{"id":5333,"date":"2026-07-24T15:40:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5333"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:40:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:40:34","slug":"what-its-like-aboard-the-street-legal-banana-thats-giving-rides-in-the-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5333","title":{"rendered":"What it’s like aboard the street-legal banana that’s giving rides in the Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Making its second pass through the Bay Area on its travels around the country, the Big Banana Car will be offering rides this weekend in Livermore.<\/p>\n

Read more Libraries are here to say: how the Campbell Library renovation is keeping libraries relevant<\/a><\/p>\n

From noon until 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the four-seat fruit will be staging at Fosters Freeze, 1591 First St.<\/p>\n

Driver Steve Braithwaite\u2019s rules: Pay what works for you. Bring a car seat for anybody who needs one in a regular car. Three riders at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how I fund the banana car\u2019s travels but I don\u2019t charge a set price because I don\u2019t want money to be a barrier to taking a ride,\u201d Braithwaite says on the banana\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a reporter at our sister paper in Eureka took a ride. Here\u2019s her report:<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to miss Steve Braithwaite. He drives a banana.<\/p>\n

His art car was taking fruity automotive fans \u2014 including this intrepid reporter \u2014 on rides out of a Humboldt County parking lot recently.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The self-identified hot rodder said the inspiration came from an episode of \u201cTop Gear,\u201d the British TV show about car racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had two crazy vehicles: They had the world\u2019s fastest garden shed and a fully street-legal couch. So I\u2019m watching this, thinking, \u2018Huh, what can I build that\u2019s ridiculous?\u2019 And for a month, everything I looked at, \u2018Can I turn that into a car?\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Finally, he found the perfect shape for the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day, I\u2019m standing in line in a gas (station)\u2026 and there\u2019s a bowl of fruit next to me, and on top was a banana exactly that shape,\u201d he said, pointing to his vehicle in the parking lot. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought of bananas as that boomerang shape, and that wouldn\u2019t work because you wouldn\u2019t see the road ahead.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSo, but I picked this up and I\u2019m studying it, thinking, \u2018All right, the wheels will go there, the windshield, the bumpers,\u2019 and I pictured it driving down the road and started laughing. And I was so engrossed in this, I didn\u2019t realize the line ahead of me had cleared, and I\u2019m now standing in the middle of a gas station with people behind me staring at a banana.\u201d<\/p>\n

The native of Oxford, England, who now lives in Michigan, said it was after that his banana rod began to take shape.<\/p>\n

Read more Is California homeownership less obtainable than we think?<\/a><\/p>\n

Starting with a base F-150, he modeled his vehicle by upscaling a real banana. This banana was one he found after much study in a grocery store; he didn\u2019t actually buy the initial banana that inspired the vehicle\u2019s shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose the perfect banana, cut it into inch slices, drew around each slice and numbered them, projected those full size onto wood, fitted those on the frame, and then used that as a buck to run rebar to make a skeleton of banana,\u201d he explained. \u201cAs the skeleton was made, I took all the wood out, then I covered the skeleton in chicken wire, sprayed it with urethane foam, like you insulate houses with, sculpted that to a nice banana shape, and then fiberglassed over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Braithwaite explained the inner workings of his mobile banana, onlookers began to gather in the parking lot, snapping photos and asking about the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Braithwaite offers rides on a pay-what-you-can scale and balances his budget with sales of mugs and T-shirts.<\/p>\n

Eureka resident Jessica Gaube and her nearly-7-year-old son, Weston, were among those checking out the car. Weston said he was excited about taking a ride in a banana and mom had a booster seat on hand. While Gaube bowed out of the ride, Weston eagerly climbed in.<\/p>\n

Weston is a car aficionado and said he plans to operate a Lamborghini and Bugatti dealership when he grows up. But while still young, he might enjoy a Matchbox, which made Braithwaite\u2019s vehicle at 1\/64th size.<\/p>\n

\u201cMattel contacted me out the blue, asking if they could turn my car into a Matchbox toy, and my first thought was, \u2018Oh, finally, I can buy a house.\u2019 No, I don\u2019t get paid anything for that. No royalties. Nothing. But I did insist my name be on the packaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

This reporter hopped in the second seat of a four-seat banana for a ride around town with Braithwaite and the response was fantastic. Cars passing by honked horns, several people waved and took photos.<\/p>\n

He noted it\u2019s not always easy to change lanes in a banana.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are taking pictures and waving. I have to point at my light,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said he gets pulled over regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Mexico recently. I got pulled over five times in three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he got a ticket, he said no, but one cop told him that he was seen \u201cpeeling out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Bay Area growers see uptick in locally-grown lettuce sales amid cyclospora outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making its second pass through the Bay Area on a loop around the country, the Big Banana Car will be offering rides this weekend in Livermore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat it’s like aboard the street-legal banana that’s giving rides in the Bay Area - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5333\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What it’s like aboard the street-legal banana that’s giving rides in the Bay Area - 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