San Francisco, California Roadblocks

This one has already been described in detail and that it occurred on New Year’s. It also sprang up last week (Sep 11th) for unclear reasons. Burning Man attendees had already arrived home, and it is one of the slower party weekends as a result. Maybe it had something to do with 9/11.

It also felt this time like they were just making their presence known. Cars were being pulled over and searched, it didn’t feel like a sobriety checkpoint.

I’ve seen this checkpoint on two consecutive new years eves. I didn’t drive through it, but saw it from a gas station on the corner of sixth and Harrison. The signs say sobriety checkpoint, but I don’t know if they check for more.

There are plenty of cops on motorcycles ready to go after those who turn away. I’ve only seen it on new years eve. However, I bet they run it on other party holidays.

Harrison Street is a four lane, one way street with a lot of traffic. I imagine they stopped every xth car when traffic conditions allowed, but probably stopped nobody during heavy traffic. I think there would have been a huge traffic jam if they had stopped even 25% of the drivers, however none materialized during the five or ten minutes I spent at the gas station.

The location and the fact that it happened on two different new years eves should be valuable enough info to avoid, or better yet, to document — should you have nothing better to do on new years eve! — this seemingly annual checkpoint.