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About the Museum > Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

We'll admit that The Transportation Museum isn't your typical museum! It's a one-day event held annually featuring interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from historical displays (like the Pony Express or the Transcontinental Railroad) to those looking toward the future (solving Bay Area traffic and traveling to Mars). If it's your first time visiting the museum or you're interested in a refresher on what to expect, read answers to common guest questions.

What are the exhibits like?

Each of the museum exhibits are different, but each year's museum brings between 10 to 15 brand-new exhibits to the public. Each exhibit combines both educational components and interactive activities, so every display can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. For example, in the Float Your Boat exhibit at the museum in 2016, guests learned the science behind how boats float and discovered what buoyancy and water displacement is. Then, guests worked to build a boat out of LEGOs that could carry cargo containers while remaining afloat. In an exhibit at the museum in 2019, visitors programmed miniature robots through a San Francisco-themed obstacle course to learn, hands-on, how self-driving cars function. First-time visitors often describe the museum as a cross between a Maker Faire and a transportation convention, if you can picture that!

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What is the museum, as a whole, like?

Unlike other transportation museums, The Transportation Museum does not focus on one mode of transportation, nor one time period or location. Rather, it explores all of these combinations. While the specific number of individual displays vary from year to year, in general, each museum has between 10 and 15 exhibits. (One of the reasons why the museum moved from Andrew's house, after the first seven years, was because the space was too small to display all of the exhibits.)

In general, most visitors spend about 2 hours exploring the exhibits and activities.

Are all ages allowed at the museum?

Yes, visitors of all ages are encouraged at the museum! One of the unique features of The Transportation Museum is its ability to incorporate educational information in a variety of hands-on and exciting activities, so that both kids and adults are likely to have fun!

How can I share the museum with friend and others?

Feel free to direct them to the museum's website, TheTransportationMuseum.com, to learn the most up-to-date and relevant information about this year's museum. If they have specific questions, they can contact the museum directly.

How did the museum begin?

At the age of five, Andrew Mancini created The Transportation Museum as a way to share his knowledge of, and love for, transportation, with friends, family, and neighbors. In the past 13 years, the museum has grown considerably. Click here to explore the museum's history and evolution since 2008.

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How are the exhibits selected?

The museum exhibits cover a wide variety of transportation-related topics, but frequent sources of inspiration for Andrew include anniversaries of significant transportation moments, local transportation developments and projects, transportation current events, and the stories detailed in other museum exhibits. View the exhibits page to see a list of all the museum's previous exhibits.

How can I help the museum continue to run smoothly?

Volunteers are always needed and greatly appreciated on the day of the museum, to greet and assist museum guests. If you'd be interested and available to help out on at the museum in 2024, contact Andrew.

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