San Francisco Created a Car-Free Oasis by the Sea—and It’s Driving Locals Mad

Cyclists, families and a tech CEO love the park, made by closing a highway. Neighbors whose streets became detours are fighting to bring back vehicles.

Sunset Dunes park. Video: Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO—Judi Gorski’s home overlooks one of this city’s newest and most spectacular attractions: a two-mile, car-free stretch of coastal highway where visitors bike, skateboard and stroll against a backdrop of crashing waves.

She refuses to step foot on it.

Gorski is among those fuming since voters permanently closed most of Upper Great Highway to cars, creating what became Sunset Dunes park last year. The move pushed as many as 20,000 vehicles a

A big rig on Judi Gorski's street.

Opponents of Prop. G argue that returning cars would mean an almost unthinkable loss of one of the most unique promenades in the U.S., erasing, they say, an oasis with amenities like skateboard ramps, an outdoor gym and playground equipment. Cyclists use one side of the four-lane highway while pedestrians stroll the other, often with pelican formations flying overhead.

“There is no reason to demolish a park that families across San Francisco love,” Stoppelman said in a statement, adding that he enjoys going there with his children. Lucas Lux, 40, a tech-company lawyer and president of Friends of Sunset Dunes, a community group that has led the park effort, called it “a rare place in a city where kids are safe enough to learn independence.”

The fight in San Francisco mirrors friction nationwide in cities that have increasingly installed bike lanes and converted streets to pedestrian use. Europe pioneered the “pedestrianization” movement decades ago, and it accelerated in the U.S. during the pandemic, becoming wildly popular with many, while critics say it often just shifts congestion elsewhere and makes it harder to get around.

Compact and European in feel, San Francisco has been a leader in removing cars from streets, closing a portion of Market Street, its downtown main artery, along with roads in Golden Gate Park and the scenic lookout Twin Peaks in recent years. Upper Great Highway joined the list after crowds flocked to a pandemic-era pilot project that temporarily banned cars on weekends, starting at noon Fridays.

Jeff Daniel, 57, who lives nearby, later joined residents pushing to make the ban against private cars permanent and create a public-recreation space. Voters agreed in November 2024, with 55% support, and the new park, Sunset Dunes, opened in April 2025, named for the impressive sand dunes lining Ocean Beach, one of the nation’s premier big-wave surfing spots. The city called it “the largest pedestrianization project in California’s history.”

“Sunset Dunes acts as a public commons,” said Daniel, a music entrepreneur. “Every day I walk or bike there, I see friends, neighbors and visitors meeting, walking, talking, exercising and engaging with each other directly, leaving their phones in their pockets.”

Jeff Daniel, a leader in the Friends of Sunset Dunes group, helped make wooden signs directing visitors to nearby restaurants and shops.

But many residents say the 2024 ballot measure came about too hastily with too little outreach to neighborhoods that relied on the Upper Great Highway as a main artery. While city traffic data shows a negligible increase in driving times, many residents tell a different story, and they fear scheduled construction projects and road closures will make things worse.

“It takes a good 15/ 20 minutes longer on average to get through the neighborhood and to and from the freeway to my mother’s house in San Carlos,” Jennifer Dougherty, a 55-year-old pet sitter who lives a block from the closed highway, said by text. “There are speed bumps and arterial stop signs everywhere.”

Joanie Landon, 85, said it previously took eight minutes to travel by car from her home to a thermal pool for her arthritis therapy on the other end of the highway. But the circuitous route she takes now has increased that trip to at least 25 minutes, she said, prompting her to cut her sessions from five days a week to three.

“It’s very stressful when you get to this age,” said the retired daycare provider.

Joanie Landon in front of her house with a ‘Yes on G‘ sign in the window.

The disruptions so upset her neighbor Richard Corriea, a retired San Francisco police commander, that he helped lead the effort to restore the route. “These are real people out here and they’re suffering,” he said.

The faction organized the 2025 recall of a Sunset district supervisor who backed the closure, and its members collected nearly 16,000 signatures to put Proposition G on next month’s ballot.

The two sides are clashing over statistics. The city estimates Sunset Dunes draws 1.7 million visitors annually, a figure the Yes side calls wildly inflated. Park proponents highlight safety for cyclists and pedestrians, while reopening backers say risks have migrated to other streets. City data shows accidents in the affected area are down since the highway closure. Reopening costs are also in dispute.

On the promenade itself, views mostly ran pro-park one recent day. “Like a dream come true,” said skateboarder Kyle Martin, 37, between ramp jumps.

Kyle Martin is pro-park.

At the Shipwreck Cove playground, Cameron and Zoe Fausett let their toddler play as his baby brother slept in a stroller. “It’s just so nice and safe and super family friendly,” said Zoe, 40, visiting from nearby San Bruno.

Businesses like the Andytown Coffee Roasters chain report a boost from such visitors. Co-owner Lauren Crabbe said sales at one outlet by the beach are up 40% so far this year compared with the same time three years ago.

Not all her customers are happy. Sipping coffee, longtime resident Randy Roche, 54, lamented losing a favorite pastime: cruising the coast highway in one of his classic cars.

“My position on the closure is I see it as a loan the city gave us during an emergency pandemic,” said Roche, a car-shop owner who was cradling his leashed Bengal cat, named Cheetah. “Now that that’s over, the road should be returned.”

Write to Jim Carlton at Jim.Carlton@wsj.com