Been meaning to write about this for awhile - two weekends ago, I flew to San Francisco to visit my friend Julie, go to the Treasure Island Music Festival and to take in the sights. What better way to do that, Julie suggested, than to rent a GoCar?
Apparently designed to kill tourists, GoCar is a small, yellow, three-wheeled moped-car hybrid topping out at 30 mph that you can take on actual roads in San Francisco with actual traffic. A talking GPS system tells you which turns to make along a prescribed route and provides informative narration about the city as you mosey along. Julie graciously volunteered to drive as I can barely drive a traditional, non-death trap car.
Here I am in the sporty GoCar wearing a helmet that will protect me from absolutely nothing if we end up running into an SUV - safety first!
Vroom vroom.
The Mercedes parked next to us was totally jealous of our ride.
This button was unnerving. I have to admit, I was curious to see what would happen, but ultimately decided against flipping the switch.
My job was to take pictures as we cruised along. Mainly I enjoyed photographing other people as they photographed us, or pointed and laughed at us. If you want attention, try driving a little postage stamp-size car that sounds like a lawnmower.
Of course, we decided to take the car out in rush hour traffic and I thought I might die at any moment. This is what we were up against.
Tourists in San Francisco love novelty vehicles.
Rush hour traffic wasn't the only worry. As it turns out, our GPS/navigation system was broken. The sound kept fading in and out, and you could barely understand what the voice was saying. Example, "When you reach the stop sign, turn (mumble mumble), then proceed (hiss crackle) and always, always make sure you (dead silence)."
Problematic. We ended up terribly lost and I was certain we would end up on a ramp towards the Golden Gate Bridge. Scary.
Another problem - the car can only go up hills that are on the route. But since we strayed off the map, we got to a giant San Francisco hill and the car gave up in defeat. I had to get out and push, no joke.
In case you can't tell, this was really fun and I highly recommend it. I survived, so you probably will too!
Here are some pictures I snapped along the way. It is impossible to take a bad picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Surfers, not seals...
