Features
1 Oct 18

Commuting in the Bay

In San Francisco, the origin of many start-ups, and with Silicon Valley in its backyard, commuting goes way beyond driving a car. An overview of 10 ways to commute in the Bay Area.

An array of little commuting devices are perfectly suited for the last mile coverage or to connect one means of transportation with the other. Moreover, these devices are easy to stow at the office, at home, or when hopping at another means of transportation. Nevertheless, some electric devices are not allowed on airplanes, due to the battery. 

1. Skateboard

Allowed on planes and on any kind of transportation, is the old school skateboard. Nevertheless, it provides an active and fun way to commute, burning your energy instead of electricity. 

2. Wheel

Making balancing electrified, is where the wheels come in. With the agility of a pedestrian, and the speed of a bicycle you can easily and fast find a way through any congested street.

3. Loomo

Adding digitisation and artificial intelligence to a wheel is how the Loomo of Segway Robotics can be described in a nutshell. Moreover, thanks to the smartphone application Loomo can interact with its driver and cheer him up.

4. E-scooters

Combining the agility of a little balancing device with the convenience of a bicycle, can be find in the variety of e-scooters. Foldable, or non-foldable; to stand up or sit down; featured with smart applications and/or battery monitoring, there is a scooter at everyone’s ease.

5. Bikes

Considering a scooter as too little? The variety of shared bikes in San Francisco meets everyone’s needs as well. There are the dockless electric bikes of JUMP, and the docked bike stations of Ford GoBike, offering both electric and non-electric bikes. Feel free to choose! 

6. Car Sharing

If cars have to be picked, San Francisco prefers car sharing and ride hailing over personal cars. Therefore, the city provides on-street spaces for shared vehicles; and supports car-sharing programmes. 

7. Ride hailing

On top of car sharing, ride hailing can forgo personal vehicle ownership as well. Moreover, by offering far lower tariffs for UberPool, Uber stimulates its riders to share the ride, and hence counter the claim of congesting the streets. 

8. Public Transit

Sharing a ride with many people is still provided by public transit. Moreover, San Francisco has a wide offer of sustainable public transport modes, in terms of fuel, from old-school trams to modern Clean Air Vehicle Busses, over trolleybuses and its subway system BART. 

9. Electric and Hybrid Cars

If by all means, one must commutes with a personal or corporate car, electric and hybrid cars are preferable. ‘NO SMOG’ says one of the number plates of a hybrid car waiting at the traffic light, which says it all. 

10. Walking

In the end, there is one commuting way left, which is the less innovative, but adds the least to traffic congestion and air pollution; and can be perfectly done in the pleasant weather of San Francisco: walking. 

Image:  Commuting in the Bay, wether you opt for an electric bike, a manual bike or a 'clean air vehicle' of public transport, there are plenty of opportunities!

Authored by: Fien Van den steen