Distances from Foster City, CA to nearby and major US cities
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Foster City, CA to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Foster City, CA sits in California, on Los Angeles time, at 37.56° north and 122.27° west. The nearest place of any size is Redwood City, CA, about 7 miles away — roughly 15 min of driving. 51 other towns of size are within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 116 are within three hours' driving of Foster City, CA and 162 within six — which is a better measure of how connected a town is than its position on a map. The nearest city of real size is San Francisco, CA, about 21 miles out.
The two lists below answer different questions. The first is what is physically close, which is what you want for an errand or a day out. The second is the major cities people actually drive to from here, which is usually a longer trip and a different kind of plan. Every figure is an estimated road distance rather than a routed one, and every drive time assumes free-flowing traffic with no allowance for a stop — how the estimate works. For a pair that is not listed here, the calculator will work out any two US cities.
Which way the driving goes from Foster City, CA
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Foster City, CA. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 41 of 116 — lies to the northeast, with 21 to the southeast. Only 2 sit to the west. That asymmetry is usually geography rather than road building: coastline, a state line, mountains or simply empty country in one direction and settlement in another.
116 of those places are in California and 0 are across a state line, which matters more than the mileage does. Speed limits, phone rules and what you may do at a red light are all set state by state, so a drive of the same length can be governed by two sets of rules or by one. The state-by-state differences are set out separately.
The major-city list below spans a wide range: Oakland, CA is about 22 miles out, roughly 34 min of driving, while Queens, NY is around 3,021 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day. 2 of the 10 routes below have a page of their own, with the towns along the way and how flying compares.
One thing none of these figures account for: the distance is the same in both directions but the drive often is not. A route that climbs on the way out descends on the way back, rush hour is in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening, and a mountain pass can be open one way and closed the other in winter. The estimate here is symmetrical because the road is; the day is not. For a long haul out of Foster City, CA, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Foster City, CA
- Redwood City, CA 7 mi · 15 min
- Burlingame, CA 7 mi · 15 min
- Millbrae, CA 9 mi · 19 min
- Menlo Park, CA 12 mi · 24 min
- San Bruno, CA 12 mi · 25 min
- East Palo Alto, CA 13 mi · 26 min
- South San Francisco, CA 14 mi · 27 min
- Palo Alto, CA 15 mi · 29 min
- San Lorenzo, CA 16 mi · 26 min
- Pacifica, CA 17 mi · 27 min
Major cities from Foster City, CA
- Oakland, CA 22 mi · 34 min
- Los Angeles, CA 384 mi · 6 hr 24 min
- San Diego, CA 512 mi · 8 hr 8 min
- Phoenix, AZ 742 mi · 11 hr 47 min
- Houston, TX 1917 mi · 30 hr 25 min
- Chicago, IL 2174 mi · 34 hr 31 min
- Philadelphia, PA 2953 mi · 46 hr 52 min
- New York City, NY 3011 mi · 47 hr 47 min
- Brooklyn, NY 3015 mi · 47 hr 51 min
- Queens, NY 3021 mi · 47 hr 57 min