Michael Rhodes

"Come join Different Spokes (DSSF), the San Francisco Bay Area's GLBT cycling club for our monthly Jersey Ride, held the second Saturday of each month. All are welcome. The ride offers different distance and level options. The ride starts from Peet's in the Castro. There are three options so you can go at your own pace and distance. The rides split and regroup in Tiburon where we have lunch together as a group. Rain cancels."

"The SFBC wants to help more people substitute just one short car trip with a bicycle trip just one day a week. So, encourage a friend or coworker to pedal with you to an SFBC Energizer Station on Gas-Free Fridays and fuel up on coffee and snacks. In San Francisco, half of all driving trips are under two miles in length, a distance easily traveled by bicycle."

"Got the gift of gab? Volunteer to phone bank with the SFBC! No cold calling, just simple reminders to friendly lapsed SFBC members that their membership is expired. Come share in the fun. The more the merrier! We supply dinner and good company."

"The Bike Quilt top is ready for quilting! Please come join us at a weekly drop-in quilting bee on Wednesdays from September 23 to October 28. No quilting experience necessary, but comfort with a needle and thread is helpful. Instruction and snacks provided. The quilt will be raffled off at Winterfest in December to raise money for the SFBC Click HERE for more info on the quilt."

"There are a million good ideas for a group bike ride, whether it's a tour of tea shops, native plants, cemeteries, labor history, merry-go-rounds or Vertigo scenes. You've probably got a couple of ride ideas kicking around in your head ('60s rock band houses, anyone?), now's your chance to learn how to make one and spread the fun, it's easy. We'll talk through the tips and tricks and review some simple recipes for rocking rec rides. Bring your bike upstairs."

Last December, Muni invited riders to begin using TransLink universal fare cards on its trains and buses as part of a soft-launch trial period. By August, there were 6,775 average weekday TransLink boardings, making up 1.04 percent of Muni rides. The MTA hopes that by next year, the daily average will be 120,000, once TransLink-only fare gates are in place at its underground Muni Metro stations.

"Special morning ralley at Longfellow Elementary School with parents, teachers, pedestrian advocates and elected officials.

Two Pleasant Hill Middle School students, both girls, were sent to the hospital with serious injuries today when a woman driving a Chrysler PT Cruiser struck both of them in a striped crosswalk. The crash threw one of the girls onto the hood of the vehicle, cracking its windshield. Despite sustaining serious injuries, they were expected to survive.

It's been half a century since the "roar of the four" streetcar lines dominated Market Street, but with the Market Street traffic diversion trial in effect today, trains and buses reasserted themselves over automobiles as the uncontested dominant vehicles on the city's main thoroughfare. With eastbound automobiles forced to turn right at 6th and 8th Streets, the roar of the four subterranean transit tracks - BART and Muni Metro - was easily audible in certain spots. For the first time, subways, streetcars, and buses included, San Franciscans could hear the roar of the eight.

In an effort to make the Presidio function less like a traffic shortcut and more like a national park, the Presidio Trust is trying out an idea that's caught on in the dense city that borders it: a trial street closure. From today until October 27, Presidio Boulevard will be closed to private automobiles between West Pacific Avenue and Upper Simonds Loop [map PDF], as the Presidio Trust and the MTA study traffic impacts. Muni and emergency vehicles will still have full access.