So you've got a car with you, and you think you're going to be able to drive around San Francisco? Have fun. It can be done, but San Francisco contains many screw-the-tourist features in it's traffic planning:

• Whenever you really need to make a left turn, it will be illegal. There are major streets with miles long no-left-turn corridors.
• Hills and parks create barriers to seat-of-the-pants navigation (let's see if we go this way we should get back to the Haight... oops, the panhandle of Golden Gate Park is in the way, which streets go across there again?)
• Just when you think you're heading in the right direction, the two-way street will become a one-way, and you'll be forced to make a turn.

It is possible to get from here-to-there in SF by car, but it takes a certain knowledge of where the routes are concealed. No maps seem to indicate these routes (for that matter you're lucky if you've got a map that tells you which streets are one-way). On the plus side, there have been attempts at sticking in tourist-guide signs (like, go this way for Chinatown), but you will notice that there are no signs telling you how to, for example, get from Soma to the Upper Haight.

Here's a quick hint on that one: your instinct may be to drive across Market somewhere and then go over West, and then down to the Haight. Not impossible, perhaps, but it's difficult... it's also nearly impossible to make a left on to Market. So instead, drive toward Market, and try to make a left on to Mission, the major street before Market. Follow Mission down but keep bearing right when it starts to snake around, and with any luck you'll get squirted across Market street going North on Octavia, all set to make a left into the lower Haight. If I get a chance, I'll reveal some more of these secret routes to you later... -->

Drivers in San Francisco are not particularly bad... However, they are inclined to assert their right to swing a U-turn in the middle of a busy intersection whenever the impulse strikes. Also, in general, a car making a turn will always swing as wide as possible in order to use all available lanes. Driving habits in the Bay Area have been grossly corrupted in the last few decades by bastards from New York like myself, but some pedestrians in California evidentally haven't gotten the word, so what the hell, why don't you pretend you're legally required to stop for them at crosswalks. There are a fair number of bicyclists in San Francisco, and you should realize that legally they have the right to take up an entire lane if they feel like it, so don't honk at them if you think they should squeeze over more and let you by. And if you've just parallel-parked, look over your shoulder carefully to avoid swinging your door wide into a passing bicyclist... this is the main reason that most cyclists refuse to squeeze over.

Oh, by the way, forget about driving down the "crookedest" street (Lombard, between Hyde and Levanworth). If you catch it at the wrong time, you could end up waiting in a line of cars for a half-hour just for a 1 minute trip down the hill. If you're going to do it, use your feet.