follow signage from your terminal gate to the AirTrain station atop the central parking lot. When it arrives at the SFO Car Rental Center, you will notice Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, and Thrifty cars for rent.

Taxis are plentiful at SFO airport and downtown San Francisco.  At the airport, hail a taxi at the lower lever of the domestic terminals or the international terminal.

Super Shuttle travels all over the San Francisco Bay Area, 415-558-8500.

Oakland International Airport (OAK) is a mid-size airport that offloads much ofthe domestic and Mexico traffic from SFO.

Car Rentals: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, and Thrifty provide service. The car rental bus boards outside each terminal and goes directly to the Oakland Car Rental Center, 10 minutes away.

Taxis are plentiful at OAK airport, Marriott Hotel downtown, and Jack London Square.

Super Shuttle goes from OAK to downtown Oakland, San Francisco and many other parts of the SF Bay Area.

Amtrak Oakland Station is located at 245 2nd Street in the Jack London Square entertainment district. Oddly, there's a smaller competing Amtrak Emeryville Station only a couple miles away. Amtrak also runs a shuttle bus from San Francisco Transbay Terminal to these stations across the bay. Amtrak Oakland Station and Emeryville Station host these Amtrak train routes:

Amtrak Coast Starlight: Los Angeles-Oakland-Sacramento-Portland-Seattle
Amtrak San Joaquins: Oakland-Emeryville-Stockton-Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield
Amtrak Capitol Corridor: Auburn-Sacramento-Emeryville-Oakland-San Jose
Amtrak California Zephyr: Chicago-Omaha-Denver-Sacramento-Emeryville

Dowdy old Transbay Terminal in San Francisco is home to regular buses, rapid buses, taxis and Greyhound. Located conventiently near the Transbay Terminal, BART Embarcadero Station is only 2 blocks away and the Ferry Building is only 4 blocks away. The outdated Transit Terminal is undergoing an expensive phased redevelopment that will blossom as a shop-filled, airy and green multi-modal Transbay Transit Center between 2014-2019. The dashing new transit center will interconnect commuter trains, light rail, Greyhound, rapid buses, electric buses, tour buses, taxis and high speed trains between San Francisco to Los Angeles.

BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is a modern 104-mile, 45-station rail transit system that carries over 400,000 commuters each weekday in train lengths of 4 to 10 cars. Its the popular green way to travel distances in the San Francisco Bay Area. BART station floors are even with its train floors and each station has elevators, so BART is wheelchair accessible. BART lines run under the San Francisco Bay, underground and on elevated tracks to prevent service disruption by auto traffic. Four of five BART lines pass through San Francisco, while all five lines pass through Oakland. BART line names are:

Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae
Fremont-Daly City
Pittsburgh/Bay Point-SFO
Dublin/Pleasonton-Daly City/Millbrae

Fremont-Richmond (does not go to San Francisco)

BART hours of operation and its transit connections are plentiful:

Weekdays:    4:15a-Midnight
Saturdays:    6:00a-Midnight
Sundays:      8:00a-Midnight

Transfer from BART to Muni Railway at any of the four BART stations downtown: Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powel and Civic Center.

Transfer from BART to most ferries by deboarding at the BART Embarcadero Station and walking two blocks to the Ferry Building.

If you are headed to OAK Airport from San Francisco catch a BART Fremont or BART Dublin/Pleasonton Train, then deboard at BART Coliseum Station. From there AirBART, a $2 shuttle bus, runs every 20 minutes to OAK. If you arrived at OAK and plan to ride BART, board at the AirBART sign located in the commuter island in front of OAK terminals.

If you are headed to SFO Airport from Oakland and did NOT board a BART SFO train, for best seating you should transfer to a BART SFO train at BART Lake Merritt Station or BART West Oakland Station.

Caltrain commuter rail has a spartan train terminal at Townsend & Fourth Avenues in San Francisco. Weekday service runs every 20 minutes during commute hours and every 30 minutes otherwise in its 47-mile journey to South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, San Mateo, Belmont, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose. On a per mile basis, fairs are competitive with BART. The BART-Caltrain Millbrae Station also permits you to connect with Caltrain. Caltrain has overhead luggage racks in most passenger compartments and features a fast “Baby Bullet” Caltrain between San Francisco and San Jose.

San Francisco Municipal Railway, locally called “Muni Railway”, developed the fabled San Francisco Cable Cars and has added vintage streetcars from around the world to its list of moving attractions. This 52-mile web of modern light rail, vintage streetcars, and world famous cable cars carries more daily passengers than BART and every tourist enjoys a ride on the cable cars and vintage streetcars. The F line of vintage streetcars runs every 5-10 minutes on Market Street from the Castro District through Downtown, then fishhooks north up the Embarcadero headed to Fisherman's Wharf. Muni Light Rail trains also run under Market Street, sharing Downtown stations with BART, then surfacing on the southern Embarcadero headed to the Baseball Park. Other Muni rail lines go to the Ocean, San Francisco Zoo, Bayview and Excelsior Districts.

San Francisco Bay Area Freeway Network rivals the Los Angeles Freeway Network in terms of carrying capacity per mile, traffic management innovations and unfortunately, a propensity for traffic jams. The car pool lanes, metered entrances, entrance/exit ramps, freeway status signs all help, but traveling westbound on San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge remains crowded during commuter hours.

The San Francisco Bay Bridge east span from Yerba Buena Island to Oakland is being replaced with a modern span designed to handle a large scale earthquake. The west span earthquake retrofit has completed. Given the amount of innovation involved with the project, east span work is estimated to complete in 2013.

Traffic from SFO Airport slows to a crawl approaching the 280/101 Interchange. Eastbound traffic is usually slow from San Francisco across the Bay Bridge. When traveling westbound on the Bay Bridge, San Mateo Bridge, Dumbarton Bridge, and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge you pay a $2 toll. Traveling eastbound is free. Traveling southbound on the Golden Gate Bridge, pay a $3 toll. Traveling northbound is free. Avoid tickets, DO NOT USE the Fastrak-only lane. The freeway names are:

    4 State Freeway
  13 Warren Freeway
  24 Freeway/Caldecott Tunnel
  80 East Shore Freeway/Bay Bridge
  84 Dumbarton Bridge
  85 West Valley Freeway
  87 Guadalupe Freeway
  92 Arthur Younger Freeway/San Mateo Bridge
101 Bayshore Freeway/ Golden Gate Bridge/Redwood Freeway
237 Mountain View/Alviso Freeway
238 580/880 Freeway Connector
242 680/4 Freeway Connector
280 Junipero Serra/Southern Freeway
380 280/101 Freeway Connector
580 McArthur Freeway/Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
680 Sinclair Freeway
780 Freeway
880 Nimitz Freeway
980 Oakland Freeway