Great Highway? How about the Great Runway!
Since the passage of Prop K in 2024, which closed the Great Highway, out-of-control traffic has pushed the Sunset District’s residential streets to the breaking point. Let’s be clear: Prop K and Sunset Dunes are a disaster of the first order. Blocks-long traffic pileups, doubled and tripled commute times, and constant unpredictability have ruined life in the Outer Sunset and Richmond. At commute times, our quaint, town-like ambiance feels more like a clogged car sewer in SoMa or the Tenderloin. People need to ask themselves: why even have a West Side if politicians treat us like an ATM and wreck our family-friendly suburban lifestyle?
Fair-minded residents, including our latest supervisor, have proposed several ballot measures to reverse this embarrassing blunder. Sadly, it’s taken time for the political process to catch up to the reality of the devastation. Prop G, on the ballot this November, is the latest, and it proposes a fair and equitable split for Great Highway: 2/7 days for recreation and 5/7 days for actual commuting.
This may restore some trust on both sides, but it ultimately does not go far enough to heal the wounds of this brutal fight. We’ve seen the nasty signs demonizing neighbors, the threatening phone calls, the vandalism of city property surrounding the Great Highway. It’s been an ugly time. Neighbor versus neighbor. The Sunset versus City Hall, where big government bureaucrats funded by Big Tech think they know better than residents what our charming, foggy neighborhood needs.
I’m going to propose something radical, but it’s no less radical than the harm we’ve suffered since London Breed destroyed the Sunset with her emergency park. Whether Prop G wins or loses, we are all losers unless and until we get Great Highway right. We need a third ballot initiative to help us share our roadway harder, share louder, and share in more ways than ever before.
One of the Great Highway’s key functions was connecting Richmond District residents to San Mateo County, in many cases to get to San Francisco International Airport. Our airport is an icon: modern, well-designed, inclusive of queer figures like Harvey Milk. The Great Highway Closure makes a lengthy ride truly horrifying: stop-and-go on Sunset Blvd., and then a stretch on I-280 and a few more miles on I-380. Wouldn’t it be better if we could avoid this traffic altogether? Likewise, although it has four runways, SFO is one of the most in-demand airports in the world, and landing slots are at a higher premium than ever before.
San Francisco has renamed schools, renamed lakes, and recently tried to rename the Great Highway. But as the Sunset knows, Sunset Dunes is a loser. We want our road to solve problems, not create them. A return to a “Great Highway” would not be great in any sense—it is too little, too late. The Outer Sunset needs something far greater than a highway: we need to make this road the site of our city’s fifth, and greatest, runway.
At 10,250 feet, the Great Runway would be the third-longest runway at SFO—and if extended north from Lincoln Way to Balboa Street, fully 14,572 feet. This would be the longest and indeed greatest runway at SFO. At one point, a 55-story mixed-use residential tower was proposed at Sloat Garden Center. With the Great Highway closed, residents had concerns—traffic, congestion. But with congestion woes behind us, the penthouse units could double as a new, modern control tower for our Great Runway. The roadway itself is only about 70 feet wide, meaning that the pedestrian path and Lower Great Runway would need to be condemned and paved to support flight operations. But think about the benefits: the Great Runway would increase air capacity by 25 percent, cut airport commutes to zero for Sunset residents, and, with a runway this size, even support Airbus A380 landings. Why hoof it down to Millbrae when you can jet off to Riyadh from Noriega Street?
But the Great Runway’s true value is not in reducing airport commutes; it’s in expanding what’s possible on our roads. There’s no reason that commuters, joggers, and cyclists can’t share the Great Runway alongside takeoffs and landings, and AI-optimized light timings can ensure a frictionless flow of multimodal traffic. Of course, high safety standards require that people and vehicles wear hi-vis lighting to ensure that pilots are aware of their presence on the runway. They must likewise stay out of the center Plane Lane and in the side-running, paint-protected, Shared-Pedestrian–Low-Aviation-Traffic (or S.P.L.A.T.) Lanes. And, of course, in the event of an accident between a plane and a car, bicycle, skateboard, or jogger, pilots would be expected to stay on the scene, cooperate with the FAA and SFPD, and submit to a breathalyzer test to verify that alcohol played no role in the traffic mixup.
As drivers know, one of the most important parts of road safety is sharing the road. SFMTA’s innovative use of traffic-calming “sharrows” throughout San Francisco has delivered substantial Vision Zero gains over the past decade. Nothing is more transformative for a child learning to bike than moral support and encouragement from SUV drivers going 45 miles per hour in a school zone—why not a 787 Dreamliner? Likewise, the Great Runway will elevate safety with all-weather sharrows visible from the flight path, including fog-proof LED options for inclement and nighttime road sharing modeled on the lighting installation on the Bay Bridge.
Sharrows are about more than traffic safety; they’re about our values. Never again will anyone be able to say the Great Runway is closed. With expanded and convenient air travel, the city’s recovery in full force, and commuting headaches behind us, the Great Runway will be open to all. We need to put the nastiness behind us. On our road, we say no to discrimination and yes to sharing—children, commuters, cyclists, international business travelers—because in the Sunset, everyone is welcome.
John Lisovsky is a proud homeowner and taxpayer in San Francisco. He advocates for good government and supports elevating quality of life throughout our city.
Editor’s serious note: Get involved in the “No on G to save Sunset Dunes” campaign!
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