San Francisco weekend traffic and transit: Lose your wallet to Apple

August is here and the usual SF summer fog with it, but it’s hard to walk into another San Francisco weekend with anything but a sunny disposition once Friday afternoon arrives.

Unless of course an ill-timed street closure or transit diversion puts an indefinite stay on your weekend plans. To keep your two-day break from breaking down, here’s an overview of events around the city that may delay or divert your usual go-to routes.

Playland On Balboa Music Festival: August 4 (The Richmond)

The Richmond gets its own personal Outside Lands preview this weekend with the Playland On Balboa Festival from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Richmond Blog reports that the lineup features the likes of BURNT, Teen Models, the Total Bettys, and Bandy’s Brass Band.

It will also feature a few potential pitfalls for anyone just trying to get from point A to point Balboa, as SFMTA cautions that Balboa Street will close between 35th and 38th Avenue on Saturday between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

That means that the following Muni routes will have to work around the festival, possibly leading to delays:

• 18 46th Avenue
• 31 Balboa

Courtesy Playland On Balboa.

Nihonmachi Street Fair: August 4-5 (Japantown)

Japantown has hosted the annual Nihonmachi Street Fair for 45 years now, “hatched as an idea to provide leadership and mentorship opportunities for the youth of J-Town and to honor the cultural heritage that was, at the time, at risk of being displaced” according to the fair site.

The festivities run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, featuring work by local artists, a basketball tournament, and even a fair specifically for dogs, complete with vendors hawking canine comestibles.

It will also feature some extensive street closures from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. both days:

• Post Street between Laguna and Fillmore
• Webster Street between Geary and Sutter
• The Intersection of Webster and Post

This won’t affect Muni service to or through Japantown.

Lose Your Wallet: August 4-5 (Cow Hollow)

Apple is noted for its marketing pedigree, but it’s hard to imagine that the name of this two day promotional event on Union Street focus grouped all that well. Guess there really are a few bad apples in every barrel.

According to 9 to 5 Mac (reporting on a similar promotion in LA back in March, the Lose Your Wallet concept is a bid at “encouraging users to use the company’s Apple Pay mobile payment service by offering discounts at select stores.”

No word on who is participating on Union Street, but the Apple brandname always draws a crowd and SFMTA is closing Union Street between Octavia and Laguna from 6 a.m. Saturday all the way to 11 p.m. Sunday.

That will also mean that the 45 Union/Stockton will be rerouting around the stoppage most of the weekend.

• Playland at Balboa [Richmond Blog]
• Weekend Transit and Traffic [SFMTA]
• Nihonmachi Street Fair
• Apple Holding Another Lose Your Wallet [9 to 5]