San Francisco bike shop owner considers closing after car rams into business

SAN FRANCISCO – A bike shop owner in San Francisco is questioning whether his business can remain open after a car crashed into the front of his store.

This isn’t the only challenge the owner has faced; he cited it as the newest in a sequence of misfortunes near Market and Van Ness intersections.

Market Street Cycles bears evident damage, with a shattered window and wall. The incident occurred around 3 a.m. On Monday, while the owner was out of town. John McDonnell said he received a call from police that a vehicle had rammed into his shop.

McDonell said an employee managed to arrive at the scene soon after the crash and just as the vehicle was being pulled from the front of the shop.

McDonell discovered the crash was more than typical when a bystander across the street showed him video of a car doing donuts in the middle of the street before losing control of the car.

San Francisco police are investigating the crash and do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved.

Police also said that following the crash, someone broke into the damaged vehicle and took the driver’s possessions.

McDonell said his shop had been previously targeted by burglaries and bike thefts. He said that the timing of this latest incident comes when his business should be the busiest and now he wonders how he will go on.

“This is the time of year when bike shops have to make their money to get through the lean winters and so this is greatly impacting my business while I deal with all this stuff when we should be fixing bikes as fast as we can in here,” said McDonell.

McDonell also mentioned that bike commuting has not recovered to levels before the pandemic, making the incident even more distressing.

As of now, the driver involved in the crash has not been charged, while the San Francisco Police Department’s Traffic Division carries on with the investigation.