Yesterday's accident on the Golden Gate Bridge, which resulted in a 10-car collision and the bridge shutting down for a couple of hours, was the result of a simple lane change gone awry. According to the California Highway Patrol, a "pickup truck veered into the path of another car traveling north, causing both vehicles to swerve into southbound traffic." And then all sorts of messy chaos ensued: cars went flying into on coming traffic, metal bent, a baby was hurt, a Honda Shadow flipped over, and more. Fortunately, and strangely, no one was killed. ...

All Southbound lanes are closed, and most northbound lanes are "moving very slowly" due to a motorcycle accident involving multiple cars on the Golden Gate Bridge this afternoon. Traffic is backed up to 19th Avenue according to CBS 5 (where Allen Martin had the unmitigated gall to interrupt The People's Court to tell us!) CHP advises motorists to expect big, long delays. Use alternate routes tonight, folks. Update: Six people are injured, one of......

State Senator Leland Yee introduced a bill in the State Legislature this morning that, if passed, would see traffic fines double for violations occurring along the deadly strip of San Francisco road known as 19th Avenue. (Shudder.) Over the past few years, 19th Avenue -- which connects San Mateo County with San Francisco and pierces commercial and residential sections of the city rife with foot traffic -- has played host to numerous traffic accidents......

Is there anyplace in San Francisco more charming than SOMA at night? No, there is not. And this President's Day, it'll be even charminger: construction and traffic reroutes on the Bay Bridge may cause a few heavy-flow days over the holiday weekend. If you're clever, you'll probably want to avoid SOMA in the late-night and early-morning hours. But then again, if you're clever, you probably already do. But it's not all blocked onramps and......

Muni has three disruptions on their radar this weekend: The Chinese Flower Market Fair on Saturday and Sunday, the San Francisco Half Marathon on Sunday, and the Tet Fesitval Celebration on Sunday. All three sound scrumptious, even though only two of them are explicitly Asian. After the jump: details! Yummy delicious details.......

Due to a gasoline tanker truck accident -- which resulted in an eco-unfriendly dousing of over "26 gallons" (?) of gasoline, or so said CBS 5's Judge Judy breaking-news interruption -- all northbound and southbound lanes on Highway 101 in Redwood City are closed. That? Blows. It seems that a 26,000 gallon gasoline tanker big rig overturned just north of Maple Street near Woodside. According to ABC 7, a "Coast Guard crew is heading......

A slow-moving daily parade of idling vehicles stretching up Masonic Avenue...

Yesterday's near perfect weather is now but a sepia-toned memory. Reports of a strange, icy substance, often referred to as "snow," is falling on Mount Diablo, Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County, Mount Hamilton, and (any minute now) Mount Tam. It's also blanketing the eerie Santa Cruz Mountains, resulting in the closure of Highway 9. It looks like many of you will have to take Highway 17. If you dare. Oh, and be sure......

Because you can't go home. One of our guilty pleasures during storms is sitting around and looking at live traffic updates to keep track of the mayhem. We snapped this screenshot just now. Accidents and incidents literally every minute? We'd be glad we're taking MUNI except that it's closed at Market at 3rd... Anyway, as far as we can tell, if you live in Marin and work in Contra Costa, or vice versa, you can't......

You know on Market Street how there's that left-hand turn lane if you want to go on Valencia? And you know how everyone likes to rush through when the light turns green to make sure they can get onto Valencia without having to wait through another cycle of traffic signals? We know what you're thinking everytime you make that turn-- hey, what an awesome place to jaywalk! Which is what some woman, latte in hand, did right in front of us as we tried to make that turn in rush hour....

In the tussle over the mantle of San Francisco’s Most Tucked-Away Neighborhood, Visitacion Valley gets our vote...particularly if by “tucked-away,” one really means “neglected.” Geographic and economic isolation have contributed to infrastructural decline - and crime - here for quite some time, although earnest efforts are being made these days to turn the tide. The block of Leland between Peabody and Rutland is dually zoned for business and residence, so the street is one of Viz Valley’s main drags. There’s plenty of foot and auto traffic here, and the 56 Rutland bus even shuffles by on occasion. Businesses bookend the nondescript strip as post-WWII housing, other small commercial concerns, and a pair of bottlebrush trees fill in the space between. Pretty? Not quite. But, utilitarian? Sure....

We've got rain, and we've got fire: two blazes within about twelve hours of each other in SF. The Globe restaurant in downtown will be shut down for a few weeks for repairs, after a one-alarm fire last night. The fire department says the fire was started by grease stuck in the restaurant's flue. Also, this morning, the SFFD is fighting a fire in an abandoned building on Mission and 7th that's threatening their own......

A grown man died during a street race in Oakland last night at around 9:30 p.m.. The unidentified 42-year-old -- that's right, 42-year-old -- was racing his 2005 Nissan "west on the 7100 block of Doolittle Drive, near Oakland International Airport" before losing control of his vehicle. He then slammed head-on into a non-compete Hyundai, which sent the 57-year-old driver of the former car to the hospital with serious injuries. Oh, and Ms. Lagos......

Hey, look, it's back! It's "Ask a Muni Driver!" But we need help from you-- we need questions. So, if you got any, let us know at jon@sfist.com. ...

Due to the traffic backup caused by yesterday's fatal car crash on the Bay Bridge, it seems that a woman popped out a kid. According to the Examiner: As a result of the traffic jam, a woman pulled off the road to give birth a few hours after the accident. The mother-to-be was traveling toward San Francisco at 3:35 p.m. when she detoured into the toll plaza’s left administrative parking lot, Chase said. Wow.......

In the last two days we have witnessed 1. a pane of glass spontaneously shatter and fall from a building on Bonifacio. 2. a dramatic roof arrest of some dude who looked to be playing invisible tennis on Rizal. 3. a crazed man screaming in the middle of Harrison (at Lapu Lapu) while dodging oncoming traffic. Not to mention the drive-by shooting that took place the other night right outside SFist headquarters on Stillman. What......

Update: all lanes are now open. It seems that "a box truck, from a business called 'Diet to Go'...drove directly into the back of the big rig," killing the box truck driver. Very sad. Sigh. According to SFGate, "three lanes of the upper deck of the Bay Bridge are blocked by a fatal accident, the California Highway Patrol says." Did you hear that? How awful. Just terrible. Three whole lanes of traffic have closed......

Everyone's behaving a little bit funny this weekend, and it's throwing the city's transit into a tizzy. An absolute tizzy! We haven't been this tizzied in MONTHS. First, there's Critical Mass. Lots of people firmly believe that something is be gained by proving that bicyclists are just as capable of causing gridlock and frustration as motorists, and they'll be doing just that ... um ... yesterday. Sorry about the late notice. Then there's a pilgrimage......

Coming out of the Fall Out Boy/Gym Class Heroes/Plain White T's concert (which we'll cover later) we ran into the Invisible Children's van. Pete Wentz, an avid supporter of the organization that helps Uganda's children, talks about this at all of his concerts. He raises awareness and asks for donations, sells emo-inspired t-shirts, sweatshirts and anything else that 13 year-old fans want. (Kudos to him!) Apparently there is even a van that helps promote......

SFist interviews the Reverend Billy of "what would jesus buy?"...

Sounds like a mess down on 880 just north of Highway 84, where a big rig ran off the highway at around 1 a.m. this morning and spilled its cargo all over the highway. The cargo in question -- crushed cars. The driver suffered major injuries and was sent to the hospital; traffic is currently moving at about 20 mph and is expected to be snarled until 10 a.m. at the earliest, and CHP has......

By day he's an Alight Electric employee. By night? A Ford F-350 Super Duty hero. It seems that last night on the Golden Gate Bridge, John Beatty of Mill Valley saved the day, so to speak, after noticing a woman unconscious in her Jeep, moving into oncoming traffic. At around 6:50 p.m., Sylvia Durrance, 62, came to a stop while driving southbound in the No. 2 lane. She appeared lifeless, her body slumped over......

(Barry Bonds is on SFGate's Crime page. Ha!) -- A 19-year-old woman was shot -- "in the back today...at 5:39 p.m." Huh?-- during an attempted street robbery in SF's Visitacion Valley. Attacked at Velasco Avenue and Santos Street, she is currently at SFGH and listed in stable condition. And the two suspects? Are still at large. -- UC Berkeley journalism student Kevin Jones, 27, "pleaded no contest today to a misdemeanor charge of vehicular......

This morning at around 1:15 a.m., an unidentified woman walking on Grand Avenue in Oakland was struck and killed by a passing car. She died at the scene. According to Bay City News, the vehicle then hightailed it northbound on Grand Avenue. Jerk. So far there is no description of the car or person that killed the woman. Of course, if any of you were up at that hour, kicking it in Oakland and......

It's been quiet over the past couple of days. A little too quiet. Hop to it, hoodlums of SF, we need crime-y content! -- In the foreign realm of Fremont, a routine traffic stop turned into a cinematic bout of exchanged gunfire. After being stopped, zany 23-year-old Jorge Cazarez was ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint, Logically, he drew out his gun and started shooting at officers. The fuzz then chased him on......

No, there was no collision involving a train. However, a garbage truck apparently struck a bridge in San Mateo, holding up all southbound traffic for about 20 minutes. At first, our weary-sounding conductor said that we would have to wait for a track inspection to determine when we could depart from San Francisco -- "if at all," he added ominously. We're now rolling south about 20-30 minutes behind schedule, pulling into Millbrae at the scheduled......

We were bicycling out in Parkside today, and we stopped to admire the new traffic signals at 19th and Sloat. It's still extraordinarily dangerous, and perhaps worse. The sign telling cars to yield on green for a left turn is still up, so drivers edge out in to the intersection, begging to get creamed by traffic coming the other way on Sloat. That left-turn signal? It lasts for precisely two seconds, at the end......

You think Hallwoeen on the Castro is a nightmare of douche-baggie proportions? Try the Oracle Open World 2007 convention, which is happening this Sunday, November 11 through Thursday, November 15. And it sucks for us plebeians. Imagine nerds and sales tools infused with a false sense of power. (Except for any Oracle SFist reader; you're all golden.) Imagine nasty Oracle PR bitches who hangup on local media outlets trying to get a modicum of......

When he's not busy keeping it real or putting in a couple of loads at the laundromat -- he looks like a Biz kind of guy, doesn't he? -- Gavin Newsom is out pandering to the boomers for their vote. (Something we assumed he had in the bag.) Behold, the psychedelic Gavin Newsom for Mayor poster. This one, which was for a re-election benefit held in the Haight-Ashbury this past week, was sent to......

Where the hell is 19th and Sloat? Oh, it's in, like, Southie. Near the Golf Course District. Anyway, the intersection is getting a left-turn arrow, hooray! Nineteenth is an insanely deadly stretch. A young lady died at this particular intersection a month ago; meanwhile, negotiations between the MTA and Caltrans to improve the intersection languished in their SEVENTH YEAR. The traffic on 19th is so fast and so thick that it's like an interstate......