There are few things as unpleasant as commuting from San Francisco to the South Bay. But after the Great Highway closed to cars last month, Keith Chow’s drive down the peninsula became downright unbearable.
His rush-hour commute from the Outer Richmond to Mountain View used to take about an hour and 15 minutes, or 45 minutes on a good day. Now, it takes more than two hours — or so he says.
The Standard joined Chow for his drive to work on a recent Thursday morning, buckling into his stick-shift Subaru just before 8 a.m. for what we assumed would be a worst-case-scenario commute. It ended up taking just an hour and 4 minutes to get from his home at 44th Avenue and Cabrillo Street to his office by Moffett Field.
“This was a pretty good commute,” Chow said as we neared the janitorial company Service by Medallion, where he works in HR. When The Standard pointed out that we were well short of his estimate, he said one day isn’t enough to judge.
“This is one day out of 100,” he said. “Tuesday is the worst day; that will be an hour and a half at least.”
Hyperbole or not, the permanent closure of the Great Highway has lengthened travel times for west-siders who used to rely on the oceanside artery to get to work, shuttle kids to school, and drive to appointments. Though most of the nine commuters who spoke to The Standard said they’re spending only 10 to 20 minutes extra on the road since the closure, many said driving in the area is more stressful because there are more cars congesting the Sunset’s streets.
For some, the lost time is forcing them to roll out of bed a little bit earlier or, God forbid, eat out less. Others say the added minutes behind the wheel mean less time with family.
“It’s pretty inconvenient,” said Lindsay Pageant, 48, whose drive from the Outer Richmond to Redwood City takes between 10 and 15 minutes longer than before. “That’s time I don’t go outside with my family, go to the beach. I could lose two hours a week.”
Pageant said she takes Lower Great Highway instead of Sunset Boulevard, which is backed up with traffic.
“Either way, it’s still gonna add 10 minutes,” she said.
Jordan Rackmill, 25, commutes from the Outer Richmond to the Dogpatch three times a week, by car or by e-bike. Now that the Great Highway is closed, the drive takes about 15 minutes longer each way, forcing him to leave the house earlier.
“I don’t have time to prep lunch or get up in the morning,” Rackmill said.
He admitted his main gripe isn’t lost time; it’s that the drive is worse.
“There’s no good way to get there on city streets,” Rackmill said. “You don’t realize you’re losing time, but it’s a stress and quality-of-life thing. I’m planning my life around this road closure.”
Like many who relied on the Great Highway, Rackmill used it to sail through timed stoplights and link up with Interstate 280. Now, he takes the Lower Great Highway. He prefers it over Sunset and 19th Avenue, where, he says, he frequently has to wait at red lights or deal with terrible traffic.
“It’s more stressful,” Rackmill said. “There’s more opportunities for things to happen when you’re encountering stops all the time. You could hit a pedestrian, get rear-ended.”
Even if the Great Highway remained open to cars, Rackmill would have been re-routed anyway. The Great Highway Extension, which leads from the Great Highway and Sloat Boulevard to I-280, was slated to close this year due to coastal erosion.
Even remote workers say they miss the Great Highway.
Rose Khallouf drives her kids, ages 2 and 6, to and from school in the Lakeshore neighborhood from her home at 33rd Avenue and Lawton Street.
The round-trip drive, which used to take roughly 15 minutes, now takes 25, as spillover traffic clogs Sunset in the morning and afternoon. Instead of taking Sunset to Sloat, as she did before, she opts for 34th Avenue.
“That’s time away from doing other things,” the 44-year-old said.
More traffic in the neighborhood means budgeting more time to drive to her 6-year-old’s baseball games, swim lessons, and theater classes. Khallouf also tries to pick restaurants she can walk to, leaving her with fewer options.
“In the Sunset, I’m limited to what businesses I have access to,” she said.
In a text a week later, Khallouf seemed to reconsider how much of a burden the extra traffic really is.
“In paying attention, my morning and afternoon commute is delayed by 5-10 minutes. I’m not sure if enough for a story,” she wrote. “I know there are plenty of people who are delayed, but much more.”
For others, the lost time is a real burden.
Lisa L.’s life was stressful enough between her work as a translator and caring for her severely autistic adult son. When the Great Highway permanently closed to cars, it only got worse.
Lisa, who lives in the Outer Richmond, drives twice a day to the Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center on Skyline Boulevard, where her son takes exercise classes and other programming. The trips now take an extra 10 minutes each way due to cars clogging Sunset, she said. The extra time adds up.
“That’s three hours we can’t use to work and pay our bills, grocery shop,” said Lisa, who asked that her last name not be published to protect her privacy. “Our time is very strained with a disabled son. Now it’s even more stressful.”
Her son, who also has epilepsy, requires 24-hour care, she said, and there’s always the risk he’ll have a seizure in the car. She shudders to think about what would happen if they were in traffic and couldn’t pull over.
“If he’s flailing, I wouldn’t want to be stuck on Chain of Lakes,” she said.
Still, some west-siders say the closure of the Great Highway hasn’t added any time to their drives.
Megan Finn, who lives on 47th Avenue near Judah Street, said she has always taken 41st Avenue to drop off her son at the Little School on Lyon Street in Lower Pacific Heights. Despite complaints of increased neighborhood traffic, the trip is no longer than before, she said.
Getting from her house to the school still takes roughly 25 minutes if she leaves at 8:30 a.m., or around 19 minutes on certain days when she leaves an hour earlier.
“While, yes, there are more cars on Chain of Lakes, it doesn’t take longer to get through,” Finn said.
She hasn’t noticed more traffic in her neighborhood but admits that she spends most of the day sleeping, as she works nights as a postpartum doula.
Julie Lindow — who has driven her 95-year-old father, who uses a wheelchair, from her home near Stern Grove to the VA Hospital in the Richmond during morning rush hour for the past decade — said she hasn’t noticed a change in traffic in her neighborhood since the road closure. Hospital trips still take about 20 minutes, even when taking Sunset, she said.
Lindow — whom The Standard connected with via Supervisor Joel Engardio — said the road closure has allowed her dad to enjoy the beach for the first time, since the side path was too bumpy for his wheelchair.
While she is “sympathetic” to people dealing with more traffic on the Lower Great Highway, she is confident the issues are temporary and drivers will adjust.
“The benefits of the park far outweigh any negatives,” she said.