SAN FRANCISCO -- There they sit, forlorn relics of a gas-guzzling age, painted an undignified electric green and trussed up for slaughter. As lunch hour approaches in the Financial District, the Lincoln Continental and Chevy Blazer await their fate at the hands of sledgehammer-wielding office workers, mystified tourists and at least one vengeance-seeking bicycle messenger.
Bashing these vehicles back to the Stone Age is more than just visceral entertainment for the Friday afternoon lunch mob at Justin Herman Plaza. It's a marketing gimmick from Zipcar, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, car-sharing company making its West Coast debut in a city that has a longstanding love-hate relationship with the automobile.
What better way to promote car sharing than to publicly eliminate a couple of cars?
Those who picked up a sledgehammer and took their swings certainly seemed to think so.
"I'm ready to go back to work now," said one man.
Keny Davis, a bike messenger who's no stranger to crazed city motorists, just smiled. "Therapy, man," he said, walking away.
Zipcar sees San Francisco, a congested town where parking is a joke, as fertile ground for expansion. For $8.50 an hour or $49 a day, including gas and insurance, you can use a car you don't have to keep. As for obtaining a year-long membership, once you've cleared a DMV records check, you're in, said Rob Guthrie, a Zipcar vice president.
Zipcar, which has branches in New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago, recently claimed its 50,000th member, Guthrie said.
Whether Zipcar is a hit in San Francisco remains to be seen. But the sledgehammer certainly was.
