Some people are not fans of the car-free Great Highway proposal slated for SF’s November ballot, and they’re organizing a car caravan Thursday morning to honk their displeasure at the idea.

Large portions of the Great Highway were car-free for much of the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, but the car-free arrangement between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way was certainly controversial among Sunset residents. The city eventually enacted a compromise in 2021 where cars were allowed back on weekdays, but the Great Highway remained car-free on weekends, a deal slated to stay in place until 2025. So the long-term outcome here is still unclear, but regardless, part of the Great Highway is going to be eliminated anyway in the coming years because of coastal erosion.

The district’s supervisor Joel Engardio co-sponsored a November ballot measure that would scrap that weekday-weekend switch, and make the Great Highway car-free permanently, seven days a week. But many Sunset District merchants and residents are not at all thrilled that Engardio went and did this.

Some of them are going to take the streets to protest the car-free measure on Thursday morning. A group called Open the Great Highway is planning a Thursday morning “car rally” to show their opposition to the car-free Great Highway idea.

“Join other protester organizers and community leaders to voice your opposition to the closure of the Great Highway,” the group said in an online announcement.

That announcement adds that there will be a 10 am gathering at the parking lot north of Lincoln Way and Great Highway, unnamed speakers at 10:30, and an 11:15-12 noon Car Rally in the Sunset with a “driving route to be announced at site.”

Are these car ralliers just a small disaffected minority? Maybe, but the Sunset opposition to the car-free thoroughfare is very real. The SF Public Press reported Wednesday that Engardio is getting a ton of blowback from his constituents for his role in promoting the ballot measure. The Chinese American Democratic Club and Sunset branch of the Chinatown Merchants United Association of SF have both come out against Engradio’s proposal.

“He did not say one word to a very significant number of people in his own district who are against it,” neighborhood resident Patricia Arack told the Public Press. “He just did it.”

But a car-free proponent group called Friends of the Great Highway Park is criticizing Thursday’s planned car caravan protests. “This caravan is wasting gas creating the traffic that they claim to deplore, while our measure is about planning ahead for the future, creating a win-win for drivers and park lovers alike,” Friends of Great Highway Park organizer Heidi Moseson said in a release.

You’ll recall that a November 2022 measure to bring cars back to the Great Highway and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park was rejected by SF voters, who voted to keep those streets car-free. That may bode well for this year’s car-free Great Highway ballot measure. But we’ll see if today’s car rally protest manages to drive any grassroots opposition to these car bans this year.  

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Related: Great Highway Will Now Remain Car-Free (On Weekends) Through 2025 [SFist]

Image: Open the Great Highway via Facebook