SAN FRANCISCO—Voters of the city will decide the fate of part of the scenic Upper Great Highway, a route that starts in San Francisco and later joins State Highway 1 that winds along the California coast for 656 miles.
Proposition K, if passed, will permanently close the Upper Great Highway, a two-mile segment between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard along Ocean Beach, to private vehicles and will turn it into a public open recreation space.
The section of road was temporarily closed to traffic during the pandemic in 2020 to provide additional outdoor recreation space, and the road was reopened part time in 2021. Since then, it has been closed to traffic on weekends and holidays to allow the space to be used as a promenade for walking, biking, and other recreation.
“This use of the Upper Great Highway greatly expanded access and enjoyment of the coast in ways not possible on sand, including for those reliant on wheelchairs, rollators, and other mobility aids,” the proposed initiative measure states.
If Prop K is passed, travelers who are just passing through will only lose the opportunity to drive by that stretch of beach scenery. As for local residents, however, some have expressed doubts about closing the four-lane highway.
“It’s like putting the cart before the horse,” Jasmine Madatian, an advocate who opposes Prop K, told The Epoch Times. “They just want to close it down without having a plan, and it’s punishing 20,000 people a day who use that road and rely on it to get to their jobs.”
The Great Highway, which includes the Upper Great Highway and its 1.8-mile extension, has been under San Francisco park jurisdiction since the 1870s, long before it became a pathway for cars in the early 1900s.
The pilot program that keeps the Upper Great Highway closed on weekends and holidays will expire on Dec. 31, 2025.
In May this year, the city’s Board of Supervisors passed a park code to permanently close the extension between Sloat Boulevard and Skyline Boulevard, an area that has partially eroded into the ocean.
“The closure of Great Highway currently adds approximately three minutes of vehicular travel time at peak hour weekdays for trips that would typically use the Great Highway and are now diverted to eastern roadways,” states a June report by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).
The three-minute figure was based on data from days when the highway was closed for sand removal, which happened on average 32 times each calendar year. The report also stated that drivers experience additional delays at several key intersections.
“The additional 15,000 cars a day in the neighborhood would translate into longer response times for emergency vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks,” said Jasmine Madatian.
Prop K would still allow certain motor vehicles, including police cars and fire trucks, to pass through the area.
However, Madatian worries about emergency vehicles responding to emergencies in the Sunset District.
“It’s going to take them longer to get to the people in distress that need help because of the additional traffic,” she said.
Opponents of the measure have said that alternative routes, such as Sunset Boulevard and 19th Avenue, are already packed with vehicles and can barely handle extra traffic.
“We need to keep it open, because it’s our ingress and our egress. It’s our safety artery!” opponent Gina Tse-Louie told The Epoch Times.
“If there’s another major earthquake, we’re going to have at least 100 homes on fire. We will need fire stations from San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Marin counties to be able to help us.”
However, state Sen. Scott Wiener told The Epoch Times: “Mother Nature is already in the process of closing the Great Highway. It’s already going to be closed in the near future because of sand.”
The Great Highway extension could cost the city more than $80 million in the next 20 years due to “sea level rise and coastal erosion impacts,” according to the initiative measure texts.
“I understand that at times, change can be concerning to people, but every time we have taken one of these steps, in the long run, people have loved it, and it’s been very successful for the city,” Wiener said.
Although Wiener doesn’t believe closing the Upper Great Highway would make anyone less safe, he said various changes are needed on the west side to make traffic flow more safely.
Nob Hill resident Harold Finley told The Epoch Times: “With the cars running, only people of a certain age can cross the street safely. Now, [if Prop K passes], all people can go across the street safely to enjoy the beach. ... It’s pretty obvious to me it should be the way.”
The weekend promenade attracted 420,000 visits in 2023, according to the SFMTA report.
