Friday, February 26th, 2010
California Attorney General Jerry Brown can’t abide you fretting over your recalled Toyota or Lexus - so he just struck a deal with Toyota USA so that you’ll be taken care of when getting service.
It’s all going to be on a case-by-case basis, so if you’re totally freaked out and you just don’t want to drive your car no mo, then maybe your dealership can send somebody to come around your place to pick up your car, fix it and return it as good as new. Or you can get a loaner if your repairs go into extra innings.
Read the news, below.
Brown Forges Deal with Toyota to Help Consumers While Recalled Vehicles are Repaired
Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that his office has reached an agreement with Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. to provide California Toyota owners with at-home pickup and vehicle return and cost-free alternative transportation while their recalled vehicles are being repaired.
“This agreement goes a long way towards easing the burden caused by Toyota’s massive recall,” Brown said. “It will now be much easier for Toyota owners to get to work and take their kids to school while critical safety repairs are made on their cars.”
Under the terms of today’s agreement, Toyota will provide owners of recalled vehicles the following services:
- Pick-up and return of vehicles by the dealership;
- Transportation to the dealership and/or to the owner’s place of work;
- Alternative transportation, such as a rental car, loaner vehicle or taxi reimbursement for a reasonable period that the customer is unable or unwilling to use his or her car; and
- Expedited scheduling for repair services.
These services will be provided by Toyota through the dealers at no cost to either the owners or the dealer.
The following Toyota vehicle recalls are covered by today’s agreement:
- September 29, 2009 for floormat entrapment;
- January 21, 2010 for sticking accelerator pedals;
- February 8, 2010 for anti-lock brake system issues; and
- February 12, 2010 for drive-shaft failure.
The following vehicles are involved in the recent Toyota and Lexus vehicle recalls: 2005-2010 Avalon, 2007-2010 Camry, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2007-2010 ES 350, 2008-2010 Highlander, 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS350, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2004-2009 Prius, 2010 Prius, 2009-2010 RAV4, 2008-2010 Sequoia, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Tundra, 2009-2010 VENZA, and 2010 HS 250h.
More information on the specific vehicles affected by the recalls can be found at www.nhtsa.dot.gov and www.toyota.com/recall.
Californians are encouraged to contact their local Toyota and Lexus dealers if they believe they are eligible for these accommodations. Consumers can also contact Toyota’s customer service center at 1-800-331-4331 or Lexus at 1-800-255-3987.
This agreement will remain in place until all Toyota vehicles subject to the recall have been repaired. If additional safety recalls arise, an extension of this agreement or other appropriate provisions will be pursued.
Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. is based in Torrance, CA.
Tags: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, accelerator, anti-lock, attorney, attorney general, Avalon, brake, brown, ca, california, camry, christopher Reynolds, corolla, dealership, drive-shaft, driveshaft, drop off, edmund, entrapment, ES 350, fail, failure, floormat, General Counsel, group vice president, Highlander, HS 250h, inc, IS 250, IS350, jerry brown, Jr, lawyer, lexus, lexuses, lexuseses, loaner, matrix, motors, motos, pedals, pickup, prius, rav4, recall, recallm defective, repair, sacramento, sales, San Francisco, Sequoia, sticking, system, tacoma, Torrance, toyota, Toyota Motor Sales USA, toyotas, Tundra, usa, VENZA
Posted in cars | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Check out this bird’s eye view of Montreal, Canada from back in the late 1800’s.
Click to expand:
Doesn’t it sort of look a bit like San Francisco, complete with a Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, Market Street, an Embarcadero, Twin Peaks, Russian Hill and all those gridded streets?
Of course, there are differences. Like they’re a big city and we’re a little-big city with less than a million.
And their town is a lot flatter than ours, too. That’s something that we’ll have to take into account when we kick off our Bixi-like bike share system. (Montreal’s attractive bike share system is currently pretty much confined to the flatter parts of town. That kind of approach won’t work here in San Francisco. But at least we don’t ever have heavy snow, which suspends Bixi service for almost half the year.)
Anyway, compare Montreal with the 415:
Tags: bicycle, bike, birds eye, bixi, canada, City, montreal, San Francisco, share, similar, system, view
Posted in bay area | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
This is a test. Only a test.
Normally, you’d only hear these sirens on Tuesdays at noon. There’s no need for alarm.
Deets below.
CITYWIDE SIRENS TO SOUND AS PART OF EARTHQUAKE DRILL
What: The City’s Outdoor Public Warning System Sirens will be activated as part of the statewide Drop, Cover and Hold earthquake drill on October 15, 2009 at 10:15 am. The sirens will be sounded, followed by a voice message indicating that it is a test. This is the first time the City is utilizing the system citywide at a time other than the regular Tuesday noon weekly test.
San Francisco residents and visitors should not be alarmed by the fact that the sirens are sounding at a time other than the regular Tuesday test.
When: Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10:15 am
Where: 92 locations citywide
Why: The City is participating in the Great California ShakeOut, the statewide earthquake drill. To date, more than 280,000 people in San Francisco have registered to participate in the drill, and more than 6.4 million have registered statewide. For more information, please go to
www.shakeout.org/sanfrancisco.
Tags: 10:15, 15, 15th, 2009, am, anniversary, cover, drill, drop, earthquake, emergency, hold, horns, loma prieta, morning, october, out, public, quake, San Francisco, shake, shakeout, sirens, system, test, warning
Posted in government | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Last night’s meeting on the proposed Geary Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Project was co-hosted by District One Supervisor Mar and the San Francisco Country Transportation Authority. Lots of people showed up, including at least one blogger – read all about the meeting here at the Richmond District Blog.
They’re still working on some major details, so it’s not too late for citizens such as yourself to get involved. Just saying.
San Francisco Country Transportation Authority Principal Transportation Planner and Geary BRT QB Zabe Bent taking questions along with Eric Mar:
Yes, this event WAS well-attended, with about seventy-something souls at the Rec Center on 18th Avenue. Some of them didn’t look or sound too happy. Crossed arms was the order of the day:
So, the long-running BRT Battle continues. Read all aboot it here, courtesy of “Don’t Call Him Crazy” Rob Anderson, and here, courtesy of Rescue Muni, and you might as well get up to speed with all the deets of this project here, from the Official FAQ.
As they say, Go Geary!
Tags: 18th, 27, 27th, ave, avenue, bent, blvd., boulevard, brt, bus, corridor, country, cta, district, eric mar, geary, geary bus rapid transit, inner, july, meeting, middle, Muni, municicpal, outer, railway, rapid, rec center, recreation, richmond, sfcta, SFMTA, Supervisor, system, transit, transportation authority, zabe, zabe bent
Posted in transit | Comments Off
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
As promised, A Giant Cartoon Map of the San Francisco Water System, from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
Click on it to swim around and see where your tasty San Francisco wawa comes from. What’s that you say, what about lead and stuff? Well they test for that all the time, Silly Billy. What’s that you say, what about the lead solder that’s in the pipes in your building? Well, one thing you can do is let your water run for a bit to minimise exposure to the lead that’s leached into the water sitting in the pipes. It can’t hoit.
A lovely illustration from the late great Phil Frank.
Anyway, click expand.
Tags: california, Cartoon, conservation, department, lead, let the water run, map, phil frank, public, Public Utilities Commission, PUC, Reservoir, San Francisco, SF, SFPUC, sfwater, sfwater.org, supply, system, water
Posted in environment | Comments Off
