Posts Tagged ‘transporter’
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Dude’s all over town, day and night. He’s got a bike lock and bike lights and he uses his Segway for everything, ranging all over the Ci-tay – Western Addition, the Tenderloin, you name it.
Bumped into him at a DCCC meeting on Golden Gate one time, the one where people were all upset about the rankings of the official Democratic Party endorsements. (Turned out the rankings didn’t matter, but Malia Cohen’s #2 endorsement that night, along with a few other things, is what made her your new District Ten Supe. Anyway…)
Truly, he is the 415′s new Segway Champion of San Francisco:
Now, ponytailed lawyer guy (at least he looks like a lawyer to me) is still Segway Master of Market, so that should be some consolation. Look for him betwixt the Castro and the Financh:
Who will become the next Segway King (or Queen)?
Tags: 2010, bay area, california, ginger, helmet, king, light, market, ponytail, post, San Francisco, segway, street, suit, transporter, trench coat
Posted in transit | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Market Street’s most famous Segway rider is still at it, after all these years.
What drives him so?
The encounter. Before…
…during…
…and after:
Move aside/
and let the man go through/
Let the man go through
Tags: 2010, architecture, award, bay area, Berkeley, Boulevards, california, commuting, crash, dean kamen, department of public works, design, Design of Multiway Boulevards, dpw, electric, evolution, freeway, gm, gob, golden gate park, History, human, Human Transporter, i2, illegal, legal, market, offramp, pacifica, personal, ponytail, pt, rental, San Francisco, scooter, segway, sidewalks, silver, street, suit, traffic, transporter, university, x2
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
Now I’m sure that other people are out there on the Streets of San Francisco (™, a Quinn Martin Production) commuting to work on a Segway scooter, but this guy, this guy*, he’s the man. Why? Staying power, baby. He’s been doing it for while. With style.
Note the black suit, black gloves, stick-it-to-the-Man lawyer’s ponytail(?), saddlebag, auxilliary lighting – it’s got to be the same dude I used to see years ago on Market Street. Apparently, he has a safe and convenient way of storing his rig at home and at work, and he’s worked out a good-enough system for safekeeping while performing errands. Good for him.
Click to expand. On Market crossing problematic Octavia Boulevard, San Francisco’s Greatest Public Policy Disaster of the 21st Century**
You see, he’s not riding on the sidewalk, not tromping on the grass, not riding on the train tracks, not clowning around in Golden Gate Park like Lily, not skylarking himself into a painful (at the very least – that poor, poor woman) faceplant, not killing himself at 5 MPH, not playing soulja boy, and not wearing a tuxedo while escorting a high-heeled woman(!) to the exclusive Black and White Ball.
In short, the man has his dignity.
Quite unlike Gob, for another example:
Truth be told, the San Francisco man you see in the first photo is using the cleverly-designed Segway exactly as it was meant to be used. (There was some issue before about allowing Segways on sidewalks, but all the effort by a bunch of lobbyists failed. So, the street is where these things belong, apparently.)
The problem Segway Inc. has is that there was no way IT (a former name, along with “Ginger”) could possibly live up to the hype that came from Segway Inc. and Various Famous People.
But that’s ancient history now. What’s the future of the Seqway PT? Only Time Will Tell.
*Note the use of a Canon 135mm 2.0 lens avec full-frame digital camera. The key is to use this combo wide-open, so you use either Aperture Priority or Manual Mode to set the lens to f/stop 2.0. (That’s the full Clockwork Orange setting, no squinting allowed.) You end up with a diffuse, fuzzy background (depending on geometry of where you’re standing, etc.) and clear view of whatever you focused upon, assuming the not-so-hot auto focus feature of your Canon 5D (Mark II or Mark I) got the job done. This special kind of look is why some people get digital SLR cameras.)
**So far. The NIMBYs of Hayes Valley have nine decades left to top themselves.
Tags: accident, accidents, Allan, Allan Jacobs, Allan B. Jacobs, architecture, award, Berkeley, blvd., boulevard, Boulevard Book, Boulevards, california, central, commuting, crash, dean kamen, department of public works, design, Design of Multiway Boulevards, dpw, electric, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Macdonald, evolution, freeway, general motors, gm, gob, golden gate park, hayes valley, History, human, Human Transporter, i2, illegal, Jacobs, legal, Macdonald, market, movement, Multiway, night, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, octavia, octavia boulevard, offramp, onramp, pacifica, personal, ponytail, pt, rental, Rofé, San Francisco, scooter, segway, sidewalks, silver, street, suit, The Boulevard Book: History, traffic, transporter, university, x2, Yodan, Yodan Rofé
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Saturday, July 18th, 2009
You’d think having 21 windows on your ancient, 1960′s-era VW T1 Type 2 Transporter would put you ahead in the windows race, but you’d be wrong.
As seen in wealthy Sea Cliff, the home (or former home) of Robin Williams, actress Sharon Stone, actor Cheech Marin, screenwriter Monica Cliff, real estate/casino tycoon Luke Brugnara, and Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.
Click to expand.
You need to add in two rear corner windows like this in order to get a 23 window model. Here below is the King of All VW buses. It won’t get you up the Waldo Grade in a hurry, but it will get you there, with or without green and blue bear dogs.
via VWBuses
The Richers of Sea Cliff Missed It By That Much.
Among American enthusiasts, it is common to refer to the different models by the number of their windows. The basic Kombi or Bus is the 11-window (a.k.a. 3-window bus because of three side windows) with a split windshield, two front cabin door windows, six rear side windows, and one rear window. The deluxe model featured eight rear side windows and two rear corner windows, making it the 15-window (not available in Europe). Meanwhile, the sunroof deluxe with its additional eight small skylight windows is, accordingly, the 23-window. From the 1963 model year, with its wider rear door, the rear corner windows were discontinued, making the latter two the 13-window and 21-window respectively. The 23 and later 21 window variants are usually described as Sambas.
Tags: 15, 1960s, 21, 23, 317 zqp, 317zqp, bus, california, canvas, district, el camino real, groovy, hippies, hippy, hippys, microbus, red, richmond, samba, sambas, San Francisco, sea cliff, seacliff, sunroof, t1, transporter, type 2, type ii, volkswagen, VW, white, Window, windows
Posted in cars | 1 Comment »
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
They’re not just for the sides of buildings anymore.
See? They’re even on Volkswagen Transporters, as here in the Inner Richmond.
Click to expand.
UPDATE: Changed “dogs” to “bears,” as that’s what these critters actually are. Thanks commenter Larry-Bob!
Tags: anime, art, artist, bear, bears, Blue, caretoon, district, dog, Golden Gate Bridge, green, inner, microbus, mural, no one, norris, painting, pooch, pup, richmond, San Francisco, sirron, Sirron Norris, t2, transporter, type 2, van, volkswagen, VW
Posted in art | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2009
Don’t you just hate walking on the grass when you visit Golden Gate Park? Wouldn’t a stroll be so much better on a Segway Human Transporter? Of course.
This guy has it right – his “4WD” version of the Segway has big tires. All the better for riding on turf.
He’s a regular Segway Cowboy Outlaw:
Ballad of the Segway Cowboy Outlaw
Its all the same, only the names will change
Everyday it seems were wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
I’d Segway all night just to get back home
Im a cowboy, on a Segway I ride
Im wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive
Sometimes I charge, sometimes its not for days
And the people I meet always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day by the bottle that you drink
And times when youre all alone all you do is think
I roll these streets, a loaded NiCad on my rack
I play for keeps, cause I might not make it back
I’ve rolled everywhere, still Im standing tall
I’ve seen a million faces smack into the wall
Im a cowboy, on a Segway I ride
Im wanted dead or alive
Im a cowboy, I got the night on my side
Im wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive
Tags: cowboy, gob, golden gate park, grass, ht, human, outlaw, personal, pt, San Francisco, segway, sidewalk, transporter
Posted in parks, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
If you’re crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, you’re most likely going to encounter the famous Waldo Grade in the Marin County Headlands – it’s like the Tejon Pass (Grapevine Pass) of Northern California.
And going back to the 1950′s, a fixture on the Waldo Grade has been the Volkswagen Transporter (aka Microbus, aka Type 2) going about 30 miles per hour, straining to gain altitude in the slow lane, and getting passed by BMW’s and Mercedes Benzeses going more than twice as fast.
The license plate of this Lemon Meringue T2 reads ”I pass no one.” (IPASNO1). How apropro-priate! Click to expand:
VW passengers should have plenty of time to peruse the CalTrans District 4 Activity Book, learning more about Northern California’s highway and byways…
Tags: county, Golden Gate Bridge, grade, i pass, ipasno1, marin, microbus, no one, San Francisco, t2, transporter, tunnel, type 2, van, volkswagen, VW, waldo
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