Bay Area

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I’ve lived in the Bay Area for most of my life. I grew up in the South Bay (Sunnyvale and Mountain View), went to college in the East Bay (at Berkeley), and I’m currently living in SF.

Theoretically, I know some stuff about the Bay Area, but I will say that I’m not really too familiar with San Mateo County and anything North Bay at all.

Getting Around

The main thing you want to get is a Clipper card, which works on all public transit (as far as I’m aware).

• Caltrain
• BART
• VTA
• AC Transit
• Bay Wheels

Biking is somewhat decent, depending on where you are. Mountain View has a decent amount of bike lanes, and SF is starting to add more dedicated/protected lanes as well. If you like biking, you might also check out Critical Mass. I forget when it is though. Also, check out 511.org’s biking maps.

The Outdoors

Good outdoor hiking places in the Bay:

• Shoreline
• Mt. Tamalpais
• Fire trails in Berkeley
• (I’ll add more when I remember)

Slang

Not sure how much slang there is specific to the Bay Area. The one you’ll hear people talk about the most is “hella”, which is an intensifier, as in “there’s hella people here.”

I remember watching a video about Bay Area slang where E-40 says people call the Bay Area “the Yay”. I’m going to say that I’ve never heard that. I don’t think that’s a Bay thing, I think maaayyybe that’s an Oakland thing. Or maybe he’s just messing with everyone.

Other terms:

• Referring to freeways by number. You might say “take 101 to Sunnyvale”. I think in SoCal they would say “take the 101 to [wherever]”.
• Another thing I’ve been told is strange is our use of the word “tanbark”. Tanbark refers to the pieces of wood you see in playgrounds. Other people call this “wood chips”.
• “Big rig” refers to large trucks. You’ll hear this on local news a lot. This might not be specific to the Bay Area.