Mission Mission

Lyft vehicles are the ultimate hybrids:  taxi, car, and pedestrian, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Perhaps this is revenge for PARKing Day?

You might know Teen Challenge on Valencia as a Christian alcohol/drug abuse recovery support center.

What you might not know is that it’s also a place you can score a set of sweet rims at a decent price.

A dear reader writes in with a harrowing tale from last week:

i was on my motorcycle, riding south down guerrero toward 22nd st. when a white SUV pulled a u-turn from the right lane in front of me.  I braked, but slammed into his left side with the right side of my body, and then it drove off.  this was right in front of The Liberties (and one of their staff, a woman with long blonde hair, was one of the first people at my side) around 10pm on Tuesday night.

I am writing this for two reasons:

one — to see if anyone has seen a white Jeep Cherokee with damage on its left side?  if the other driver is not found, then i am out of pocket for all expenses for my health and to fix my moto, and i do not have much in my pockets.

two — to thank the people who stopped to help me, the staff member from the liberties, the police and EMTs who took care of me on the scene, and the nurses, x-ray techs, and doctors at SF General’s ER who were so kind, calm, and helpful.  they made a very scary situation bearable, and i appreciate all of their skill and wish to thank them from the bottom of my heart.  these are the real heros of the city.

Glad to hear she’s alive and well, but hopefully someone will be able to provide more information that brings the driver to justice because this is a really sucky situation.  Anyone who has more info should reply in the comments and she will get back to you.

A promising development seems to be afoot in some of the city’s newer taxi cabs, which I noticed for the first time the other day as I was stepping into the shiniest, cleanest cab I’ve ever seen around here.

Oblivious taxi passengers exiting the vehicle have long been a constant menace to cyclists on Valencia and other streets with bike lanes for some time, so let’s hope this addition becomes more widespread and actually encourages clueless folks to check before carelessly flinging open their door!

Q: How do you protect your brand new Benz when parking in the mission?

A: With padded car diapers!

(more…)

From El Tecolote‘s Facebook page:

According to El Tecolote there are no injuries.

UPDATE: Mission Local says that there were four cars involved and that at least one person was injured.

Enjoy it while it lasts, because there’s going to be some serious rain coming any minute now!

Also, try to do a better job of parking your sweet ride next time.

Whenever I see a cool car around the neighborhood, I take pictures and send them to my pal Eric up in Portland who runs Other People’s Things, my favorite car blog. He responds with some knowledge and we post the results here and it’s called “Car Beat.” Here’s what Eric has to say about this sporty little Honda:

Looks like you found a pretty sweet first generation Honda Civic.  This one looks like is a 78-79 and it seems to be in fairly good original condition.  The JDM (car nerd speak for Japanese Domestic Market) fender mirrors are certainly not original as this is a US spec car, but they add a little eccentricity to it.  I’ve always wanted to ride in car with the mirrors so far forward; apparently it eliminates the blind spot and you don’t have to take your eyes off the road as much, but it seems like it would be a little disorienting.  Looks cool though.

Anyways I digress. This car, much like the similar BMW 2002 was really a case of having the right car at the right time for America. Introduced during the Oil Crisis in 1973 this “larger” Honda was a good fit for most people, got great mileage, and could run on leaded or unleaded gas, sort of like having a car today that can run on E85 or standard fuel, but actually useful. For those who want to level up such a vehicle, they can opt for services like Ceramic Coating Gold Coast.

One last strange thing I noticed is the hatchback of this little Civic doesn’t open like you think it would.  Though they changed to the more traditional method we see on hatchbacks today, this one works similar to the the way the original Mini Cooper’s did, only more annoying because it doesn’t drop down like a truck tailgate, it opens up into your face so you can’t see what you’re doing.  Strange.

Thanks, Eric! Now let’s take a look at this strange hatchback:

Car-ma chameleon.

Whenever I see a cool car around the neighborhood, I take pictures and send them to my pal Eric up in Portland who runs Other People’s Things, my favorite car blog. He responds with some knowledge and we post the results here and it’s called “Car Beat.” Here’s what Eric has to say about this sporty little ride:

That is one nice Fiat you found. It’s a late model Panda, but that’ could mean a lot- this bodystyle was made from 1991-2003. It’s also the “4×4 Trekking” model, which puts it in the the hall of fame of amazing 4WD subcompacts alongside the Subaru Justy, Toyota Corolla All Trac, Civic Wagon, and the Panda’s Russian cousin the Lada Niva.

While I am no expert when it comes to import laws, this car poses a bit of a mystery if its legally tagged, as it is newer than 25 years old, which technically makes it illegal to drive in the United States. Nevertheless, it’s an an eccentric’s dream car, slow, (relatively) reliable, durable and Italian. That’s not a combination that you hear too often. Love that grille badge as well, it almost makes up for those ridiculous Italian graphics on the rear quarter.

Thanks, Eric! Gosh, I love sporty Fiats.