Originally Posted by
armagebedar
Everyone, thanks for the advice -- and for the correction regarding 19th Avenue. I would certainly like to leave earlier but I will likely not be able to get on the road until 4 or 4:30 PM at the earliest.
I've done this drive before from SF proper, but never from the airport. If this route is the most direct one and takes two hours that's fine, but if there's another route worth investigating I'm all ears!
I think it's the most direct, but it's very possible it will take more than two hours, depending on the bridge backup (though it's less likely on a Tuesday). If there is no bridge backup, I'd say two hours is probably about right. There will likely be major traffic pretty much the entire route with the exception of 280 in Daly City, up and down the Waldo grade just past the bridge, and a small section just after the carpool lane ends in Corte Madera.
Definitely use Waze, which will try to route you around some of the more difficult choke spots. It may have you going off the highway and back on quite a lot, and send you on some alternate streets in SF (19th Ave is terrible but there are some alternatives, like Sunset and the Great Highway, when it is particularly bad).
Just make sure you've got something good to listen to. At least it's not a Friday afternoon!