Great Highway Pilot Project

The Great Highway is a 3.8-mile-long roadway running along Ocean Beach on the westernmost side of San Francisco. The Upper Great Highway is a two-mile segment of this roadway, between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. On weekends, this area becomes a 17-acre park with a 2-mile promenade, while on weekdays it is a roadway with an adjacent trail.

The conversion of Upper Great Highway as a car-free promenade began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has provided outdoor recreational space for families, people on bicycles and in wheelchairs, people with walkers or other mobility assistance devices, people with strollers, and people walking, jogging, skateboarding and more. 

The area, which was created and designated under San Francisco park jurisdiction in the 1870s as a space for recreation, also provides a valuable scenic public promenade that can accommodate higher volumes of use than the adjacent pathways. In addition, it offers recreational access to the beachfront to people who cannot easily use the beach itself.

Pilot Project

In December 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance to maintain the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard as a car-free promenade until December 31, 2025, allowing for a three-year pilot study. This preserves the current schedule of closing the road to motor vehicle traffic on weekends beginning on Friday afternoons at 12 p.m. until Monday mornings at 6:00 a.m. and on holidays.

The pilot allows the Recreation and Park Department and the SFMTA to collect more robust data on the Upper Great Highway’s use as both a roadway and a promenade, as well as gather additional public feedback.