http://www.flickr.com/photos/spine/sets/72157606976288019/

Unfortunately this one doesn't seem to be among the ~500 he already has. I sent him email with this link -- he says he hasn't seen this car, but will be on the lookout for it.

If that is not enough, let’s add dealer and vanity plates into the mix and for the icing, imagine sorting this out after being slammed to the pavement by the car the license is attached to.

It is no surprise that there are so many hit and runs. The odds are that you won’t get caught. If you are caught you don’t get punished.

How many DUI’s do you need before your license it taken? How many speeding tickets, running stop signs, red lights or any other moving violation do you need before you lose your license?

Irresponsible motorist behavior is and always has been treated on the same level as a juvenile getting caught drinking beer behind the supermarket.

$351.00 for running a red light vs. $250.00 for parking at a bus stop. Park along the Embarcadero during rush hour and your car gets towed with significant cost and effort to get it back.

The punishment for running a red light is less than that of parking in a tow zone. Yet the potential for a catastrophe is significantly greater.

Enforce the laws, take away automobiles not licenses and then perhaps the driving public will understand that risky behavior will not be tolerated.

But this will never happen, instead more laws will be passed and unenforced by the people whose job it is to enforce them.

Can you hear me now?

I previously lived in Virginia and in Massachusetts. When you register a car there you get a license plate on the spot, at least a temporary one that is registered to you so that you are not driving your car anonymously.

In California I can't help but notice that seemingly 2% of cars have these "Uniquely San Francisco" or "Redwood City Toyota" or "Marin Land Rover" license plates.

I once asked a parking enforcement officer how they deal with those and told me that they look at the VIN and can track down the owner through that.

Now my question is - had the driver in this situation been driving a Mercedes with a "Uniquely San Francisco" license plate, how the hell do you track that one down? Is the dealership liable?

I really don't get it. Has there been precedent of hit and runs with these dealer plates?

For more listings you can try http://www.shaded-relief.com/license-plate-search.htm.

I'm not affiliated with these DMV search sites...just an IT guy who agrees that it should be easy to query a database of records. Especially when a 4 year old is involved. I ride with my 4 year old in Marin frequently.

If the SFBC is not going to leverage that membership by negotiating (from a position of strength) with the SFPD on changing their institutional culture, or that failing to mobilize those ten thousand cyclists to make a Police Commission or Board of Supervisors meeting drag on for 36 hours, then at least shell out some of those membership dues to solve a crime and illustrate the detachment of the overpaid, underworked SFPD to our concerns.

The POA contract comes up again for negotiation and renewal in two years time. The last one gave the POA everything and got us nothing. Can you all at least put that milestone on the SFBC's advocacy agenda now so that there is community pressure on our supervisors to get involved in those negotiations and to ensure that we're at the table this time?

We know what needs to be done with respect to bringing the SFPD to a place where they do their job. Not all of it requires a special investigator, most of it should have been on the SFBC's plate all this time. But there have been no efforts to ensure that the traffic company set the enforcement tone so that motorists know that they will be caught when they maim even as the MTA was funding them.

The Police Commission has not been lobbied to change the Departmental General Orders to reflect Transit First. The Board of Supervisors, which had successfully overridden Newsom's veto several times on foot patrols, has not been approached to change the admin code to compel priorities towards Transit First.

You guys get paid to do this work and are comparatively not short of resources, Andy continually threatens that an SFBC focus on SFPD enforcement is "just around the corner," and we did not work to pass Prop H in 2003 to wait six years for transpo advocates to not use an broader Police Commission to reconcile the force and Transit First.

People hit, maim and run, on Valencia or CA-20, because the prevailing culture says that autos trump. The way to undercut that is for an enforcement regime that acknowledges that irrespective of cyclist or ped stupidity, the dominant, overwhelming threat to safety in the public realm are rogue motorists, and the way to check that threat is with an enforcement regime that guarantees consequences.

The SFPD will not do this voluntarily, they must be forced to politically.

-marc

I like this idea. If a fund were started to pay for a private investigator I would certainly contribute.

It makes me so sad and bewildered that even with partial plates and car color/description the SFPD doesn't have this attempted murderer in custody. I agree that if the hit and run victim had been an officer - they would have found this person by now.

SFBC or S'Blog - want to administer a fund to pay for a PI? That might make the mainstream media sit up and write a story. It can be an investigate-off. Who will find her first - the PI or the SFPD?

As Ross Mirkarimi did with foot patrols, we need to LEGISLATE job requirements onto the SFPD so that we might make their worst inclinations ILLEGAL and might encourage them to expend their scarce resources enforcing laws which make us safer.

Part of this is going to be a massive de-suburbanization educational campaign that teaches cops how San Francisco is different than their exurban tract homes so that when the law changes and they are compelled to enforce according to the priorities of those paying their salaries, the shock will not be too significant.

That we have to go to such contortions to get what we're paying for out of our employees is insulting enough.

The SF Bike Corporation is too eager to please to do what they have to do in order to successfully confront intransigent power and prevail.

-marc

-The SFBC could use their pull to get the Chroncile to do a story on the search for the car
-The SFBC could ask cyclists to ride up and down every street in the city searching for a damaged PT Cruiser (some of us have already done that while commuting)
-Hang fliers (people have done this)

There's been a few cases of more serious crime against bicyclists where people would like to help but are limited in what they can do for the very fact that we are not the police (notably the murders of Jordan M. in the Richmond district and Jenna M. in Oceanview).

If the SFBC is serious about helping the family they might try the following steps:

1. hire a private investigator

2. try to improve the corporation's relations with the police

The first would likely be most effective.

The second could be helpful in the long run. The police have repeatedly asked for help from the bike community. Actual work with the police and not just unfunded goals, etc. was completely removed from the Bike Plan for the all network plan/disaster.

Streets blog could also help enforcement and relations with the police by talking to them. Ask them what's up and how the bike "community" could help them do their job better.

Thus far i haven't seen any coverage of that incident in the local papers, where is the mighty corporation? Complaining about the police? It's not even on their web-site.

I wish streetsblog had been around before, enough of the silence of press release and sanitized speech. Enough people have been hurt on these streets.

CSI these guys ain't.