Posts Tagged ‘Honda’

Packt Like Sardines: How Many Cars Can You Put Into Just One San Francisco Parking Lot?

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

Well, at least for this particularly oddly-shaped piece of real estate on Main Street near Folsom, the answer was this many:

img_9020-copy.jpg

“Last in, first out.” Click to expand.

I don’t know if this lot in SoMA is still around. The photo was taken from the office of a billionaire who was quite solicitous owing to a project he wanted to kick off before he himself kicked off.

Here’s what I wrote a half decade back:

It might be a pain to park here, under the shadow of the new Infinity San Francisco towers, but at least you won’t get the boot, or get into a chain reaction accident, or get all messy. Of course, if you work for San Francisco Honda, then just park wherever - the sidewalk, for example.

Lastly, DO NOT PAY THIS MAN!

If You Think Not Making a Right Turn at 6th and Market Street is Somewhat Verboten, Just Try Making a Left

Friday, March 8th, 2013

As this driver just did, loaded up with household goods for a trip back up north to Oregon or Washington or whichever state is named on the license plate.

Thusly:

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What drivers do is get stuck on Market outbound and then they see the No Left signs one after the other, 2nd, New Monty, 3rd, 4th, 5th and then they get frustrated and make a left on 6th Street, as here.

And when you make that kind of move, the cops can see you from all around.

(What we should have are signs saying No Left Turns Next 2 Miles, or something, like what we have on 19th Avenue, an official State Highway.)

Of course, if the driver were on Market heading inbound at this very same intersection, then a right turn would be mandatory and going straight just might get her a ticket as well. The thing about that, tho, is that the chances of getting a ticket for not turning right is way less than 1% but, well, making a left you are just begging for a ticket.

(Which you can just throw away once you get back to home state, if you want, IDK.)

What a Dream: The Gasoline-Powered Bicycles of Market Street

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

See the exhaust pipe?

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This is how Honda got started after WWII, with the Model A.

Skruuuunch! What Happens When You Forget That Your Bike Is Sitting Upright in Your Pickup

Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

The tiny, low-clearance garages of new construction in San Francisco have claimed another victim, 11foot8.com style.

See? This is post crash, with the driver backing out for damage assessment:

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When I had a pickup, I’d just throw bikes in the back horizontal-like, but maybe there’s not enough room to do that in a Honda.

Does DPT / MUNI / SFMTA Have a Pinterest Photo Account?! How About This Shot from David Waggoner?

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

Here’s, and I’m seriously, here’s MUNI’s Pinterest account:

How our riders see Muni

Oh mercy!

Now here’s how I see you, MUNI. I see you as the worst large public transit agency in America.

Here’s my submission via David Waggoner and the Fog City Journal

Click to expand

Wow, a Pinterest. I didn’t see that one coming.

P.S. MUNI sucks!

The Horrible Pedestrians of Masonic Avenue – See How They Run – A Darwin Award Loser

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Here’s how some people cross six lanes of Masonic at Ewing Terrace:

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Now, is this kind of thing legal? Well sure, if you’re walking – this could be one of those unmarked crosswalk deals.

But it’s not legal to cross here if you’re running. Sorry pedestrian.

(Our FUBARed beyond all reason SFMTA has a plan to put a traffic light in here whenever it can get its grand mal Masonic Street Design off the ground.)

Now a little further up the hill, we lost a ped who was similarly jaywalking earlier this year. I guess we could blame accidents like that the 30 MPH speed limit in front of Trader Joe’s, but that’s not how I’d look at it.

I’d look at it by trying to get inside the peds’ heads to try to think of a way to get them to not kill themselves.

Oh well.

Masonic Avenue Street Design Study

Engineering hearing on proposed changes, May 13, 2011

Masonic Street Redesign Study final report (PDF)

The survey results from the third community meeting, held on September 30, 2010, at San Francisco Day School (PDF), are available.

About the Project

The primary goal of the Masonic Avenue Street Design Study is to identify how Masonic Avenue between Geary Boulevard and Fell Street can safely and efficiently accommodate the needs of all roadway users, including but not limited to pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and Muni. The project is funded by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority through the Prop K half-cent local transportation sales tax program.

Objectives:

1. Engage representatives of all constituencies within the community who would be impacted by changes to Masonic Avenue including, but not limited to, residents on Masonic Avenue, residents on side-streets, merchants, school representatives, bicyclists, Muni customers and pedestrians.

2. Improve transit operation.

3. Improve pedestrian and non-motorized access to transit.

4. Increase the safety of pedestrian crossings.

5. Increase motorist compliance with traffic rules and regulations.

6. Reduce the number of vehicular collisions, especially those involving pedestrians and bicyclists.

7. Support neighborhood vitality by creating a more inviting and accommodating public realm.

Community meeting presentations

The following presentations from the various community meetings are available from the San Francisco Planning Department website:

First community meeting presentation, June 15, 2010, Day School, PDF, 7MB
Second community meeting presentation, Aug. 10, 2010, Day School, PDF, 7MB
Third community meeting presentation, Sept. 30, 2010, Day School, PDF, 6MB

James Shahamiri
415.701.4732
james.shahamiri@sfmta.com

Even If You Own a Car, You’ve Got to Admit That This Five-Vehicle Crash on Hayes was Pretty Funny – Transit First, Bitches

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Can you reconstruct the scene here?

The first vehicle (you know, the one with the driver who, post-accident, took off with a quickness) struck the Toyota, which struck the Honda, which struck the Ford, which struck the other Toyota.

Click to expand – taken back when my Canon 1D Mark II was brand-new and a fast 2GB CF card went for  four hundred dollars.

No injuries and maximum humor, you can’t beat that.

Have you ever seen a funnier accident? I haven’t.

After I took the shot, I yelled out “transit first, bitches” and then rolled away on a 21 Hayes bus my melon-farming bike.

“Sharing my aggression is what that I do
Every day I’m riding the ‘Tour de Fuck You’
Banging on hoods and kicking in fenders
a right-of-way-aholic on a permanent bender
Running red lights at the fat intersection
Cutout seat protects my erection [SO TRUE]
You like the bird, in my hand?
Take two from a motherfucking track stand on my bike
I’m on a motherfucking bike
I’m on a motherfucking bike”

Crazy State Worker Lady Wants Honda Civic Hybrid Owners to Sue Honda in Small Claims Court Over Low MPG

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

I’ll tell you, I don’t know how good your odds would be if you sued the maker of your car because you felt it didn’t meet the EPA mileage estimate, but this lady in SoCal appears to have a good shot.

I’ll tell you, Honda Civic Hybrid owners, The System wants you to take some worthless $100 coupon or whatever to compensate you for Honda messing up. The System doesn’t want you opting out of the national class action settlement.

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Choose or lose, Honda owners.

HONDA ORDERED TO STAND TRIAL ON JANUARY 3rd

Normally a small claims case is just that – small – in fact, barely an annoyance to large corporations because damages are limited. However, one small claims case pending in the Los Angeles area is certain to get a lot of attention because it will be going to trial just when approximately 200,000 Honda Civic Hybrid owners are opening their mailboxes to find notices of a proposed class action settlement where the Honda owners would get no more than $200 cash and the lawyers would get $8.474 million!

One disappointed Honda Civic Hybrid owner in California who got wind of the tiny settlement offer in advance chose to opt-out of the class and paid $75 to file a small claims case instead. The trial was set for January 3rd, six weeks before the 200,000 Civic owners are set to decide if they want to stick with the class action or file their own suits which can often be done quickly and cheaply without lawyers. (Think Judge Judy where regular people get up and give a 15 minute version of their complaint in plain English and then get a decision from the court). This case will be one of the first under the new 2012 law allowing individuals to sue for up to $10,000 in small claims court in California.

Honda has attempted four different legal maneuvers to postpone the trial until after the deadline had passed for Hybrid owners to opt-out of the class action, but the Judge said “no” all four times and the trial will proceed as originally scheduled on January 3rd. If the Plaintiff in that case wins and gets awarded thousands of dollars in damages, then Honda will have a lot of explaining to do to justify paying other Hybrid owners just enough to cover a few tanks of gas instead of replacing the defective hybrid batteries at $3,000 a pop – roughly $600,000,000.00!”

Honda vs. Honda: Driver Flips Her Civic Next to a Shadow Motorcycle on Oak Near Divisadero – November 27th, 2011

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

[UPDATE: Andrea Koskey has more deets on this collision, as does RedditSF - it has a shot from just afterwards. ]

The driver of this car was taking Oak to get back to the Peninsula this afternoon but she ended up flipping her Honda Civic just before Divisadero.

See?

Click to expand

So as traffic backed up for miles along Oak, the SFPD began its investigation:

The Honda Shadow:

San Francisco’s “Comeback Neighborhood of the Year” is the host of this scene, betwixt abandoned sidewalk sofas and the LaunderLand:

Now I’ll tell you, we were supposed to get a freeway to link up the terminuseses of 101 and 280 with the Golden Gate Bridge, but what we got instead was Fell and Oak with three or four one-way lanes each way timed for 35 MPH. But these days, for various reasons, the Fell/Oak twins don’t play the substitute freeway role as well.

Recently, this intersection at Divis. has become a bottleneck owing to the inefficient* left arrow phase for southbound traffic on Divisadero to allow drivers to get on eastbound Oak. I’m not sure, but this configuration might have confused or upset the Civic driver, who was driving “all squirrelly” near Broderick shortly before this accident.

LBCOT

*Hey, how about a big fat “NO LEFT TURN” sign for southbound drivers on Divisadero? This intersection wasn’t made “for the neighbors,” so there’s no reason for the people who live in this area to have more of a say than those poor, wretched souls who live way out there in the West Bay, you know, the Sunset and the Richmond. This new left turn phase, like the one at Octavia for inbound Market Street drivers, appears to be a sop for DivCo / NoPA / EaPA locals… 

Rolling Museums: Cuba Has Old Cars, San Francisco Has Old Motorcycles – Triumph Bonneville T100, Honda CB200, BMW R75/6

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

San Francisco is the world capitol of aging, somewhat exotic motorcycles, don’t you know.

This view of Scott Street is typical.

Triumph Bonneville T100:

Click to expand

Honda CB200:

BMW R75/6:

Hurray!