Over the weekend I was in San Francisco at a soccer tournament, and I'm telling you, I have never seen so many hybrid vehicles in my life.

It seemed like I was always driving next to a Prius, or parked next to a Prius, or waiting at a light behind a HCH. It was a very pleasing experience, especially compared to my normal situation in Sacramento suburbia, where I usually only see the undersides of the four SUVs surrounding me on my short commute to work.

I guess it's encouraging that even in SF, where conditions are decidedly slanted towards bad gas mileage (big hills, traffic lights everywhere, etc.); even there, hybrids are very popular. No doubt some of that can be attrributed to the environmental and perhaps political nature of folks in that city, but even so, it was a very impressive sight.

I figured that to be true, but I have not been to SF since the late 1990s, so I have not seen that in person.

I guess SF is our "Hybrid testbed city" huh, destined to let us know how large cities deal with high hybrid populations? How about cleaner air, more money to spend on "life" than on gasoline, more experienced Hybrid mechanics, a better educated Hybrid public? I think SF will have all those benefits and more as time goes by.....Good for them....

I'm right outside SF, and a lot of my neighbors are attracted to the hybrids for another reason: they're QUIETER. I don't know about y'all, but I much prefer having a Prius whisper past my house than some big rumbling thing.

Seattle can't be far behind. I was there on business a couple of months ago and during a rush-hour (sic) journey from Sammamish to downtown Seattle (about 1.5 hours for about 21 miles) I stopped counting when I had tallied 10 hybrid vehicles.

Those are the conditions though where Hybrids have the biggest mileage "advantage" over normal cars, even if the overall total is still lower than optimal. Lots of hills and stop and go means the hybrid assist and regen is being used all the time. Living on a hill hurts my overall avergae, but it's not nearly as big of a hit as a normal gasoline car that has no other option than to engine brake all the way down instead of regen braking.

In Southern Orange County, CA I see a lot of the hybrid cars as well. This area is polar opposite from SF in terms of politics too, so that isn't the only motivator. I regularly see about 8-10 prii, 3-4 other Hybrid Civics, and an Insight over my short (13.5mi each way) commute. Though I haven't seen Highlander or Accord hybrids on the road yet, I personally konw several people who plan to buy those as they were holding out for hybrid cars with more power.