Getting Around San Francisco

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These two streets are car streets only, although there are also sidewalks and stairs for walking along these two very unique tourist attractions.

Wikipedia has an entry that describes Lombard, the brick paved and more famous of the two: Lombard Street is best known for the one-way[3] section on Russian Hill between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, in which the roadway has eight sharp turns (or switchbacks) that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest [most winding] street in the world (though this title is contested - see below). The switchback's design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry[citation needed] and instituted in 1922,[4] was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade,[5] which was too steep for most vehicles to climb. It is also a serious hazard to pedestrians, who are accustomed to a more reasonable sixteen-degree incline. The crooked section of the street, which is about 1/4 mile (400 m) long, is reserved for one-way traffic traveling east (downhill) and is paved with red bricks. The speed limit in this section is a mere 5 mph (8 km/h).

However, many believe that concrete paved Vermont Street, on Potrero Hill, is actually more crooked and steep than Lombard but has fewer turns. The section of Vermont in question is located between 20th and 22nd Street, near McKinley Square. It has a series of seven sharp turns, fewer than Lombard, but has a steeper grade. Wikipedia notes that on an episode of Fact or Fiction on the Travel Channel, Jayms Ramirez measured the sinuosity of both Lombard and Vermont streets, and proved that Vermont is indeed more crooked (with a sinuosity of 1.56 versus 1.2 for Lombard Street). Although Lombard has more turns, some of the turns on the south end of Vermont were removed during the construction of the US101 freeway. I have a relative whose home was affected by this freeway construction and modification of Vermont.

You can examine the images taken from Google Earth showing both streets. The first is Lombard, which runs basically west to east one-way. The second is Vermont, which runs on-way north to south. The Vermont Street satellite image is rotated 180 degrees so that an easier comparison can be made.

Now, to throw a wrench into the which is grade is steeper debate, there actually is yet another street in San Francisco that has no twists and turns, but claims to have the steepest slope, along a short section of its pavement. See the tip for Bradford Street in Bernal Heights. In any case, San Francisco claims to steepest slope and most twisted street are legendary...

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Air Train is the airport's tram that ransports passnegers to all SFO terminals, Parking Garages, Rental Car Center and the BART Station. The train has two lines' the Red Line and the blue Line. The Red line connects all terminals, terminal garages and the BART Station. The Blue Line connects all terminals, terminal garages and the BART Station with the Rental Car Center.

The train runs twenty-four hourS a day and is a quick ride to the BART station.

Any newbie tourist to SF would be wise to look into the HO HO busses that run loops around the city. HO HO means hop-on, hop-off. One fee for the entire day gets you on nice, safe, commercially run tourist serving busses that do loops to all the main areas of the city. Go somewhere like the Golden Gate, hop off and enjoy it. Next buss back by, hop on it and continue to some other attraction/part of town you wish to see, then repeat.

yep. no need to rent a car here. they do have zipcar though if you just need one for a few hours. it's more affordable.

http://www.zipcar.com/sf/find-cars

i live here in s.f. and it's one of the best cities in the world in terms of culture, progressive thinking, economy, standard of living, landscape, integrity, etc. so take a look at my travel pages for things to do and restaurants to eat at. dolores park is a must. it has a spectacular view of the city. the weather is totally unpredictable. bring a sweater and a jacket and shoes that can get wet that you can walk in. you might need them.

other must sees/do's:

chinatown
baker beach (clothing optional)
golden gate park (they have the de young museum and the science museum, buffalo, an arboretum, hippy hill where people play drums, playgrounds with really cool concrete slides, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, trails to mountain bike on, etc. etc.)
the mission district: great mexican and el salvadorian food
noe valley and upper fillmore street and upper haight for good shopping
go to upper haight anyway for a feel of the past

bart can take you to south san francisco, the airport, east bay (oakland, berkeley and beyond).

just some advice on buying transportation tickets;

the muni tickets can be purchased directly on the train. they're $2 and you need to keep your transfer (the paper ticket) for proof of purchase. they usually don't expire for 2-3 hours. they can also be purchased in the kiosk inside the underground muni (the lines that run up and down market street where bart is) and you put your money into the machine and are issued a "clipper card" which can be refilled, but they only last 90 minutes there.

for bart tickets, you can buy them at the kiosk in the same place you buy the clipper card. bart is basically the long distance train while muni is just within the city. bart is pretty cheap. you can get from s.f. to berkeley for about $6.00.

hope that helps, and feel free to email me with any other questions.

and here's a useful map for navigation.

http://transit.511.org/static/providers/maps/SF_1222201020400.gif

We saw this CITY SIGHTSEEING tour company all over San Francisco. You can't miss this brilliantly colored red double decker bus!

Passengers have a choice of either riding inside the lower level or above in the open top section. There are four tour selections beginning at $20.00 and up. It's an 'on and off' system with 24 and 48 hour unlimited passes available.

Departures are from 165 Jefferson Street in Fisherman's Wharf area. It travels to all the important landmarks in San Francisco. Happy Travels!

to the OP, is it just that you want to ride a cable car? because the muni will take you everywhere you need to go for a lot less money. to ride muni, it's $2 and that gets you a few hours of travel time, so save your pass. i highly doubt you will spend $13 per day on muni fares. but if you want the experience of riding the cable car, why not do it once then just purchase muni tickets for the rest of the time you are there? you purchase them right at the front of the bus or train and you need exact change. here's a link to the muni map. you can see all the bus lines here:
http://transit.511.org/static/providers/maps/SF_1222201020400.gif

if you pick your destinations and look at the sfmuni map website, you can find all the attractions are accessible by muni (so, within s.f.)

be warned, you may need to transfer buses to get to certain locations. you may also have to walk a few blocks. for example, if you are coming from fisherman's wharf and want to go to chinatown, you will take the 8X to columbus then walk to chinatown. or, you can transfer to the 30. it will make more sense when you look at the map.
hope that helps.

San Francisco is very congested and yet the city is working very hard to keep it's air clean. This city is very liberal and being "green" is politically correct. For a long time though, the MUNI has had emission free transit in the cable car, electric trolley, and electric bus sytem--at least at the street level. The maze of wires overhead may not look too pretty, but these buses are quiet and efficient. Don't drive around them to closely if you're in a rental car. Sometimes the bus has to stop short to avoid an accident, and the electrodes leads get disconnected from the overheat wires. Then, the driver has to get out of his seat and go to the back of the bus to reposition the leads.

i think the previous poster may be talking about nextbus.com

go there and you can type in your location and destination and it will tell you in exactly how many minutes the bus arrives. i haven't heard of up next, but i typed it into google and nothing resembling muni came up.