It’s 7:00 p.m. in San Francisco’s Mission District. Elango, 52, born in India but Californian by adoption, is about to take his first Waymo self-driving car. Barely three minutes after making the request through the app the vehicle appears: it is a Jaguar surrounded by sensors. Tapping a button on his phone, he unlocks the door, from which a handle comes out. As he enters, relaxing music plays. A female voice welcomes him and asks him to buckle up. The driver’s seat — empty, of course — is pushed all the way forward for his comfort. A screen in the middle of the cabin lets him press a button to begin his futuristic journey.

The vehicle he is riding is known as robotaxi; a driverless, electric vehicle full of sensors and cameras. At the moment, they only move around the most central districts of San Francisco, and never on highways. This California city has become the front line for Silicon Valley’s big technology companies’ effort to control the future of urban mobility.

“I’m so nervous. It’s like the first time I got on a plane. I feel like a kid in a candy store,” Elango says. He seems particularly impressed by the steering wheel moving on its own at the first intersection. “It’s fascinating,” he says, excited. On the three rides he has taken this afternoon (about 15 minutes each), the driving has been smooth; just a little hard brake has altered the peace of the journey, when another car crossed in front.

On average, each trip has cost about $15, and the top speed was 30 miles per hour. “I felt very safe at all times. It’s impressive how the car yielded to pedestrians and looked for the most appropriate place to stop,” he says. The only mistake occurred at the end of the final trip, when the vehicle came to a stop 300 feet from the requested destination..

A passenger enters a Waymo driverless vehicle on Potrero Hill, in San Francisco.Carlos Rosillo

At the moment, the two main companies in the robotaxi business are Waymo and Cruise. Waymo is owned by Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and its vehicles have a more upscale appearance. Its fleet has 250 modified Jaguar I-Pace cars. Cruise belongs to several companies, including General Motors and Microsoft. The Chevy Bolt cars it uses are smaller and have been in operation for less time. Although they have already been authorized to extend their hours, at the moment they only carry users after 9:00 p.m. They have 300 vehicles.

The technology is already available to thousands of users, but there is a waiting list of several months to download the app. Up until the first week of August both platforms were free to use, but after the State of California announced that driverless cabs were allowed to operate 24/7, they started to charge.

Collisions on the road

Waymo communications manager Julia Ilina explains that, since they began operating with users in December, the collisions that have occurred have always been due to human errors from other vehicles. “The safety performance data of our first million miles shows that there have been no injuries or collisions with pedestrians or cyclists. The recorded incidents have always been due to errors on the part of human drivers.”

The Waymo driver, she explains, is much safer than a human for several reasons: “It is equipped with a series of sensors that give it 360-degree peripheral vision day and night, up to three football fields away. Our driver is designed to respect the rules and it does not get distracted, drunk or tired.” Waymo has announced expansion plans in Los Angeles and Austin.

With the arrival of Cruise, the second platform that offers driverless taxi services, the number of these machines doubled. Accidents have also increased, and protest movements against this technology have emerged. The activist group Safe Street Rebel monitors all traffic incidents generated by these autonomous vehicles on its website, and it has launched a campaign to encourage people to place traffic cones on the hoods of the cars in order to disable them.

On August 17, a fire truck responding to an emergency collided with a Cruise robotaxi at an intersection. According to a company statement, the vehicle proceeded through the intersection because the light was green. San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson says that more than 60 driverless cars have interfered with fire trucks since May last year, and complains that these vehicles hinder their work when human lives are at risk. “Our people cannot be paying attention to an autonomous vehicle when we have to raise ladders. I am not against technology; I am in favor of security,” she declared last week.

As a result of the latest incidents, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked General Motors to halve its operating cars in the city. On August 11, 10 vehicles belonging to this company stopped moving, causing a major traffic jam in North Beach. According to GM, this happened because the 5G network went down due to the massive influx of people attending a music festival.

Tobías, 35, gets in a Cruise robotaxi at the door of his home in the central Fillmore District. This Portuguese man has been using the app since April. He acknowledges that these cars are not yet ready to drive at rush hour, but he takes it as something normal, part of the process. “They are still learning. I think that in the future it will be safer than human driving,” he says. However, he has seen some changes in the last few months. “I have noticed that now they drive somewhat more aggressively. At the beginning they were too slow; that was also a problem.”

During the ride, the car goes around certain areas for no apparent reason. “The route is not optimal at all; it clearly avoids areas that for some reason it doesn’t want to cross. A 10-minute journey can take 15 minutes. Also, sometimes there is a message on the screen saying that someone is taking control of the car remotely.” Another thing that worries Tobías is that he feels watched. “There are cameras and microphones that are always on, and sometimes a person will talk to you, ask if everything is going well.”

The Taxi Workers Alliance has also expressed concern about the danger that competition from this technology poses to their future, and called a protest before the State of California legislated in favor of these services. “Taxi drivers are the canaries in the coal mine in the future onslaught of artificial intelligence,” said Mark Gruberg, a member of the union’s executive board.

Gulshan has been an UBER driver for eight years. It is 10:00 p.m. and he still has a few hours left to finish his shift behind the wheel of his shiny white Tesla. He has come to terms with the imminent arrival of artificial intelligence behind the wheel. “I used to be a taxi driver, and I made more money. When the platforms arrived I decided to change. Now there’s this… I think resisting technology is pointless,” he reflects. However, he does not see a close threat yet, because “those cars are very expensive, and I don’t think they can interpret situations, especially in exceptional circumstances, as we do.”

An operator from the Beep company and a passenger inside a self-driving bus. Carlos Rosillo

A pilot project with buses

In another area of the city, far from the center, in Treasure Island, a pilot project with autonomous buses from the company Beep is being carried out. However, these small vehicles with seating capacity for 11 passengers still require someone on board to supervise them. Marvin Saucer, an operator who previously worked testing cars at Tesla and GM Cruise, awaits travelers on board. He holds a controller with two levers to take over if something goes wrong. “I receive people, make sure they buckle up.” He also does public relations. “I am a sociable person, I like talking to people,” he says.

The bus travels about three miles with seven stops in an area with no traffic lights and hardly any traffic. The complete service, which is free, takes 15 minutes. Eric Young, a spokesman for the agency that manages mobility on Treasure Island, says that they are working to get a second Beep shuttle. “The idea is to better understand how this innovation could meet the needs of our residents and give them the chance to learn about driverless technology.” Beep already has two similar shuttles operating 30 miles from Treasure Island, in San Ramón. Just like the robotaxis, robotic buses are also a reality in San Francisco.

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The passenger shows the view from the backseat of the car.

Over the past few months, hundreds of self-driving cars have been spotted on the streets of the US’ San Francisco. Recently, a passenger shared a similar experience where he was picked up by a driverless car when he called for a Uber ride. 

He shared a video of his experience, showing the view from the backseat of the car. Meanwhile, at the front, there is an empty driver’s seat with the steering wheel moving autonomously. Various prompts are displayed on a tablet fastened to the rear of the passenger’s seat. Further, voice prompts with instructions can also be heard playing inside the car.

The video’s caption reads, ”Getting a Uber in San Francisco be like…” 

Watch the video here:

Getting a Uber in San Francisco be like…
by u/Osobady in Damnthatsinteresting

“Lol, when I was a teen, video calls were sci-fi stuff only seen in a few movies, and here we are with ‘automatic taxis’ feeling old,” wrote one user. Another joked, ”To unlock doors, please pay the release fee now.”

“Scary. No thank you,” a third said, while a fourth added, ”Objectively speaking, The human drivers are just as scary or worse.”

A few months back, tech billionaire Bill Gates took a ride in a self-driving car through downtown London and was convinced that autonomous vehicles (AV) are the future. 

”The car drove us around downtown London, which is one of the most challenging driving environments imaginable, and it was a bit surreal to be in the car as it dodged all the traffic,” Mr. Gates wrote in a blog post describing his experience. 

However, he noted that the transition to fully autonomous cars is probably decades away.

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• San Francisco is the most recent city to approve driverless cabs. Waymo and Cruise operate in the area.
• On August 10, the city will vote on whether to allow the companies to expand their services.
• TikTokers are recording their experiences of riding in robotaxis to show viewers what it’s like.

Autonomous cars have come a long way since Google’s self-driving car project started back in 2009. 

Driverless taxis are now on the roads in Phoenix, Arizona, San Francisco, California, and Austin, Texas, but they still feel like a bizarre sci-fi concept to many.

On August 10, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will vote on whether to expand paid ride-hailing services for driverless cars in San Francisco, meaning they can operate much like typical ride-sharing apps, 24 hours a day for the general public.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of TikTokers have been documenting their experiences of using driverless taxis to get around — capturing the imagination of many viewers.

While most appear excited about the new technology, others are baffled by its futuristic nature, and skeptical about feeling safe.

This is what TikTokers have to say about their experience with the services.

Two elderly men called riding in a self-driving taxi the experience of a lifetime.

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One mega-viral TikTok video posted on March 3 received over 33.8 million views and featured two men who, according to the captions, were 81 years old and were surprised with a ride in a self-driving car after being told that they were waiting for an Uber. 

As the vehicle approached, the TikTok creator, Kenny, who goes by the username @patriotickenny, questioned whether it was a police car. Upon getting into the car and realizing there was no driver, both men appeared skeptical.

Kenny then asked the person filming, “Do you trust this?” 

As the car drove down the road, both men looked nervous and Kenny said he was scared, but when it managed to successfully navigate an intersection, he seemed impressed. 

“The car did a better job than if someone was driving,” Kenny said.

The other man said that the robotaxi was a “first-class driver.” 

“Riding in a self-driving car was an experience of a lifetime,” Kenny wrote in the video caption.

A YouTuber saw the benefits of a driverless taxi.

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Marina Mogilko, a YouTuber and co-founder of LinguaTrip, an online English learning platform, posted a TikTok video of herself ordering a driverless Waymo taxi in San Francisco on June 13.

“It looks like a normal car, except all the cameras inside and outside,” she said, gesturing toward the large spinning camera on the top of the white Jaguar. 

She told viewers that she couldn’t tell the difference in the driving quality between the self-driving car, and cars that were driven by humans. 

“Just imagine having a car like this for yourself, where you drive to work, you work in the backseat, and then it parks by itself, and maybe even works for you, driving other passengers while you are busy,” she said. 

At the end of her seven-minute trip, her bill was $7, she said, although she added that she didn’t actually have to pay the bill, because the company was still testing out the functionality of the cars.

“I can totally see how this is going to totally change the taxi business in maybe a couple of years,” she said.  

One creator said she has been taking driverless taxis since 2018, and feels more secure than in a regular cab, in some ways.

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Sophia Lovász, who goes by the TikTok username @sosobombs, has many videos documenting her self-driving taxi experiences on her TikTok account.

In a “driverless taxi vlog” posted on July 11, she showed viewers her entire journey in a driverless Waymo vehicle — which she nicknamed “Waymee” — in Tempe, Arizona, just outside Phoenix.

While the car was moving, she explained the rules: no smoking, no touching the wheel, and no sitting in the driver’s seat. 

“I personally like to use this service because I don’t have to worry about the driver being distracted, using its phone, having road rage, or having mood swings. And I don’t have to worry about the driver being like me and feeling sleepy, especially after work,” she said. 

Lovász also said that she has been using this service since 2018, and that she has “experienced the evolution of how much better it is at driving.”

Not everyone seemed to think their ride went flawlessly.

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In a TikTok video posted on June 17, user @rogerlbcn said that his Waymo driverless taxi got stuck in the middle of an intersection in San Francisco. 

The video showed that the car was stationary in the middle of an intersection, while other cars drove past it. 

After some time, the car moved forward slightly, and then stopped again. A notification popped up on the screen in the front of the car, which stated: “Our team is working to get you moving.”

After some time had passed, the car resumed driving. 

There have been previous reports of driverless cars blocking traffic over the years. In one instance, a light-rail train almost hit an autonomous car that stopped on its tracks.

Waymo did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

The response to the TikToks is mixed. lupengyu / Getty Images

Many of these TikToks have blown up, receiving many comments from viewers.

Some have welcomed the concept of being in a car with no driver, writing in comments sections that they thought they would feel safer in some ways to not have to be driven by a stranger.

But many viewers still seem skeptical about whether they’d trust a car that has no driver, expressing concern about the technology failing.

A 2022 survey found that three out of every four Americans feel less safe in a self-driving car, although people who work in the industry argue there’s potential for them to be safer than human drivers because the technology has a broader perception of data and doesn’t get tired.

Driverless taxis also introduce some ethical implications. Replacing humans with artificial intelligence has ethical implications. kodda / Getty Images

Some viewers have expressed concerns that many drivers will end up unemployed if this technology continues to develop, which could leave them without a source of income.

In July, Uber, Lyft, and taxi drivers united to protest against against the proposed Waymo and Cruise expansion, according to Mission Local, an  independent online news site covering the Mission District of San Francisco.

Soon, Cruise and Waymo could be allowed to operate 24/7 in San Francisco and charge for fully autonomous rides. Westend61 / Getty Images

Right now, Waymo and Cruise offer limited service in San Francisco. 

Cruise employees and “power users” — a group of public riders who provide regular feedback to Cruise — can get rides in almost all parts of the city at any time of the day.

However, the general public can only access the service between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. the Northwest part of San Francisco, CNBC reported. 

Meanwhile, Waymo can currently only charge for its rides throughout San Francisco if a safety driver present. It can only offer fully autonomous services if the ride is free.

Cruise is waiting for permission to deploy its driverless vehicles 24/7 in the city, while Waymo is waiting for approval to begin charging for rides.

If the August 10 vote goes through, it will essentially allow the companies to operate in a similar way to Uber and Lyft. 

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While the bear market is over, the US economy is not in order. In fact, many business leaders continue to warn of an imminent recession. If that happens, could the city you live in help you weather the economic storm?

Financial website SmartAsset agrees. It surveyed 429 cities and analyzed data across four categories – employment, housing, welfare and economic stability – to identify where residents are doing best during a recession.

According to their findings, these are the cities in the country that have best weathered an economic downturn.

10. Layton, Utah

PureRadiancePhoto / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 11
Apartment rank: 124
welfare rank: 64
Rank of Economic Stability: 31

You can find Layton north of Salt Lake City in Utah. As the largest city in Davis County, it offers its approximately 84,000 residents numerous recreational opportunities. In addition, several industrial complexes and nearby Hill Air Force Base provide ample employment opportunities even in a recession.

9. Bellevue, Washington

Mandritoiu / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 121
Apartment rank: 15
welfare rank: 50
Rank of Economic Stability: 3

Bellevue sits on the shores of Lake Washington, directly across from Seattle to the west and Lake Sammamish to the east. The city has experienced significant growth in recent years and housing affordability is a priority. Residents have access to numerous parks, hiking trails, community centers, and a water center.

8.Olathe, Kansas

Dana Arriaga / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 44
Apartment rank: 24
welfare rank: 47
Rank of Economic Stability: 37

Located in central Kansas City, this suburb of Greater Kansas City is the county seat of Johnson County. Olathe offers its residents an impressive range of leisure activities. These include several swimming pools, parks and hiking trails, as well as sports leagues for adults and children.

7.Sandy, Utah

Uladzik Kryhin / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 61
Apartment rank: 120
welfare rank: 28
Rank of Economic Stability: 1

Back in Utah, Sandy is another community that seems poised to help its residents weather a recession. Most impressively, this city ranks first in the SmartAsset ranking for economic stability. You’ll find Sandy in the greater Salt Lake City area, where residents can rent electric scooters, cheer on the local pro soccer team, or catch a movie at one of the many theaters.

6.Mountain View, California

Benny Marty / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 75
Apartment rank: 33
welfare rank: 9
Rank of Economic Stability: 24

Mountain View is part of Silicon Valley and the mountains in view are the Santa Cruz mountain range. In addition to being home to more than 83,000 people, the city at the southern end of San Francisco Bay is also home to major companies such as Intuit and Google, as well as parent company Alphabet.

5.San Mateo, California

James L. Simmons / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 71
Apartment rank: 37
welfare rank: 12
Rank of Economic Stability: 18

If California is your go-to spot for weathering a recession, San Mateo, just south of San Francisco, is another Bay Area community to consider. The city is known for its charming downtown and upscale shopping center. Additionally, there are miles of hiking trails and plenty of open space for those who enjoy spending their time outdoors.

4. Kirkland, Washington

SevenMaps / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 70
Apartment rank: 19
welfare rank: 44
Rank of Economic Stability: 2

Costco buyers will be familiar with the Kirkland name as it adorns the Warehouse Club trademark. However, Kirkland is more than just home to this nationwide retailer. The Seattle suburb (just north of No. 9 Bellevue) is also a premier spot for hiking, shopping, and boating on Lake Washington.

3. Overland Park, Kansas

Jacob Boomsma / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 39
Apartment rank: 23
welfare rank: 17
Rank of Economic Stability: 22

Back in the Midwest, Overland Park is another of the large communities that make up the greater Kansas City area. Even without the threat of a recession, this city can be an attractive place to put down roots. Livibility.com ranked it one of the top 100 places to live thanks to its safe neighborhoods, strong schools, and job and healthcare opportunities.

2. Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Corey Carrico / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 22
Apartment rank: 6
welfare rank: 4
Rank of Economic Stability: 133

Highlands Ranch isn’t technically a city; It is a master planned community that was founded more than 40 years ago. Located just 12 minutes from Denver, the 103,000 residents live close to the amenities of the big city but live in a smaller location with plenty of outdoor recreation.

1.Castle Rock, Colorado

Robert Arthur Designs / Shutterstock.com

Employment Rank: 10
Apartment rank: 7
welfare rank: 3
Rank of Economic Stability: 141

Backed by top 10 rankings in three out of four categories, Castle Rock SmartAssets is the number one choice for weathering a recession. The city between Denver and Colorado Springs lies in the shadow of the land formation of the same name. About 80,000 people currently live in Castle Rock, but the city expects that number to increase to between 130,000 and 150,000 residents in the coming years.

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The ‘Joy Ride’ stars called their latest film “liberating” and “the first of its kind” at the red carpet screening in San Francisco on Thursday.

Ashley Park, who plays one of the film’s main characters, was in attendance and told SFGATE that it was her third time seeing the film in front of an audience. She said each time the crowd left energetically.

“We love everything in this genre, and at least what I’ve personally seen is that everyone leaves the theater happy, horny, seen or heard and just full of life,” she said.

The film, which officially hits theaters July 7, is a comedy about four Asian-American girlfriends, played by Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu, who travel across different parts of Asia to meet one of their birth mothers to find. The comedy is like a cross between ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ with hilarious moments including lots of cocaine, a very ‘interesting’ sex scene with a messy threesome montage and an appearance by a fake K-pop group.

Directed by Adele Lim, “Joy Ride” had a nearly full hall with 1,400 spectators screaming and bursting with laughter at almost every moment of the San Franciscremiere.

“[‘Joy Ride’] “Everyone is in a good mood and can relate to one, if not all, of the characters and situations – and we were just all Asian,” Park said before the premiere.

According to its website, the studio comedy premiered in San Francisco during CAAMFest, the world’s largest festival for Asian-American films. The film festival takes place from May 11th to 21st in San Francisco and Oakland.

Wu, a comedian and actor who notably wrote for the Disney+ series Doogie Kamealoha, declared her appreciation for San Francisco on the red carpet at the historic Castro Theater.

“San Francisco is so beautiful right now, and living in Michigan with my gay friends, we always thought, ‘One day we’re all going to escape to California. We’re going to move to the gay west coast,” they said. “I guess it’s exactly what I imagined being here on this street with a rainbow flag flying every ten feet.”

Thuy Tran, festival and exhibition director of CAAMFest, said in a recorded video shown at the premiere that the story of “Joy Ride” propels the industry and the Asian American community forward with its “taboo” but groundbreaking topics.

“‘Joy Ride’ is so emphatic about Asian-American joy,” Tran said. “It’s so uncompromising about our desires, period.”

In the film, the four characters, most notably Park’s character Audrey, struggle with their sense of self and personal identity. Audrey, who works in a law firm, ignores the seemingly “wild” aspects of life that make her happy and struggles with her cultural identity as an Asian American. The film does a great job of depicting the characters’ breakthroughs in their self-discovery while also capturing their pure and diverse friendship, without missing out on hilarious moments that will make you laugh.

During a question-and-answer session after the premiere, the cast said they were grateful for the film’s writers’ ability to assemble such a diverse cast with distinctly different personalities and identities. The cast also mentioned that much like their on-screen characters, they felt that their identities as Asian Americans limited their opportunities, and “Joy Ride” was a major breakthrough in their professional careers.

“I actually think sometimes that I had such low expectations of myself because I didn’t see a way forward,” said Hsu, who plays Kat, during the Q&A session. Hsu recently played several supporting roles in blockbusters like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Marvel’s Shang-Chi.

Park, who also played Mindy Chen in Emily in Paris, said she felt the similar experiences of all the leading actors in the film industry created a bond between the four.

“If you’ve only had a handful of supporting role opportunities, you’ve got a really supporting cast,” she said during the Q&A session.

“Joy Ride” was a fantastic portrayal of a life without shame, and if the reception at the Castro was any indication, it will be a revolutionary film for the talented cohort of actors and an important chapter in the next wave of Asian-American cinema.

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Two decades ago, the Vancouver Critical Mass was a scene and forced change for the better in the Canadian West Coast city. Cyclists were furious and took to the streets to let those in power know it was time to take cycling seriously and put in place the infrastructure to keep people safe. It worked, and Vancouver has long invested heavily in creating a bike-friendly city that is recognized as one of the best in North America. And then it wasn’t. So back to the bike barricades and a return to critical mass.

It’s not hard to see what happened. A Conservative mayor took over, and the Overton Window began not only to shift, but to close.

A few years ago, if there was a debate about creating, or even maintaining, a protected bike lane in Stanley Park or some major street somewhere, there was a good chance that the city’s coin toss would fall on cyclists’ heads. But that’s just not the case now.

“In the early 2000s, Critical Mass in Vancouver was huge. I had just moved here from Montreal where I had done a few rides. The rides here were bigger, much bigger, and people had all kinds of crazy bikes — tall bikes, lazy boy bikes, tandem drum bikes,” says one of the Vancouver Critical Mass organizers, who chose to remain anonymous for this article to stay . “The energy was contagious and I fell in love. The rides got so big and disruptive that they made the front pages of newspapers a few times, the city couldn’t ignore us anymore. This, combined with a changing political landscape, set the stage for major change.”

Nice to see so many Park Board, Council and School Board nominees supporting the Stanley Park Mobility Study and speaking out about accessibility for all. pic.twitter.com/Z2UaiCuRuX

— Lisa Corriveau (@spokesmama) October 9, 2022

Critical Mass bike rides are a form of social movement that began in San Francisco in the late 1980s. The rides were originally conceived to reclaim public space for non-motorized locomotion and to raise awareness of the benefits of cycling as a mode of locomotion. The first Critical Mass ride took place in 1992 and involved a small group of cyclists who gathered at Embarcadero Plaza in downtown San Francisco. Since then, the rides have spread to cities around the world and have become a symbol of the cycling community’s fight for recognition and respect on the streets. The rides have also been the subject of controversy and litigation, with some cities attempting to ban them while others embraced them as a way to promote sustainable transportation and community building.

Vancouver once invested heavily in the best cycling infrastructure at the False Creek seawall, the Burrard Bridge and the Georgia Viaduct, to name just a few places.

“During that time, Critical Mass lost their most active organizer (who returned to Montreal) and their raison d’être…with an ally in the mayor’s office working hard on bike infrastructure, there was less to get excited about. The war was won, at least that’s what we thought,” he said.

Last year’s municipal elections brought a big change in Vancouver, and for the first time in a long time one of North America’s more progressive cities found itself with a very conservative mayor.

“For the first time in a generation, we have a far-right mayor at the helm of the city,” he said. “A mayor whose first major action was to remove a popular All Ages and Abilities (AAA) protected bike path from Stanley Park. The removal came with an estimated bill of between $225,000 and $400,000. The mayor cynically ordered that the move should be paid for from the cycling infrastructure budget.”

Unfortunately, that seems to be just the beginning. Right now, the city is working on a new vision for the absolutely massive and important Broadway Avenue corridor. It stretches for hundreds of blocks across town. And currently, the idea of ​​lining this important transport corridor with safe and segregated bike lanes has been knocked off the table.

Was glad we had the critical mass (despite the rain) for a trip to Vancouver City Hall and a return trip down Broadway to protest the decision to eliminate active transit lanes there. #CriticalMassVan #BikeYVR pic.twitter.com/JUSDkjINj0

— Chris Hubick (@hubick) April 1, 2023

For those who don’t know, a huge section of West Broadway is currently being excavated for the construction of subways and upgrading of plumbing and electrical infrastructure. The area has been repurposed for high-rise housing and the plan calls for more than 75,000 new housing units over the next 30 years.

“Now would be the most cost-effective and least disruptive time to change the traffic pattern and add these active transit lanes,” he said. “During the public hearing before the vote, 95% of the speakers supported the protected lanes and their benefits, such as: B. Safety, accessibility to mass transit, making Broadway a “Great Street” with reduced traffic, courtyards and a destination for pedestrians, less pollution, better for local businesses, meeting climate goals.”

But the new regime in Vancouver said no, not interested.

Not surprisingly, then, cycling advocates will do what they have to do. And the Vancouver Critical Mass is back.

“The plan is to once again expand the rides to the point where we can no longer be ignored,” he said. “We need protected separate lanes on all major roads. We need planners and politicians to understand that drawing a line or a bike on the pavement makes cyclists less safe, not safer. Study after study shows that drivers drive faster and closer to cyclists when there is an unsecured bike lane.”

Three different Critical Mass rides are currently scheduled in Vancouver, including a monthly Critical Mass on the last Friday of the month, which takes place at 6:00 p.m. at 6:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Art Gallery. There is also a weekly Broadway Mass on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Friday of each month (Meet Vancouver City Hall Broadway, Meet 5:30pm, Drive 6:00pm). And there is also a weekly Stanley Park ride every Sunday, meet at the Park Board Office (2099 Beach Ave.) 1:00pm, ride 1:30pm

“Whoever is at the front of the crowd decides the route, leaving the authorities in the dark and preventing the crowd from being trapped,” he says. “Viva la Veloution!”

For more information, follow the following social channels: Critical Mass Vancouver Instagram, Facebook.

The post The Vancouver Vital Mass bike journey is again and here is why appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

With two special people in mind, Thomas “Tommy” Taylor and John “JD” Norton have embarked on a bike ride that will take them from Santa Monica to Boston, with a special stop in Barstow.

During the drive, which began Friday, Taylor will honor his late wife, Thokozile “Thoko” Kesiilwe-Taylor, a nurse who served at Barstow Community Hospital. Thoko, 60, died two years ago after being diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an immune system disorder characterized by the growth of tiny clusters of inflammatory cells in parts of the body.

Taylor will be raising money for the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, the country’s largest nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.

Norton, 69, will be riding to raise awareness of organ donation and on behalf of his 8-year-old grandson, Broderick, who is in need of a new kidney.

reunion tour

The longtime friends, who grew up in upstate New York, have kept in touch via social media.

“In 1972, JD and I were a bunch of hippies hitchhiking from New York to San Diego,” said Taylor, 70, who lives in Barstow. “We haven’t seen each other for a while, so I guess you could call that a reunion tour.”

The duo plan to arrive at Barstow Community Hospital by 10am Tuesday, where the men can share their journey and celebrate Thoko’s time at BCH, hospital spokesman John Rader told the Daily Press.

“After leaving the Santa Monica Pier, we’re going east most of Route 66 towards the Midwest and then to Boston,” Taylor said. “We hope to spread our messages online and in person as we head to the East Coast.”

The hospital’s CEO, Adam Loris, said that when Taylor approached the hospital about the opportunity to host the reception, BCH jumped at the opportunity.

“Although I didn’t know his wife, Thoko, since I only recently started at Barstow Community Hospital, what I understand from our staff is that she was one of our beloved nurses,” Loris said. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Thoko while encouraging Tommy and his riding partner JD Norton in their purposeful cross-country ride.”

Memory of Thoko

“Tuesday would have been our 14th wedding anniversary,” Taylor said. “Thoko was a quiet, compassionate person who loved life and had a heart to serve others.”

Raised in “black oppressed” South Africa and under the cloud of apartheid, Thoko was politically active, voting in the first democratic vote in 1994, Taylor said. Thoko became a US citizen and worked hard to get her nursing license before working in Barstow. She would later buy a house, Taylor said.

I owned my own plumbing business and we had an account with the Barstow Community,” Taylor said. “I met Thoko while doing a job. We started talking and eventually got married.”

After being diagnosed with the disease, Thoko’s lungs were affected. The couple made numerous trips for treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

While the couple worked towards getting Thoko a lung transplant, her health continued to deteriorate.

“Thoko passed away in August 2021 and we brought her back to South Africa for her funeral,” Taylor said. “She has a wonderful family and a strong Christian faith. She loved South Africa and her homeland in the US very much.”

Two weeks before his wife died, Taylor’s 23-year-old son Jason, who had a heart transplant as a child, died suddenly. Taylor also mourned the loss of his sister’s son, Joshua, 41, who died in a motorcycle accident.

As the world came crashing down on Taylor, his nephew told him that as part of his healing, he needed to get out and “do something epic.”

“It was April 7, 2022 when I decided to write JD, who I hadn’t seen in 40 years,” Taylor said. “I asked him if he wanted to drive across America.”

Norton happily agreed to ride along, not just to accompany his friend, but to ride on behalf of Broderick and anyone in need of an organ.

“April is National Donate Life Month to encourage organ donor registration,” Norton said. “It’s a perfect time for riding.”

Norton rides for his grandson.

“Broderick had a traumatic birth, he was born prematurely, which affected his liver and kidneys,” said Norton, an Army veteran who lives in Colorado Springs. “His liver recovered, but one kidney failed and the other remained partially functional.”

Broderick battled COVID-19, but the virus continued to damage his remaining kidney, Norton said.

“If we don’t get a kidney, the goal is for him to get into his teens before dialysis,” Taylor said. “My daughter is helping Broderick with medication and diet, but he is in Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease.”

Do something epic

In order to ride 3,000 miles, Taylor sold his business, bought a touring bike, and began long-distance training.

“Part of my training consisted of getting dropped off in Las Vegas and driving about 150 miles back to Barstow,” Taylor said. “The mindset on this journey is to ride 3,000 miles piece by piece.”

Before retiring, Norton was a dedicated bike commuter and worked in the semiconductor industry.

“I also love mountain biking, so I’m always up for a challenge,” said Norton. “I bought a steel frame touring bike and started riding 50 miles about three or four times a week.”

Taylor said he’ll be thinking of Thoko every inch of the way from California to Massachusetts.

“Thoko loved life and she was the love of my life,” Taylor said. “I will always remember our life together.”

To raise funds, Taylor created the Sarkoid Bike Tour GoFundMe account and online site, sarkoidbiketour.com.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz can be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

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Waymo, the self-driving vehicle spin-off from Google, is expanding its autonomous ride-hailing service to San Francisco

fromThe Associated Press

August 24, 2021, 4:46 p.m.

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Waymo, the self-driving vehicle spin-off from Google, is expanding its autonomous ride-hailing service to San Francisco.

Selected “Trusted Tester” customers in the City by the Bay will be welcomed to ride in Jaguar I-Pace self-driving electric vehicles, the company said.

For the time being, the vehicles will have human substitute drivers on board. But at some point the company wants to drive the vehicles without them, as is the case now in the Phoenix area.

Waymo started the program with a few testers last week and is now expanding it, the company said. It wouldn’t tell how many vehicles are involved or when the human backups are scheduled to be pulled.

The approach is similar to what Waymo did in Phoenix when it launched a limited ride-hailing service in 2017. The company says it has offered thousands of fully autonomous rides on Metro Phoenix since October 2020.

People who wish to join the program can do so by downloading the Waymo One app.

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