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Great Highway

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For the play by August Strindberg, see The Great Highway.

Great Highway
The Great Highway, San Francisco, California, looking south from Sutro Heights
Length3.5 mi (5.6 km)
LocationSan Francisco
Coordinates37°45′02″N 122°30′31″W / 37.7506°N 122.5086°W / 37.7506; -122.5086
North endPoint Lobos Avenue
South endSkyline Boulevard

The Great Highway is a road in San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) next to Ocean Beach.[1] Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard (State Route 35) near Lake Merced; it extends to Point Lobos Avenue and the Cliff House at its northern end. In 2020 a portion of the road was closed to vehicular traffic, opening back to traffic in 2021 during weekdays.

Description

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The road closed to motor vehicles in January 2021

The Great Highway is a four-lane divided road built in 1929 that is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long and runs next to the Pacific Ocean along to Ocean Beach on the west side of San Francisco. The Great Highway starts at Skyline Boulevard and runs north to Point Lobos Avenue and the Cliff House in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco. It forms the western border of Golden Gate Park with two windmills, the Dutch Windmill and the Murphy Windmill at the northwestern and southwestern corners of the park along the highway. Both windmills were built to pump water into Golden Gate Park. Officially, this roadway is known as the Upper Great Highway.

As a north–south throughway, this section of the highway does not provide access to destinations in the nearby Sunset neighborhood, other than Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. It is a recreational street[2] with no car-usable turn-offs in the two miles (3.2 km) between Lincoln and Sloat. This provides limited use for local traffic, so the Lower Great Highway is a parallel frontage road immediately adjacent to the east of the main Great Highway, which features residences on one side and a mixed-use trail in the median between the two roads. To discourage high-speed traffic, speed humps are stationed every few blocks to augment stop signs at nearly every Lower Great Highway intersection.[3]

The N Judah, a San Francisco Municipal Railway streetcar line, ends at Great Highway and Judah, while the L Taraval, another streetcar line, ends two blocks from Great Highway at Wawona and 46th Avenue.

History

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The Great Highway was laid out in the Humphreys-Potter map of 1868[4] which laid out the streets of San Francisco's newly acquired Outside Lands, including the Richmond and Sunset districts.

In the 1890s, a railway line was run along the route of the Great Highway from its Southern terminus to Golden Gate Park in order to build the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. Although these tracks were removed in February 1895, the berm that supported them is still visible on the East side of the Great Highway today, supporting a multi-use pathway.[5]

In the early 1900s, as the automobile gained popularity, efforts were made to improve and widen the Great Highway as well as protect it from erosion. City engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy’s Ocean Beach Esplanade was completed in 1928, along with a newly paved Great Highway in 1929. The concrete seawall survives to this day.[6]

During the Hot Rod era of the 1950s–1960s, the Great Highway was a popular destination for owners of modified cars and others who wished to engage in rolling drag races.[7] In the 1980s, San Francisco converted the highway from eight lanes to four lanes with an underwater stormwater transport box to adhere to the California Coastal Act and Clean Water Act.[8]

Pedestrianization of middle section

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The two-mile-long (3.2 km) middle section of the Great Highway, between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard, is currently closed to motor vehicles on holidays, weekends, and Friday afternoons and evenings to provide recreational access, but remains open to traffic the rest of the week.[9][10] This hybrid setup has been in effect since August 2021, is slated to continue until 2025, and is a compromise between residents who want a full reopening to cars and other residents who prefer the section of highway to become a permanent, 17-acre park (6.9 ha).[9]

The segment was fully pedestrianized on a temporary basis in April 2020 during a COVID-19 stay at home order, a move that led to some people referring to the segment as the "Great Walkway".[11] City officials reported the closure attracted an average of 26,400 weekly pedestrian and bike visitors,[12] versus 140,000 vehicles per week passing through when it had been open to motorized traffic.[13]

The Great Walkway covered with sand in May 2021 during street closure

By 2021, the closure, along with the pedestrianization of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, had become hotly debated.[9] One city survey of 4,000 San Francisco residents found 53% of respondents supported making the closure to motor vehicles permanent.[14] A community created petition got over 11,000 signatures to reopen the highway to cars as of August 2021.[15] That month, three westside San Francisco supervisors and Mayor London Breed announced the new plan to reopen the Great Highway to motor vehicle traffic on weekdays (except Friday afternoons). This announcement short-circuited a separate and ongoing planning process by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to plan for the long-term future of the space, causing some protests.[16][17][18]

Prior to the motor vehicle closure, the roadway was closed an average of 27 times a year for sand removal and flooding.[19] In April 2022, due to sand, the Great Highway was partially or completely closed to motor vehicles for the entire month.[20]

In December 2022, after city voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have forced the Great Highway back open to motor vehicle traffic,[21] the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9–2 to renew the hybrid compromise until 2025.[9] A group of neighbors called Friends of Great Highway Park praised the vote[9] and continues to advocate for a fully car-free space.[22]

In June 2024, five supervisors and Mayor London Breed placed Measure K[23][24] on the November 2024 ballot asking voters to approve turning a two-mile stretch (3.2 km) of the Great Highway into an oceanfront park. If approved by voters, the section of the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard would close to private vehicle traffic permanently. In November 2024, a majority approved Measure K with 54% of voters in favor.[25]

Planned closure of southern extension

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Due to rising sea levels[26] the southernmost portion of the highway, Great Highway Extension from Sloat Boulevard to California State Route 35, is slated to close to vehicle traffic permanently starting early 2026[27] as part of the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project, to be replaced with a multi-use pathway, plaza, and seawall protections for city wastewater infrastructure.[28][27] The new plaza, to be located at the intersection of Great Highway and Sloat, will feature a new restroom building, while the southern end of the closed section will feature a parking lot accessible from Skyline and a new staircase down to the beach.[27]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lee, Fiona (September 28, 2020). "How the Great Highway became San Francisco's most unexpected promenade". SFGate. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  2. ^ ""...the Great Highway, which is classified as a recreational street in the General Plan. Recreational streets are meant to prioritize non-motorized traffic..."" (PDF). SAN FRANCISCO MUNICIPAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  3. ^ Knight, Heather. "S.F's beloved Great Highway car closure at risk as drivers race through Sunset's quiet streets". San Francisco Chronicle. No. 17 November 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  4. ^ "SF West History Vol 12 No 2" (PDF). Western Neighborhoods Project. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  5. ^ "Episode 163: Outside Lands Act of 1866". Outside Lands Podcast. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  6. ^ "A History of Coastal Erosion at Ocean Beach" (PDF). Surfrider Foundation. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  7. ^ "Recalling the Great Highway as a drag strip". Bay Area Observer. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  8. ^ Information and discussion regarding staff update and community input on the current use of the Great Highway; (PDF) (Report). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. p. 16. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e "S.F.'s Great Highway will remain car-free on weekends until 2025. This is how city will decide its future beyond that date". December 7, 2022.
  10. ^ Shanks, Adam (December 6, 2022). "Great Highway to stay car-free on weekends through 2025". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  11. ^ Knight, Heather (May 16, 2020). "Closed roads. Shared golf courses. Computers for kids. Bright spots of SF's shelter-in-place should last forever". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
  12. ^ "Great Highway Concepts Evaluation Report" (PDF). San Francisco County Transportation Authority. p. 10. Retrieved July 28, 2021. From October 2020 to March 2021, the Upper Great Highway had on average 3,200 weekday bicycle and pedestrian users and 5,200 weekend day users (see Figure 7). This is about 26,400 weekly visitors
  13. ^ "Great Highway to reopen on weekdays, sparking renewed debate". The San Francisco Examiner. August 5, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  14. ^ Graf, Carly (March 29, 2021). "Closing Upper Great Highway for good is popular, survey finds". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  15. ^ "Appeal seeks to block reopening of the Great Highway to cars". 48 hills. August 14, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  16. ^ "City Reveals Next Phase for Great Highway to Start August 16". SF Mayor's Office.
  17. ^ "Sup. Gordon Mar Calls for Cars to be Allowed Back on Great Highway, But in a 'Hybrid' Compromise". SFist. July 9, 2021. Archived from the original on August 16, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  18. ^ "S.F.'s Great Highway will reopen to cars on weekdays". San Francisco Chronicle. August 6, 2021.
  19. ^ "Like It Or Not: The Great Highway Will Change". Here/Say Media. February 3, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  20. ^ "San Francisco's Great Highway still smothered in sand after 'unusually windy storms'". SF Gate. April 19, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  21. ^ Cano, Ricardo (November 9, 2022). "JFK Drive will remain car-free after S.F. voters reject Prop. I, pass Prop. J". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  22. ^ Toledo, Aldo (November 4, 2023). "Anti-'doom loop' event in S.F. would show influx of international visitors joyful side of city". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 4, 2024. The event will be produced by Friends of Great Highway Park, a coalition of neighbors who want to see cars barred from the Great Highway year-round.
  23. ^ Mullaney, Alex (June 19, 2024). "Cars or no cars? Voters to decide future of Great Highway". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  24. ^ Li, Han (August 12, 2024). "Brace yourself, San Francisco: November's ballot will be massive". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  25. ^ Li, Han (November 8, 2024). "Prop. K passes; stretch of Great Highway will close to cars". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  26. ^ Bastone, Nick (June 4, 2022). "San Francisco's "managed retreat" from rising sea levels". Axios Media. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  27. ^ a b c Cano, Ricardo (April 30, 2024). "A portion of S.F.'s Great Highway will be permanently closed to cars. Here's what will replace it". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  28. ^ "Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project". San Francisco Recreation & Parks. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
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