San Francisco's Car-Free Coastal Park Is A Beautiful Biking Paradise With Oceanfront Charm

San Francisco is known for having a lot of green space access, making it a city where, when you need to get away from the hustle and bustle, you can easily find somewhere to relax among nature. The city continues to add parks to its index, too — in 2024, for example, it added Panorama Park on Yerba Buena Island, where you get breathtaking bay views. Starting April 12, 2025, there's a new park on the San Francisco map, built where the Upper Great Highway once carried cars between the Sunset District and the Presidio. The area covers about 2 miles along Ocean Beach, a sandy part of the California coastline.

The new Ocean Beach Park isn't the first in San Francisco to be built over a once-busy road. Presidio Tunnel Tops, San Francisco's free urban National Park site, was established over a sunken highway. These parks have a unique appeal: They bring new life into spaces that were once noisy and polluted, offer more opportunities for outdoor activity, and foster connection in surrounding communities. "This transformation is about giving San Franciscans an oceanfront park they can truly enjoy — a place where people of all ages can walk, bike, skate, and take in the beauty of the Pacific," Phil Ginsburg, San Francisco's Rec and Park Head, said in a press release. Where cars once zoomed, now pedestrians will be able to stroll or cycle and even admire some unique art installations along the coast.

Though the park itself is new, this isn't the first time the Upper Great Highway has been open for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy. The idea to make the area a park actually originated in 2022, when the highway was closed to cars and opened to the public for walking, skating, and biking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was such a success that the community voted in favor of permanently closing the highway to motor vehicles and making it a recreational space. In the interim, the highway was already closed on weekends, and the Deputy City Controller, ChiaYu Ma, noted on the San Francisco government's website that closing it permanently would also save the city on the costs of "sand removal, roadway maintenance, and operating costs."

The proposal did face some opposition, with a group of San Francisco organizers filing a lawsuit against the city's plans. The main rationale of the opposition is that the closure of the highway would make it more difficult for those who typically used it to commute, causing traffic and congestion on other routes. Nevertheless, a majority of voters backed the park, a sign that many are excited to trade a bit of road for more green space by the beach, as the city works on ways to ease the impact of the change on drivers.

The park features wide pedestrian paths where the pavement once supported traffic, lounge spaces with ocean views, and even some ecological restoration initiatives. The dunes, in particular, are getting special attention. As part of the park's development, the city is working to stabilize the dunes — Brian Stokle, of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and leader on the project, noted in Bay Nature, "By stabilizing the dunes, you're holding the sand down, to some extent... But you're also creating a better habitat."

The artwork commissioned for the park reflects its ecology. The park's organizers specifically sought out artists who centered nature and the local community in their work. There will be 16 temporary installations in total, including a large, climbable octopus sculpture and murals painted directly on the former highway pavement, peering up at the pedestrians and skaters. The park will have lots of fun spots for outdoor activities, including a skating zone and  the Bike Play Area and Skills Course for kids. The park service also plans to create a children's Nature Exploration Area and add outdoor fitness equipment.

If you want to visit the new oceanfront park from out of state, ​the San Francisco International Airport is the nearest major airport, located about a 20-minute drive away. The park has designated pickup and drop-off zones, and parking lots are at both the northern and southern ends. There are also multiple public transport lines that lead to the new park from the airport and downtown. Bike-sharing stations are also conveniently located nearby. You can make the park part of a view-filled walk from the nearby hidden tea garden of Golden Gate Park, too. The views have always been here — but now, the best way to enjoy them is on foot.