Coming to a green city near you

[Haul Asp]

Susan Ferrando, her husband, their two children and three preteens had come to San Francisco from Redwood City to celebrate the birthday of Ferrando's 11-year-old daughter. They went to Japantown, where they enjoyed shopping and taking in the blooming cherry blossoms.

Things took a turn for the worse at about 9 p.m., when the family was leaving Japantown -- just as the party of about 3,000 bikers was winding down its monthly red-lights-be-damned ride through the city. Suddenly, Ferrando said, her car was surrounded by hundreds of cyclists.

Not being from San Francisco, Ferrando thought she might have inadvertently crossed paths with a bicycle race and couldn't figure out why the police, who she had just passed, hadn't warned her. Confusion, however, quickly turned to terror, she said, when the swarming cyclists began wildly circling around and then running into the sides of her Toyota van.

Filled with panic, Ferrando said, she started inching forward until coming to a stop at Post and Gough streets, where she was surrounded by bikers on all sides.

A biker in front blocked her as another biker began pounding on the windshield. Another was pounding on her window. Another pounded the other side. "It seemed like they were using their bikes as weapons,'' Ferrando said. One of the bikers then threw his bike -- shattering the rear window and terrifying the young girls inside.

All the while, Ferrando was screaming, "There are children in this car! There are children in this car!"

She had the presence of mind to dial 911 on her cell phone -- and within minutes, the squad of motorcycle cops who were assigned to keep an eye on the ride descended on the scene.

The cyclists were loudly demanding that Ferrando be arrested for hit and run.
According to police, Ferrando had allegedly tapped one of the cyclists' tires.

When the alleged bicycle victim was approached, however, he said he wasn't hurt. He also refused to give his name or any other information.

Then, after a few swear words, the alleged victim took off on his bike while the rest of the crowd continued to yell at both the cops and the van.
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A. Japantown? Who thought up that one?
B. It doesn't take any presence of mind to dial 911, you moron
C. If I were driving, there would be cycles and bodies strewn around for miles

[chrish]

But your honor..

I slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting anyone and about 15 of them crashed into the back of my truck. As that happened, I immediately accelerated (so the others woudln't get hurt), but ended up running over 12 more infront of me. I then slammed on the brakes and went back into reverse. I guess in all the commotion, I forgot about those first 15 and ended up running over all of them. Then one I realized what had happened, I jumped on the gas to ge tthe truck off of them, but forgot about the other 12 in front and ran over them again.

Then, I was trying to swerve to the left to avoid a biker and that forced me to wipe out those seven cyclists. Then, as soon as that happened, I swerved to the right in a failed attempt to avoid running those cyclists over but only to run over 9 more on the right.

I was just awful