See all these people heading up the 1200 block of San Francisco’s Lombard Street? They’re on their way to the Crookedest Street in the World, just a short drive away. But, en realidad, these people will have a long wait to get up this hill. Why? Because they have to take their turn. And that causes problems:
“I live one block from Lombard and Polk and every Sat and Sun Lombard is full of tourists who burn up their clutches trying to get up Lombard street….”
This is gridlock. Perhaps it will take a half hour to get to the curvy part?
Here’s the block of Clutch Sorrow:
Click to expand
Now, if you’re on this street trying to get to the good part of Lombard, you should just jink on over to Filbert via Polk and then get to Hyde. Then you go north on Hyde and hang a righty to go down the famous block.
That way, you avoid this situation:
“Driving up Lombard Street in San Francisco takes patience and a quick foot. If you have a manual transmission you’ll need to exercise care when releasing the clutch. Even cars with automatic transmissions squeal tires driving up Lombard Street. Every time you go from gas to brake the car rolls back until the motor moves the car forwards. On Lombard Street its quite normal to smell burning rubber from tires and clutches. Lombard Street is best driven in a rental car.”
So, don’t follow the crowd up Lombard and don’t follow the 49 Mile Scenic Drive (which doesn’t even hit the crooked part of the street), just follow the cable cars on Hyde from Nob Hill.
You’ll do fine.
