M - Tram ride time

No bikes to look at today, so we set out in the afternoon, and have now tried both the trams, and the cable car. Different from the Wellington cable car, this one runs up the middle of a main street, which is too steep for ordinary trams (and the old horse drawn ones I think!). There appears to be a cable underground which is constantly running (you can hear it when you walk over the line) and I think the streetcar grabs onto it when it wants to move. Can anyone confirm/explain this better? Add a comment.

Air quality wise today was much better. We could see much further and a local explained to us that most of the clag was in fact sand and dust blown up from the desert rather than pollution. Apparently the indigenous people noticed this before the white man came along, so it is unlikely to be related to vehicle emissions.

Generally I have found attitudes (and bylaws) here to pollution, public transport, and waste to be more enlightened than in NZ. I’m told this will change once we leave San Fran however. The trolley buses run all over the city and have “Zero Emission Vehicle” painted proudly on them. Perhaps I should email Kamikaze Kerry…