We're not sure if you've noticed, but as of yesterday, the new cell phone law has gone into effect. That's right: no more talky while driving, unless you've got a hands-free device for your phone. Yesterday, while we were out, law breakers were being pulled over left and right. It's a great way for the CHP to fill up those ticket quotas. Sure, the law makes car driving "safer" but, really? Driving's boring now.......

Remember, you can no longer prattle away on your phones while driving after the mandatory hands-free cell phone law goes into effect tomorrow. And while the new law will not be as enforced as, say, the Click It or Ticket seatbelt rule, which became a car-ride standard over two decades ago, you can land yourself $100 ticket for talking on your pretty little iPhone while heading down Highway 280. But it's still legal to......

Union City--just south north [our xenophobia is showing!] of Fremont, near Newark and Hayward--was recently caught re-timing their traffic signals so that the yellow light is shorter than the legal limit. Why? Well, this makes it easier for motorists to run a red light, then get caught by the red-light cameras, which in turn gets the city more money from increased traffic tickets. Of course, shorter yellow lights also makes an intersection more dangerous......

This monster pothole lurked on Townsend Street in the shade of the ramp connecting 6th Street to I-280. Under normal circumstances, we find the shrill complaints of motorists about pavement quality to be rather tedious. To motorists, we self-righteously sneer, "Why did you buy that SUV, anyway? If you want smooth roads, move to the country. Or Texas." The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition takes a broader view: poor pavement quality isn't just an inconvenience,......

The sudden appearance of a Smart in our neighborhood got us thinking: perhaps this parking solution will bring an end to our car-free lifestyle. We conducted a quick feasibility study in our neighborhood, with the following discouraging results: Number of Smart-friendly sub-9' parking spaces: 5 Number of these not already occupied by a 13' car: 0 Undaunted, we stopped by SmartCenterSanFrancisco, in the Mercedes dealership at 8th and Bryant (running words together seems to......