Super agree that living within a 5 minute walk of 9th and market, Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, or embarcadero stations is peak public transit experience from a distance perspective. I loved being able to get on the train at SFO and then hop off essentially at my home.
But of course those spots also mean avoiding poops, drug deals, a homeless person in the 1% group that assaults people, and other general shadiness. Generally fine for a huge man, much worse for a dainty woman.
I live in lower haight, less than a two minute walk from the muni and thus less than 15 mons from downtown and I dont really encounter any of these things, except dog poops
Nice! Yeah there are definitely lower poop/riff raff density if you're willing to walk 15 mins each way. In my experience Muni+Bart is required to have good coverage of places I wanted to go (including Oakland and berkeley).
Edit: and I'm a 0 transfer kind of person. Albeit I tolerated switching from Muni to Bart in same station on market street. And because my own personal tolerance for walking was higher than average, I'd often just look for the route that allowed me to ride one ride even if I had to walk 60 minutes across the round trip.
yeah, if you're 0 transfer it's going to be difficult, but the Muni - Bart transfers are among the least painful (Bart-Bart transfers where they line up the trains are also pretty convenient).
But of course those spots also mean avoiding poops, drug deals, a homeless person in the 1% group that assaults people, and other general shadiness. Generally fine for a huge man, much worse for a dainty woman.