The San Francisco Citizen

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?

[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.]

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).

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.

It seems the ecotage movement is now going after the Toyota Prius hybird in Northern California. No longer satisifed with attacking gasoline-powered SUV’s and pickups [yes Silverado pickups, sometimes Wiki is wrong], eco-griefers must now be turning their sights to the greenhouse-polluting Prius.

Why else would folks be stalking these popular hybrid cars? The people behind these attacks probably drive 100% electric cars like the Tesla Roadster.

Be on the lookout for vandals in all-electric cars or golf carts. They could be coming after your hybrid.

Beware!

Sometimes, when a mob gets going after one thing, it turns and attacks another thing. Funny how that works.

“In America, they came first for the SUV’s, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an SUV owner;

And then they came for the pickups, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a pickup owner;

And then . . . they came for my Prius . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”

Toyota Prius owners in California already have some immunity from getting moving violation tickets, but more help is needed.

What about parking tickets? Perhaps we should make Priuseses fully immune from parking tickets as well. That would encourage more people to drive hybrids, right? And then we wouldn’t be forced to witness a sad scene like this, where a car that’s supposed to going 80 miles per in the fast lane with just one occupant is sidelined with a bum leg.

By the way, parking tickets are going up to $60 soon. Happy motoring!