The San Francisco Citizen

Just call (415) 485-1238 to sign up, according to the ad that occludes the rear view of anyone driving this Toyota Prius.

The first lesson for Prius drivers in the Bay Area is how to turn the headlights on at night. An amazing number of drivers of these cars just don’t seem to be aware that their lights aren’t on. No headlights, daytime running lights, turn signals, tailights - no nothing except the brake lights occasionally.  

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All you can do is yell “headlights!” when they drive past.

Here’s what you’ll see tooling around San Francisco’s Mission District these days - an aging Mercedes Benz 300 SD sedan that’s been converted by Oakland’s Veg Rev to run on vegetable oil in a process called “vehicle fuel reassignment.”

So instead of inky diesel soot covering the back of this OM617 W126, we see vegetable oil. See the conversion process courtesy of this nifty video. (But just ignore a laughable MTV-style intro from the abysmal Current TV network.) The car shown can’t accelerate quickly, but in many ways is superior to (and costs about $115,000 less than) the quick, all-electric Tesla Roadster.

Of course the best way to spread the word about veggie power is to fashion a bumper sticker to make Toyota Prius owners feel bad:

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“YOUR NEW HYBRID USES GAS - HA!”

From Teh Mission with love…

Click here to see the latest version of the proposed Chevy Volt “series hybrid” gas-electric car from General Motors. Yes, that’s a fake grill on the nose of the car - apparently, all Chevies gots to have a grille whether they need it or not.

But that’s the way this “boring, boring, boring” vehicle will look once it gets to production.

But look below to see what the Chevy Volt looked like less than a year ago when it visited San Francisco.

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Nobody expected these 22-inch wheels (complete with ”not for road use” Michelin Green-X tires”) to make it into production, but the folks at Chevy could have tried a little harder to drag the show car dream into existence.  

Comes now Toyota with the third-generation Prius that might get a plug-in option at the end of next year. GM better hurry if it wants to get the Volt on the road before then.

But at least Hollywood’s Michael Bay is doing all he can to help. Having honed his skillz directing Scarlett Johansen (as Jordan Two Delta) in The Island, he’s now working on fitting the Chevy Volt into Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

But sadly, this little Chevy will just drive around and not transform into a robot or have any lines with Optimus Prime (known as Convoy in Japan).

Oh well…

San Francisco’s hybrid-only Green Cab Company started up a while back and seems to be doing well. But now, old-school cab companies are getting into the act.

Veterans Cab Company, where former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown worked (until they raised the “gate fees” on him) a long time ago while a student at UC Hastings School of Law , now has Toyota Priuseses.

How about that? In the real world, these things can get about four times better fuel economy when compared to a regular taxi kind of car, such as the Ford Crown Victoria. That all adds up during a ten-hour shift.  

The Presidio of San Francisco, on the northern waterfront to the left of the newly upscale Ghirardelli Square, hasn’t seen this much action since they filmed The Presidio, starring Sean Connery. It appears that a mounted member of the United States Park Police briefly detained a Google Maps camera car for some sort of driving infraction this morning. Oh noes! Don’t impede this car - it’s gone to some interesting places. It’s not scary at all, right?

So the photo below shows how the magic of Google Street View happens - you can see their method all laid out. In this case, Google is using a brand-spanking-new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid (wouldn’t a 50-state VW Jetta TDI diesel get better mileage?) and a rather tall metal mast with mad cameras, GPSes and SICK laser range finders. Click to expand:

Courtesy of damianspain of the San Francisco Bay area. Thanks Damian! Check out his flickrstream for lots of great shots of San Francisco, including a rare blue sky at the North Beach Festival.

(Normally, the Presidio is a quiet place, except for people feuding over the location of the new CAMP museum and the occasional coyote attack. And Hooverball - the kids these days make all sorts of noise throwing their old school medicine balls around.)

Keep up the good work, Google Street View drivers. Just make sure to watch out for The Man (as well as all those sexy pedestrians trying to catch your attention).

[Update: National Park Service employee and Commenter #67 Motorcop_2000 disputes any account that has the Googler getting a ticket. MC_2K indicates that this driver merely got lost and was trying to get "back to the Avenues" (meaning the Richmond or the Sunset districts). Bad driving and Toyota Priuseses seem to go together, so this story rings true.]

Here it is, one of the first Lexus LS 600h L hybrid luxury sedans to arrive in San Francisco. The letter “L” appended to the end of the model name stands for “long,” so it’s a little difficult to navigate on our narrow streets.

However, balance that with the letter “h,” which tells tout le monde your ride is a hard-to-get six-figure hybrid, the most expensive in the land.  

And it’s even bigger and better than the slightly older Lexus GS450h hybrid.

(Sir Paul McCartney just got his LS 600h L on the other side of the pond, but he was horrified about how it was delivered to him. Chin up, Paul!)

Zoom zoom.

Generally speaking, that is.

Back in the day, old boxy 200-series Volvos had the rep of having drivers that had issues. But these days, it seems the worst motorists on the roads are caged-up in Toyota Priuses. Why’s that?

Could it be that the primary reason most owners bought is that the purchase “makes a statement” about them?

Getting the “what’s a matter you?” Italian-style hand gesture from a perturbed pedestrian on South Van Ness in San Francisco. The driver was blocking a crosswalk for a good 45 seconds while paying attention to something in his right hand. Note body damage from a prior allision.

Another Prius driver recently caused a stir in town by driving through the streetcar-only Sunset Tunnel and getting stuck for a few hours.  

Things have gotten so bad that some people keep an eye out just for these particular hybrids.

Keep a look out and stay safe out there.

Check out this car parked in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park (on a street unaffected by Healthy Saturdays or Healthy Sundays).

California “Livery” license plates and the TCP (”Transport Chartered Party“) number sticker indicate this is a limo for hire, and the letter “H” on the license plate and in the car’s model name, GS 450h, means this vehicle is a gas-electric hybrid. 

Can you imagine the marketing of a hybrid limo such as this? You no longer have a driver, you have a Eco Chauffeur®. And on that special day:

“Your wedding car need not cost the earth. Enjoy luxurious and stylish wedding travel in the eco-friendly Lexus Hybrid wedding car.”

The problem with all this is that Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive technology is basically being used to make the car accelerate faster, as Jeremy Clarkson complains:

“The only good thing about the electric motor is that it provides extra power when you mash your foot into the carpet. And I’m not sure that was the point.”

The same basic vehicle without the Lexus Hybrid Drive system, called the GS 350, is already as fast as stink. Take one of these non-hybrid, 5-passenger sedans to the racetrack and compare it to the vaunted, two-seat Tesla Roadster, the kind you’re starting to see on Bay Area roads these days. That Tesla isn’t going to outrun you to sixty mph.

When you add in the electric motor to make a GS 450h, you get a car that accelerates even faster. 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds - that will get you to the church on time! 

Toyota engineers could have emphasized mileage improvements at the expense of brute force speed, but they chose not to.

Anyway, enjoy your hybrid limo service - the faster you go the faster you save the earth, or something like that.

San Francisco’s new Director of Climate Protection Initiatives was recently seen getting around using his hybrid. Not a hybrid gas/electric car, but a hybrid city bike. It’s not quite a road bike and it’s not quite a mountain bike. This kind of bicycle can be quite useful in San Francisco. Good for him.

China has geared up to produce inexpensive, high quality, lightweight, rust-free aluminum bike frames by the millions. Good for us.

Anyway, local fixture Bill Wilson captured the moment here.