SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — In just a few hours, San Francisco’s Great Highway will no longer be a walker’s paradise.
During the pandemic, the highway was shutdown to traffic and made a safe recreation zone.
Beginning tomorrow, it will be re-opened to traffic Monday through Friday.
Most people said they are going to miss being able to use this space without vehicle traffic.
“I’m not really happy about it.”
That sentiment was echoed by many walking along the Great Highway.
The stretch from Lincoln to Sloat Boulevard has been a favorite place for people to walk, bike, and hike since April 2020.
“I think it’s such a treat over the pandemic that we’ve been able to have this private to ourselves.”
Lindsay Albert says she thinks having this highway reserved for pedestrians has been good for the neighborhood — and she’s not the only one.
Photos show hundreds of people protested the re-opening.
The rally was held by “Walk San Francisco”.
Leaders with the organization say since closing to vehicles the Great Highway has become one of the most visited recreational spaces, second only to Golden Gate Park.
But one person said there is some work that has to be done before permanently closing the Great Highway to traffic.
“Figure out how to reroute traffic.”
He says he doesn’t want all the traffic that would normally be using the Great Highway, re-routed through the neighborhoods.
Although Albert says she’d like to see the Great Highway be only a pedestrian space, she’s grateful it will still be only pedestrians on the weekends.
“I’d rather have that then nothing at all.”
The Great Highway will be re-opening to cars at 6 a.m. Monday morning.
It will stay open to vehicles until noon on Friday.