I live in SF and I never know which side is Inbound or Outbound. I always end up waiting for 15min+?

Question

for the bus and than finding out I'm on the wrong side. Ocassionally I'm on the right side. Any tips ?

Answer 1

Ask someone.

Or get a compass and check north and south.

Answer 2

Inbound means downtown bound and Outbound means away from downtown.  Also on the bus stop where you are waiting, there is a bus stop sign on a pole.  Look at that and see where the bus's final destination is.  Then determine whether you are going towards that direction or not.  If there is no bus stop sign on a pole, look at the destination sign of the bus.  It is ususally in this order:  the route number/ then the name of the route/ then the final destination.  

For example, 14 Mission/ Daly City or 14 Mission/ Ferries.  The number of the route is 14.  The name of the route is Mission.  The final destination if Daly City is outbound because it is going AWAY from downtown SF.  But if it says Ferries, it means its going to downtown SF because the final destination is the Ferry Building.

Some routes do not really have an inbound or outbound because it does not go into downtown at all.  Otherwise, you would refer it directionally as nothbound/southbound or eastbound/westbound.  For example, you will see either 28 19th Ave/ Daly City BART or 28 19th Ave/ Marina.  You can then refer to when the bus going towards Daly City BART is southbound and goint to the Marina is northbound.

In terms of making sure whether you are on the right side or not?  That, you will have to just be familiar yourself with.  If you never ridden that particular bus line before, you can look at the bus stop sign and then compare with the one across the street to see which one is the right direction you are going towards.  You can also observe the bus's running on the opposite side of the street to see and check out their destination sign to see if you are right or not.

Don't worry, sometimes its trial and error.  As you said, you always end up waiting and then finding out you're on the wrong side.  That means then next time you will know and this will never happen again!

Hope this has been helpful!