What’s Next for SoMa

So what’s next for SoMa? With the momentum that we’ve built up over the past year, we want a whole new crop of projects approved in 2019, including Fifth, Folsom and Howard.

As members, you drove a record-setting year in 2018, helping to build more protected bike lanes than ever before. No neighborhood saw that change more than SoMa where Folsom, Howard, Eighth, Townsend, and Second streets all got stretches of protected bike lane. With your help, we can build off that momentum and win the next round of transformative projects.

Join our 2019 SoMa Campaign

As a start, the Folsom and Howard Streetscape Project will complete fully protected connections along the length of those two well-used east-west corridors. We’re hoping to see those two projects approved by June. Still, improving our existing infrastructure isn’t enough. We want to see new projects with aggressive timelines that have a large impact on our bicycle network.

Enter the Fifth Street Improvement Project. Fifth Street, believe it or not, is currently on our bicycle network. In theory, Fifth would be a great north-south connector in SoMa, bringing people from downtown directly to Caltrain. In practice, though, Fifth is four lanes of fast-moving traffic with nothing more than faded sharrows to guide the way.

Fifth Street today

That’s why this project is so important not just to SoMa, but to everyone who bikes in San Francisco. We have an opportunity to demand a full redesign of Fifth Street. Going from sharrows to the highest level of bicycle infrastructure is a real possibility here and one we don’t see often, never mind on such an important thoroughfare.

How do we get there, then? The first step is to add you name to our campaign below. Over the next few months, there will be public meetings, walking tours and approvals hearings, all of which we’ll need strong member presence at to make our asks loud and clear. Together, we can turn Fifth Street around.

Become a member and you'll improve your commute and get discounts at shops across the city.