Injury Traffic Accidents Rise
In the November election, westside residents may be asked to decide the fate of the Upper Great Highway (UGH). This time our community’s safety may hang in the balance.
Injury traffic accidents, especially on 19th Avenue, Sunset Boulevard and most of the avenues to the west, have increased since the roadway was closed to vehicle traffic in 2024.
According to information from San Francisco Open Data (DataSF), there were 75 traffic accidents resulting in injuries in the Sunset and Parkside districts in the roughly eight months between March 14, 2024, the day the Upper Great Highway was closed to vehicle traffic, and Nov. 30, 2024.
During the same time frame in 2025, there were 92 traffic accidents with injuries, a 23% increase.
According to the data, the north-south avenues west of 36th Avenue saw a 34% increase (11 injuries) in injury accidents. East of 36th Avenue, there was a 14% increase (6 injuries).
The streets with the largest number of traffic collisions resulting in injuries during the two-year comparison are: 19th Avenue (increase from 0 injuries to 6); Crossover Drive (0 to 3); 32nd Avenue (0 to 4); Judah Street (3 to 6); (Lower) Great Highway (2 to 7); and Taraval Street (3 to 6).
There were some reductions in traffic collisions with injuries where the SF Municipal Transit Agency has been active, most notably on Lincoln Way, which lowered dangerous accidents from 14 in 2024 to 5 in 2025; and Sloat Boulevard, which saw a reduction from 8 to 3.
EMS Response Times Suffering?
It appears the closure of the UGH could be further slowing already anemic emergency response times in District 4.
According to the SF Emergency Medical Services Agency, when someone calls in a life-threatening emergency via 9-1-1, an ambulance should arrive within 10 minutes 90% of the time.
Since the beginning of this year (to April 23), there have been 1,106 medical incidents in the Sunset and Parkside districts. An ambulance was on-scene on time only 68% of the time, according to the SF Fire Department’s Incident Dashboard.
For the Richmond District (District 1), an emergency responder arrived within 10 minutes 74% of the time.
Retired SF Police Commander Richard Corriea thinks the closure of the UGH is further slowing already poor ambulance response times, particularly in the Outer Avenues. Corriea is a volunteer working to put the fate of the UGH on the ballot in November.
“Data compiled by the City of San Francisco indicate that the Sunset District has, for at least the last six years, experienced a slowing of ambulance response times,” Corriea said. “The reasons for this include, longer travel distances to receiving hospitals and ambulances spending more time out of service during transportation and emergency room off-loads, thus slowing redeployment.
“The Upper Great Highway closure exacerbates our emergency medical service crisis by diverting traffic onto other streets, including, Sunset and Sloat boulevards, Lincoln Way and 19th Avenue. This adds congestion to the primary response corridors ambulances depend on. This matters because ambulance response is sensitive to marginal congestion, especially in neighborhoods already disadvantaged by distance and system strain,” Corriea said.
“I know from my police experience that an ambulance that has to slowly work its way through traffic, or take a circuitous route, when responding to an emergency takes time – too much time when seconds can make difference between life and death.”
The SF Fire Department’s website says: “Arriving quickly and safely to the scene, with first responder professionals … can make the difference between life and death.”
Upper Great Highway Back to Ballot
A small army of volunteers will be working to collect 10,000 signatures to put the “compromise solution” before San Francisco voters in November. The compromise allows vehicles to use the Upper Great Highway on Monday through Friday, and reserves the roadway on weekends for pedestrians, cyclists and other uses.
This is the first time city voters could have a choice to reinstitute the compromise solution brokered by former District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar.
An attempt by current District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong to put the measure on the June 2026 ballot via the SF Board of Supervisors was derailed at the last minute when District 10 Supervisor Shaman Walton refused to sign on.
Four-out-of-five District 4 candidates support the compromise solution, including Supervisor Wong. As well, District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, a candidate for Congress to replace Representative Nancy Pelosi, favors the compromise solution. SF Mayor Daniel Lurie was a vocal opponent of Proposition K when he ran for office, even conducting a press conference at Ocean Beach.
Betrayal Key to Sunset Dunes
In the last fight over the UGH, Prop. K in the November 2024 election, proponents for closing the roadway permanently to vehicle traffic snuck the ballot measure into the SF Department of Elections minutes before deadline.
Sunset Dunes was born in deceit, and envisioned with little regard for public safety and neighborhood concerns.
Former District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio and his co-conspirators kept westside residents in the dark about the potential dangerous consequences of closing the UGH. They did not allow for the public to question the potential negative effects of closing a major north-south roadway, especially since environmental and traffic studies were eliminated or minimized in their scope.
The stealth campaign also limited local residents’ ability to raise funds and mount an effective campaign.
In November 2024, westside residents overwhelmingly voted, by about a two-to-one ratio, to keep the UGH open.
But, the opposition, fueled by YIMBY ambitions and real estate developers, spent big to sway the eastern side of the City to support a non-existent park.
According to the SF Ethics Department, proponents for closing the roadway permanently spent $790,873 while opponents spent $263,925.
Proposition K won citywide, 55-45%.
Engardio paid for his treachery of Prop. K. He was overwhelmingly recalled for dereliction of duty.
Had the supervisor informed his constituents that he intended to close the UGH when the plan was hatched months earlier, westside residents could have at least put a competing measure on the ballot and given San Francisco voters a choice.
Now they may get that choice.
Join the Campaign
Local volunteers are collecting signatures to put the compromise solution on the November ballot. The deadline for the November ballot is July 7.
To get involved or make a donation, go to greathighwayforeveryone.com.
Paul Kozakiewicz is the former publisher and a current editor of the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers.
Categories: Commentary
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
This Petition is So Needed!
Here in D1, traffic is All Jammed Up. Many hours of the day, you just don’t want to get on Highway 1 South, aka 19th Avenue. The same for the Only other North South road- 41st Avenue, only it’s even worse! Plus, Sunset Boulevard requires navigating through Golden Gate Park, with All The Closures for Bikers, and gets backed up from all the Cars avoiding 19th Avenue. Nothing Works!
Incidentally, Stanyan, (from Fulton to Oak), is the New Home of Gridlock, typically requiring Three (3) cycles or more of the Oak Street traffic light to traverse. Unacceptable! And it was caused by the ill-considered closure of JFK Drive. (a small ‘high-injury’ corridor was swapped for a Huge high-injury corridor)! And now, JFK Drive itself is More Dangerous, with More Recorded Injury Accidents than before the closure! In a similar situation, JFK Drive is Unused at night and weekdays. A Big Waste. (and not to mention the Crime of dislocating the ADA parking, moving it all Much Farther away).
The in-use Great Highway was closed ‘in the dark of the night’ at the last minute by an underhanded unannounced dropping of a Ballot Measure… with No Time to organize an opposing Ballot… and done by Design by the now Recalled Supervisor Judas Engardio. He earned the hatred of not just D4, but of the Whole West Side!
ReOpen the Great Highway! And 24/7 is fine with me! Rewarding the underhanded steal by Engardio with a Developer Pleasing Faux ‘Park’ is Unacceptable to me!
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“Sunset Dunes was born in deceit, and envisioned with little regard for public safety and neighborhood concerns.” This statement is indisputably true.
Traffic is a major, but not the only, reason for safety concerns.The Citizen App recently reported a “revolver was found near the octopus statue” where children play. Pedestrians have been hit and injured from collisions with e-bikes and bicycles zooming along Sunset Dunes “park.”
Claims that the full time closure of the 4-lane highway is environmentally beneficial are false, as the unrestricted foot traffic over the fragile sand dunes has destroyed native plants and compromised the National Wildlife Sanctuary within which are the nesting grounds of endangered shorebirds. Flimsy fencing has deterred neither dogs nor humans from trampling over the dunes.
Illegal encampments and bonfires are regularly observed on the dunes, as well as toxic refuse requiring specialized teams to remove it. Rangers and cleanup teams are called upon to remove needles and weapons, but they are short staffed and responses are not immediate.
This is no place for the elderly, small children or the disabled. It is not ADA compliant, as within its 2 miles there are only 2 ADA compliant ramps 10 blocks apart, no sidewalks on the west side of the Lower Great Highway, and only 4 blue parking spaces offering access from the Lower Great Highway into the “park.” Oddly, at least 10 parking spaces, many located next to the 2 ramps, are occupied by rental bike stations. Pleas to the City to fix this fall on deaf ears.
Reopening the highway weekdays will relieve a lot of the ongoing street traffic and parking problems. Weekend usage of the road as a park is much higher than weekday usage.The majority of users who do not live within walking distance, drive to the location with bicycles on their pickup trucks, SUV’s and cars, adding to the traffic, parking and environmental issues.When reopening this weekdays is again on the ballot, please vote in favor of it. The compromise (weekdays open to traffic, weekends car free) gives everyone impacted the time and space to enjoy the area, which was designed, worked well and should continue as a multi-use space.
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Excellent Points, and well said!
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