Shall I take my 4x5 to San Francisco?

[BradS]

It's not that bad, I do it with my Tuna Boat at least once a week. Now parking sucks for sure. I've seen a day's wages lost on a weeks worth of garage expenses.

I confess...I haven't driven to or in the city for years. I take my family into the city about once a month. We park at the Dublin/Pleasanton station and take the Bart to the financial district and walk or use the Muni to get about. We've walked the Embarcaderro up to the tourist filled Fisherman's warf. We've been to the Moma, civic center, taken in a few operas, even took the kids to the infamous tenderloin.

I just love being out on the street among the people...

We even take Bart when we fly out of SFO now. Wonderful.

[Dean Cookson]

I commute into town from Marin everyday by motorcycle, traffic here really isn't bad at all. Just stay away from the approaches to the Bay Bridge during rush hour and it's all good.

I also second the recommendation of renting equipment at Calumet on Portrero. We went on a long weekend vacation to San Diego last week and I rented a Nikkor 70-200/2.8 VR for the trip. Picked it up Wed. night, dropped it off Monday night. Total bill: $30. Hard to beat that...

[Wilbur Wong]

We even take Bart . . . . .

I live just across the bay from SF. Anything, anywhere near downtown, we Bart* to. The only reason I will drive in is if we are taking grandma with us.

*verb.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

You can also take CalTrain up and down the peninsula, from SF to San Jose on weekends and as far south as Gilroy on weekdays. With BART, you can reach a lot of territory in the east Bay, and then there's the Muni buses and light rail which will take you just about anywhere in the city itself. As mentioned above, SF is a very scary and dangerous place to drive (45 degree angle hills, very confusing intersections, agressive drivers, one way streets, nightmare traffic jams, etc.), so I recommend that you look into the public transport for getting around the Bay Area. You may want to rent a car, however, to go north (Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino counties), south (Carmal, Monterey, Big Sur) or east (Yosemite, Sequoia/King's Canyon, eastern Sierra). Have a fun trip!

[jetcode]

As mentioned above, SF is a very scary and dangerous place to drive (45 degree angle hills, very confusing intersections, agressive drivers, one way streets, nightmare traffic jams, etc.)

I do all of that in a westfalia gutless wonder with a clutch - never had a problem - ever

[Louie Powell]

I've driven in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta - yeah, it's an adventure but it's not all that bad.

But New York is another matter. Take the subway there!

[Scott Davis]

I've driven up Sacramento Street (one of the steepest, hilliest streets in SF) and gotten stuck at traffic lights at the cross streets, in a manual transmission car. After that, I don't think there's much in the way of driving challenges I'd be afraid of. Just avoid entering or exiting the city via freeway during rush hour and you're fine.

[jetcode]

I've driven up Sacramento Street (one of the steepest, hilliest streets in SF) and gotten stuck at traffic lights at the cross streets, in a manual transmission car. After that, I don't think there's much in the way of driving challenges I'd be afraid of. Just avoid entering or exiting the city via freeway during rush hour and you're fine.

My dad had a Mazda Miser and the same thing happened to him, he had to back down because the car didn't have enough power to get up the hill. "Rush" hour should be called "Crawl" hour. We call 101 the moving parking lot. The CHP call my Westfalia the moving guard rail.

[Turner Reich]

Are you there yet?, are you there yet?
What did you bring?

Sept. 8, 2007

[roteague]

may not be hiring a car (driving on the other side of the road is not something I need to learn in 10 days!!) but I hear the city itself is very user friendly in terms of public transport.

Don't worry about it - I drive in your country all the time, sometimes for quite long distances. However, I do avoid Melbourne (those hook turns). You might consider using public transportation while in the city, then hiring a car at the airport for your trip to Yosemite. There really is no other way to do Yosemite than to drive yourself (not shooting 4x5). That will give you some time to get used to the traffic pattern in the city before trying to drive somewhere yourself.

BTW, I'll be in Sydney in two weeks; once again I'll drive from there to Victoria - I love the drive and the countryside.