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Board of Supervisors’ legislation action needed for SF’s Great Highway future as debate continues

2 mins read

The Board of Supervisors is entrusted with the most contentious issues that emerged since the pandemic: the San Francisco’s Great Highway future.

For more than a year during the pandemic, the Great Highway has been taken over by families and cyclists and went car-free.

The city announced a compromise last month but the pressure is still up.

A San Francisco resident Slavashirr Oklv, who was among the cyclists wanting to retain the car-free Great Highway, exclaimed: “Hate it. Don’t like it.”

Cars are allowed on the Great Highway from August 16, from 6:00 in the morning on Mondays to noon on Fridays but is closed to vehicles during holidays and the weekends.

Ed Feeney from Richmond has benefitted from the opening of the two-mile stretch for vehicles.

“The freeway being closed causes a lot of congestion on the surface streets here,” he noted. “It takes me literally probably 15 more minutes to get home from where it’s blocked.”

But how will the compromise stay?

The closure of the road for cars has been backed by Senator Scott Wiener.

“The number of streets and blocks that we are asking to be kept permanently for pedestrians and cyclists and not for cars is a tiny percentage of our overall road network,” the senator said.

ABC7 has talked to people using the highways, majority of whom have approved the compromise.

“I like having it open for foot traffic, but I can see it being opened during the week for car traffic making a lot of sense,” Charlie Kaupp from San Francisco said.

“I feel like that was a fair compromise,” another resident, Dana Herbert Walker, said.

However, there are some who do not consider the term “compromise.” For Oklv, “I don’t like compromises. I think we should extremely ban cars. We haven’t gone far enough.”

The Board of Supervisors will be giving its legislative move to the long-term plan regarding the highways, the Mayor’s office said.