hondaman82

Hi experts,
is Uberpool / Lyft Line good to use in San Francisco area?
my budget is $100 for SFO - China Town - Union Square - Lombard St - Fisherman Whaft - Golden Gate - SFO. All in one day from 8am - 9 pm.

Which one has better route calculation for pooling?

Thanks for the advice !!!

Miami305

Not clear what you mean by which has better "route calculation." It will depend on traffic and whether you match with another rider, which are variables entirely out of your control.

hondaman82

I heard that they have different algorithm for calclulate route to pick up "pooling" passengers. Ideally they only pick up additional passengers who is on the way heading to same destination as first passenger. Some people say UBER calcualtion is way off and they have to drives all over the place to pick up extra pax, wasting more time and energy. (not sure if that is 100% true)

Ocn Vw 1K

Let me move this to the San Francisco forum for more discussion. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

[With Mod. hat off and San Francisco hat on]: the OP can do this basic itinerary with public transportation, including cable cars and antique streetcars. fairly quickly, and for about half or less of the budget, starting and ending with BART to/from downtown SF and SFO. Runs throughout the day and about 30 mins. to/from SFO.]

estnet

Totally agree! IME uber pool (from San Mateo to sfo so different route) has been mostly the same fare as uberx - it used to be half or less - not sure what they are doing, but even shuttle sfo - the city then walking and public transport would work well (eg Chinatown-Union Square - walkable for sure)

Eastbay1K

My UBER Pool routings have been generally much better than the Lyft Line ones. (Caveat - I've used Pool much more than Line, and most trips are entirely within the Oakland/Berkeley area.)

squeakr

Used Uber and lift since the beginning – I believe over four years now, and use UberPool almost exclusively over Lyft line. lyft has a horrible algorithm for picking up passengers on the line, and in my experience often has involved double backing to pick up a third passenger who is going nowhere near where the other two want to wind up.

That said I find UberPool to be about a 3rd to a half of what regular Uber will cost, i'm not sure if the OP is talking about a number of separate trips using uber pool or trying to coordinate this all in one or two pool rides?

As OcnVw1K commented you can do these trips on public transport, relatively inexpensively and pretty easily. But I understand wanting the convenience of riding in the car.

The exception is SFO to downtown – it's an eight dollar part ride and if you're traveling solo is a much better deal than Uber, UberPool or lift line. The difference from SFO to town in an UberPool is much less then the difference between an UberPool and uber x ride in San Francisco.

that's assuming there's no surge which affects UberPool is well.

Http://www.511.org

Great site to track how public transport can get you to your destinations with a number of factors – more walking, less walking, if you were transfers etc. They now show arrivals and departures on the SF muni system in real time so you can get a pretty good gauge of how long it will take you to get from place to place.

gaobest

I think you need to just check both apps each time you're prepping to go to next destination. See which is cheaper or faster based on your need. You are probably better off walking from Chinatown to union square via Grant Street because of general high traffic in these two dense neighborhoods.

Eastbay1K

Chinatown to/from Union Sq. is a much faster walk than any vehicle transit can provide ... especially if the vehicle is on Grant Avenue.

Mauibaby2008

I was satisfied using uberpool from SFO the few times I've used it.

Eastbay1K

I had a Lyft Line routing fail yesterday. Arriving SFO, UBER was showing $60+ for both Pool and X (which was a shocking, over double the high end of Pool rates I'm used to), so I chose Lyft Line (in the $30s). First, the driver didn't move for over 5 minutes after accepting the ride (I assume waiting for another guaranteed pickup). Then he did get another ride "en route" (other terminal) - total accept to pickup time was over 10 minutes. The stop was in San Francisco. I have never ever had UBER route a pool to get off the freeway in SF if my destination isn't within SF (and for those unfamiliar with the area, getting back on the freeway in SF is a production).

Initial driver delay plus "en Lyft route" stop added about a half hour to what would have been a 25 minute drive at that hour.

HoyaSFOIAD

As a city dweller in SF, your specific itinerary is actually most efficient and you'll get the most enjoyment out of it without a car. Now, if walking a bit is at all out of the question you can forget this post, but here's what you can do:

-Take BART from SFO and get off at the Powell St. station. Just walk up the hill (not steep at that point!) on Powell for a couple blocks and you'll be right smack in Union Square.

-Chinatown is only two blocks from Union Square. It's entrance at Dragon's Gate is at the intersection of Grant and Bush Streets. Walk through the gate, you'll be on Grant street which is the main drag through Chinatown.

-Follow Grant street for seven blocks, which takes you straight through Chinatown. You'll eventually come to Columbus Street. Walk left (up the hill) on Columbus and you'll go through North Beach (SF's Little Italy). It's a great stroll and if you follow Columbus it will put you smack in the middle of Fisherman's Wharf.

-The end of Fisherman's Wharf is Ghirardelli Square. Right by it is a cable car turnaround that runs up Hyde Street. Jump on and ride up the hill to the intersection at Lombard Street. Boom. You'll be right at the curvy part.

At this point you will have hit all the sites you will have wanted to see (less the Golden Gate Bridge, which you will have clear views of from Fisherman's Wharf). You'll have only walked less than two miles without battling any steep hills.


To complete the loop, walk on down and keep going on Lombard until you hit Columbus again. Walk right on Columbus, which will take you back through little Italy and into the financial district where it turns into Montgomery Street. At Montogomery and Market there's a BART station and back you can go to the Airport.

The assumed costs here are $17.90 for a round trip BART and $7 for a cable car ride.

Side note: If you want to actually go all the way to the GG bridge, jump an Uber or Lyft from Lombard.

malgudi

Never had problems with Lyft Line.