Attention truck, bus, and limousine drivers of the world:
It’s hard to drive in San Francisco.
If you’d only realize that when you’re planning your trip into town, life would be so much easier for you.
Via melfoody, from a few days back
Remember, it’s hard to drive here…
All the deets of yesterday’s drive-by:
“A specially designed and outfitted armored vehicle with DTS styling and a high-roof fitted to a GM four-wheel drive chassis was used in the second inauguration of U.S. President George W. Bush. While details of the modified vehicle, codenamed Stagecoach, remain classified, previous such vehicles indicate that it would have been upgraded with advanced armor and safety features in order to protect the president from various threats.
“Its successor entered service with President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009. According to GM, the manufacturer, the “2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine” is the first not to carry a specific model name. The vehicle is a combination of a Cadillac limousine body on the chassis/platform of a GMC Topkick commercial truck and bears styling cues from the CTS and Escalade models as opposed to the DTS.”
Precious memories:
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POTUS was worried that he’d get too excited about seeing San Francisco’s new and improved, almost-America’s-Cup-ready “World Class Waterfront,” so he decided to take a nap.
Best of all, it’s a Cadillac:
Good call, Mr. President.
Our Teatro ZinZanni has a new home, but Sarah Duxbury says that some heavy lifting still needs to be done.
No matter, TZ’s cabaret performers were on hand all smiles yesterday at the news conference* in the “50 Broadway” parking lot near the Embarcadero. This location will be ZinZanni’s new home, if everything works out.
(I’ll tell you, I can’t tell the difference betwixt Gavin Newsom running the Newsom Administration and Ed Lee running the Newsom Adminstration, fundamentally. I mean, Ed Lee is not an impetuous asshole, so that means he behaves better, he tends to show up at these kinds of functions with a smaller entourage and less drama. That’s good, I s’pose…)
Oh, there he is, to the right of the gorgeous Martian(?) lady:
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See how this will work? The famous European tent they use will go behind the new building:
All the deets after the jump.
And get over to highly-rated ZinZanni (if you can still get tickets, perhaps on a Wednesday or Thursday) before they shut down on the night of December 31, 2011. It really is quite an experience.
* I didn’t stick around for the Bauer’s “Intelligent” Transportation part of the presser. You know, you really need to work hard at sucking to get a Yelp rating this low.** But Bauer’s is well-connected to SFGov, so there you go, there’s your bidness model.
**Even with the work of shill reviewers avec their bogus five-star ratings…
That’s why we have so many illegal Town Cars drivers plying the streets, you know, they’re filling the void.
As seen at 555 California, the Bank of America Building:
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Does any other city in America have a taxi situation like San Francisco’s?
No, not at all.
We need more.*
MOAR!
Adding 500 part time medallions would be a good start…
*Adding just 35 or 85 or whatever, that’s not going to cut it, pardner.
Let me tell you about back in the day – back in the day, the worst drivers on the road were the nuts behind the steering wheels of those dark blue SuperShuttle airport vans. Well guess what – these vans are getting video cameras that will record unsafe driving practices and then report on drivers wirelessly.
Check it:
“SmartDrive measures safety for fleet vehicle drivers by monitoring their driving habits as well as capturing accidents and erratic driver behaviors through video. This is done by installing cameras in the vehicles and reviewing events that are generated by the cameras. A SmartDrive camera includes two lenses—one facing the front of the vehicle and one facing the inside of the vehicle—that capture events generated by the camera’s g-force sensors. These events are professionally reviewed by SmartDrive and reports are created for the fleet managers.”
Best I can figure, these cameras are always on but the video gets recorded over if there’s no activation from the g-force sensors. But once some incident occurs, like a sudden stop or even an uncomfortable-for-the-passengers lane change, then the box will snitch on the driver. It’s like a black box on an airliner.
MUNI has something similar, in a way, but why don’t we have a “Measured Safety Program” for other bad drivers like San Francisco cabbies, or Toyota Prius and BMW owners?
Here’s a partial menu of snitching possibilities:
Now I’ll tell you, SuperShuttles don’t seem to menace the roads as much these days. The title of Worst Driven Shuttle now belongs to poorly-rated Bauer Limousine / Bauer Transportation / Bauer “Intelligent” Transportation.
The drivers at Bauer’s manage to sometimes scare even our hard-bitten taxi drivers, sometimes.
“Boy, I’m so Intelligent, I think I’ll lurch into this lane, all of a sudden, cause, like, time is money or something. “
Now I’m not sure why, but Bauer’s has a corporate cheerleader in “City” “Bright” Zennie62. Hey, maybe Zennie will start cheering for Bauer’s to install this SmartDrive stuff for all of Bauer’s vehicles, from the practical to the uber-cheezy:
“City Brights are prominent local citizens and experts with a unique Bay Area perspective that is often enlightening, sometimes infuriating and always thought-provoking.”
Or maybe Bauer’s already has a similar system. All’s I know is that Bauer drivers seem to have issues, for what it’s worth.
Anyway, here are all the deets about SmartDrive. They should have things up and running by the end of 2011.
Tattle boxes for all!
Hurray!
(And what about our Federal employees – do the the Feds drive badly? Well, we’ll find out soon ‘nough…)
Anyway, hurray!
“SmartDrive to Equip SuperShuttle and Other Veolia Transportation Services with the Latest in High Tech Safety and Eco-Driving Systems - SmartDrive Safety and Eco-Driving system works to help improve driving performance – reducing collisions and saving fuel.
SAN DIEGO, June 1, 2011 – Executives from Veolia Transportation’s On-Demand Division, whose SuperShuttle, Compass and Golden Touch franchised brands provide consumer and specialized transport services, and SmartDrive Systems, a leader in fleet safety and operational efficiency, today announced Veolia’s purchase of SmartDrive safety and eco-driving technology for the division’s 1,631 vans and buses throughout the US.
SmartDrive uses video, audio and ECU-connected vehicle data sensors to detect and record risky driving maneuvers, such as sudden stops, hard cornering, aggressive acceleration, and excessive speed. After expert review and analysis, SmartDrive delivers recommendations so fleets can respond quickly to reduce risky driving and collisions.”
All the deets after the jump.
First up are these temporary blue license plates limo drivers get from SFO – you see them all over town these days. (Is there some kind of scam people pull involving with these plates? Knowing SFO the way I do, I’m sure there is.)
Anyway I think they’re part of the San Francisco International Airport’s Commercial Ground Transportation Operating Permit Pre-Operations Entry Package, or something. Mystery solved.
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Second up is why does SFO charges a taxi driver picking up passengers more than a limo driver? Check out the price list of a trip to SFO:
Taxis $4.00
Taxis (non-San Francisco based short trips) $2.00
Limousines $3.65
Just asking, SFO Bro.
Scheduled Buses $2.80
Share Ride Vans – all zones $2.90
Share Ride Vans – all zones – not implementing Clean Vehicle Policy $8.70
Pre-arranged Vans $3.05
Pre-arranged Vans – not implementing Clean Vehicle Policy $9.15
Off-Airport Parking Shuttles $2.80
Off-Airport Parking Shuttles – not implementing Clean Vehicle Policy $8.40
Off-Airport Parking Shuttles – Hydrogen Blend Vehicles $1.00
Charter Buses $3.05
Hotel Courtesy Shuttles $2.75
Hotel Courtesy Shuttles- not implementing Clean Vehicle Policy $8.25
Hotel Courtesy Shuttles – Hydrogen Blend Vehicles $0.95
Miscellaneous Ground Transportation $3.00″
But as always, You Make The Call.
As seen on Market Street:
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The pithy answer? “You’re supposed to go down Sixth and then make a left on Folsom.”
(Now, I’d probably suggest Mission before Folsom but there you go.)
But the driver, who should have gone right at Sixth Street when coming inbound on Market,* made it more than a city block before getting pulled over, so you can consider that some consolation – that’s almost a clean getaway.
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*Are limousines ”commercial” traffic as far as the right-turn-only on inbound Market rules are concerned? Well, I don’t know.
Let’s just say that long-time Yelper Rosie S is not a fan of Bauer’s Limousine / Bauer’s Transportation / Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation. Why? Well, ’cause they sent a tacky van instead of a proper limo to her wedding a few months back. Check the excerpts:
The 10 passenger limo I ordered did NOT arrive. Instead, they sent us a VAN! The morning of my wedding. Not what I ordered.
I contacted the company when I returned from my honeymoon–note: they NEVER contacted me to explain the situation nor to apologize–and they said:
“I have checked with our operations department as to what happened this day and it appears there had been a mechanical issue with a regular stretch limo so they made the last minute decision to upgrade the vehicle to a limousine van. This was our next best option at the moment. I sincerely apologize that a regular stretch did not appear, but this was viewed as a free upgrade to the original vehicle reserved.”
Horrendous company, terrible service, awful fleet of cars if they have seemingly frequent “mechanical issues.” Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY FROM BAUER’S unless you want to get ripped off and disappointed! Especially on your wedding day….
Can you believe that? Now, if I were running a crappy limo / transportation / “intelligent” transportation company, I’d feel bad about my fail whale exploding all over a wedding and I’d apologize and then I’d give a full refund, but that’s just me.
Now, speaking of crappy, how about them Bauer limousine van / bus / whatever drivers on the 101?
Speeding? Sure, we’ve got to get you to the church (or wherever) on time! But signaling? Not so much. You see, there’s no money in signaling:
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Rosie says that the Bauer people didn’t respond to her until after she filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court, Small Claims Division. Oh well.
Now, judges might be sympathetic to plaintiffs in a situation like this, but you never know how they’d rule. Sometimes what’s in the contract is what matters and sometimes not so much. Oh well.
But I believe the gist of Rosie’s story – I don’t think that she’s committing Yelp fraud, I don’t think that she owns a rival cheesy “intelligent” transportation company or that she’s sponsored by one.
Speaking of which, there’s somebody on Yelp saying how great Bauer’s is but he neglected to add in or update the little tidbit that Bauer’s is a “sponsor” of his. Oh well. I’ll give you one guess how many Yelp stars he gives to Bauer’s IT.
Did you guess cinco?
You’re right, mi amiga/o. (And actually, it appears that purported “Luminary” and “City Bright” writer at the San Francsico Chronicle’s SFGate.com Zenophon / Zennie62 is incapable of ever giving anything less than five stars on Yelp. How sporting!)
Anyway, good luck Rosie!
This aging, second-generation Lincoln Town Car, a pretty lengthy vehicle to begin with, has been stretched by about six or seven feet to become the longest car with handicapped plates in San Francisco.
Just think, with this rig you could take a dozen of your friends along wherever you go.
But, as the license plate holder notes, you might need to remind strangers, “PRIVATE VEHICLE, NOT FOR HIRE.”
Fair enough:
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