1) First up are the Ford Motor people – here’s some marketing from them:
See that? It’s Chinatown! Anyway, these fashion models are on 2018 versions of a FordGoBike. Unlike the 2017 versions, which were/are comically heavy and astonishingly expensive (you’ll find out just how much after yours turns up missing and they send you in to the SFPD to file a report), these new rides are electric powered, the better to compete with the new orange-red JUMP! bikes.
But look closer – these tourists packed their helmets. Now that’s some amazing foresight.
Let’s wait and see if this becomes a thing, this carrying a helmet around all day in anticipation of coming across a rental bike thing. (I don’t think it will.)
2. Limebike is giving away helmets I hear. Maybe to their users, maybe in SF, maybe on Sunday. They might be a bit garish, something like this…
…but I won’t laugh at you.
(Is a bike helmet and a scooter helmet the same thing? IDK.)
3. What’s next, oh BIRD. Look what they’re cooking up for us:
“The bill would, among other provisions, require the minor operator of a standup electric scooter to wear a bicycle helmet while operating the standup electric scooter.”
See how that works? Through this hocus pocus, helmets would no longer be required for adult electric scooter riders on the Streets of California. (Did I say streets? I shoulda said sidewalks, as:
“(b) Except as provided in subdivision (c), a standup electric scooter may be operated on sidewalks and may be parked in the same manner and at the same locations as a bicycle may be parked.
(c) A local authority may adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution prohibiting or restricting persons from riding or propelling a standup electric scooter on highways, sidewalks, or roadways.”)
So there you have it. You can handle the looming HELMET ISSUE through marketing efforts, giveaways, or just going to Sac Town to change laws in order to favor your bidness.
Your choice.
Leaving you with a recent shot of our Fulton Freeway, 30 MPH speed limit:
Oh, and here’s what the old-fashioned-style GoBikes look like:
If you plopped me down at the Lucky Penny (also RIP) parking lot that’s actually at Geary and Masonic and gave me two minutes to run across traffic and around Target and through a loooooong tunnel to get to the door of E106, well I think I could make it.
“Nultemier also cited the high number of homeless and uninsured. “50 percent of the calls we go on we don’t get any re-imbursement for,” he said. How does he make up for it? “The insured pay,” Nultemeier said. “The insurance companies get billed at higher rates to make up for the people that didn’t have the insurance. That’s the unfortunate truth.”
Can you see the fast food traces, like the blackened KFC Bucket on the left or the Taco Bell bell on the awning on the right?
Anyway, it’s JANE THE BAKERY now. (It’s just like ALICE THE RADIO STATION or TOAD THE WET SPROCKET, non? And it reminds me of SPORK, which wore its Valencia Street Taco Bell heritage proudly, back in the day.)
“You ever see something on Instagram and think oh I need to get that? That’s what happened with Uji Time Desserts, I was just searching food pics in San Francisco area since I was visiting soon and saw this fish cone, had to go get it”
As seen underground in the East Mall:
What time is it? It’s UJI TIME:
But be mindful of the all-important “fish cone wait time.”
