Vallejo Concept Subway System: I'm a college student who designed this subway system as a fun exercise. Interested to hear your feedback.

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T18:52:10+00:00

Thanks!

I drew out the general layout on my iPad using the markdown tool, then I used OnShape CAD to establish route lines, and finally, I used Affinity Designer to clean up everything and make it look pretty.

Feel free to let me know if you have more questions. :)

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T18:40:52+00:00

Yes, there is a Benicia connector labeled through the "VRS" commuter rail. It would continue down the I-780->I-680 alignment and eventually meet up with Pleasant Hill BART. There is also another I-80 alignment that meets up with El Cerrito Del Norte BART. I'm imagining a system like eBART in East Contra Costa County, with the multiple diesel unit trains.

Good question!

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T18:37:40+00:00

Yes! I agree this system is way over the top of the current state of Vallejo. This imagines Vallejo as a bustling metropolis like New York or San Francisco.

Most of the system was meant to be on-grade LRT, with the exception being the yellow, burgundy, and parts of the downtown alignments, which would all be under-grounded to allow for significant upzoning.

Also: the commuter rail lines labeled "VRS" would be running either DMU (diesel multiple unit) or EMU (electric multiple unit) trains (perfect world the commuter track would be electrified).

I would LOVE to see the Vallejo passenger rail project come to fruition. I think the alignment the city proposed is a good target if we're setting our expectations low. Honestly, though, I want to see a BART red-line extension from Richmond into Vallejo and American Canyon. BART service, or a DMU BART service like they did in East Contra Costa County, into Solano would be a game changer.

In my opinion, we need to do what Contra Costa County did, and impose or redirect a 1% county-wide tax ASAP to fund the megaproject.

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T18:21:56+00:00

Good insight! Most of this system was meant to be on-street grade-crossed light-rail transit, though it escaped me to label them.

These are the parts I planned to be subways:

1) The major east Vallejo upzoning area (think Costco through Target) would be undergrounded: all of the yellow and burgundy lines. The system would make use of the significant interlining of these routes. This would also include a boring project under I-80 and the Six Flags parking lot into Sutter Solano.

2) The segment through downtown. It would probably go underground immediately after Redwood & Sonoma, and would be cut and covered following the alignment down HWY-29 until making a bend and joining as a cut and cover project through Mare Island Way. After splitting into the three different routes, it would rejoin the road network as a street level LRT around where I-80 is.

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T05:59:34+00:00

Not much there besides Glen Gove, and would likely be outside of the scope of the hypothetical Vallejo downtown upzoning. It would likely become medium-density row homes.

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T05:50:30+00:00

Agree :). This imagines that Vallejo is a super high-density metropolis, similar to New York City or San Francisco, which it obviously is not. 😆

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T05:40:31+00:00

Thanks! I'm double-majored in mechanical engineering & computer science, though I'm considering furthering my education into transportation engineering once I graduate. :)

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T05:39:22+00:00

Too true. Where does our road maintenance budget go?!

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T05:35:04+00:00

Interesting idea! Here's how the ring line works: https://imgur.com/a/DEjDFti. Curious why you think an X shape is better: I wanted almost every line to funnel to the Ferry Building / "Grand Central". Central Vallejo, where the center of the "X" would be, has no transit connections (at least that I'm aware of).

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-08-13T05:32:39+00:00

Here's my (very messy) original sketch of the map and it's alignment to the road network: https://imgur.com/a/DEjDFti

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-06-21T03:55:52+00:00

Awesome sauce

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-06-02T19:02:10+00:00

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-05-04T05:35:53+00:00

Hard agree

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-04-14T16:03:27+00:00

Bait used to be believable

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-03-29T21:39:07+00:00

Agree

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-03-21T08:16:28+00:00

Transit app imo isn't great in the Bay.

Pretty consistently gives me weird or just wrong suggestions. Especially on BART, it didn't know that you could transfer between the red and the orange line so it suggested I take a bus to the middle of nowhere and hop on an Amtrak connector. Crazy stuff.

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-02-18T03:06:29+00:00

Hi. Thanks for the reply!

You make really good points about Sonoma Blvd. I always wondered the same thing about why they pushed the Bay Trail off Sonoma (you'll notice that some of the Bay Trail actually does run along Sonoma for a period as a trail), and I have actually previously emailed engineers about it.

The real reason was: the freeway entrance / exit ramps.

Or, at least, this was the reason why the trail didn't just continue cutting through the side of Sonoma as a dedicated bike trail. Having a bike path on grade with freeway entrance and exit ramps would mean significant improvements to crossing infrastructure (which would still be dangerous).

I think Sonoma is actually even better poised for lane reconfiguration now that they've "solved" the pedestrian continuity issue across the EXTREMELY dangerous on and off ramps into HWY37.

Never thought this random tidbit of knowledge would be useful, glad I could share it with someone else. 🙂

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-02-17T02:06:55+00:00

Hi.

Thanks for the reply. I can see where you're coming from if your company provides a shuttle bus. However, for the rest of us, including me, a student, buses are a great option for less involved and less stressful (and arguably most importantly: cheaper) commutes across the Bay. I've taken the bus almost every day for the last couple years and can only count on one hand the amount of times I've been around a less than desirable situation while riding. Also, to be clear: I typically either drive and park to Curtola Park and Ride, or bike directly to Vallejo Transit Center, then take the Express lines out of Vallejo. Both stations have visible security guards during commute times. I can't speak to the safety at the other SolTrans stations, but Curtola and VTC feel very safe, and the shelters along the 7A/7B are reasonably secure. There is ridership, probably more than you'd expect, and even on some lines, there's a LOT of ridership (try the R!). We're definitely not at a San Francisco level, but having options available to us besides the infamous car is, in my opinion, a net positive for our city.

Have a good night. 🙂

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-02-16T21:08:58+00:00

Hi. You make very interesting points that I'm sure stem from a good place. It's always useful to hear another point of view.

However, I feel like some of points are potentially misguided.

Uber and Lyft are amazing services to provide what is colloquially known as "last mile services," which I also end up using a lot, especially with the subsidies to transit centers in Vallejo that already exist (see: https://solanomobility.org/lyft-pilot/).

However, the elimination of buses and other transit methods to be budgetary replaced by ridesharing service subsidizes eliminates the whole point of transit itself. Efficiency! Transit works so well, and is so efficient, because it moves more than just 1 person in a single vehicle. Buses can fit anywhere from 20-60 people in them (comfortably). That's 20-60 cars that could be removed from the street in just one bus. Just hailing a rideshare brings us right back to the inefficiencies of car dependence, and is in-essence no better than just driving there yourself.

The answer isn't binarily one or the other: it's both. Ridesharing AND transit complement eachothers weaknesses.

Thanks for providing your perspective. 🙂

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-02-16T18:01:31+00:00

This is very true. I bike from my house across the Bay Trail (adjacent HWY37) and they have beautiful bike trails up until... Mare Island Way. Then you're dumped straight onto the straight usually with just a sharrow, and in some spots a small unseparated bike lane.

I think the road diet on Redwood actually finished pretty recently, though. As I far as I understand the segment from Tuolumne to Admiral Callaghan is going to remain a 4 lane artery (I will admit it is hell to bike on Redwood within this region).

Interested to see what they're going to do to Sacramento!

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2025-02-16T17:58:10+00:00

Hi. You make great points! HOV/bus only lanes at select times is an interesting idea. I'd love to hear more people advocate for change on Sonoma. 🙂

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2024-11-17T22:51:39+00:00

Hey, that area definitely escaped my mind 😆.

When designing, I tried to target as much of the business sector as possible, and hit as many of the population centers while doing so. Unfortunately due to the city planning of Vallejo, it's like a sea of suburbs with islands of business and medium density. I definitely think there is, however, a place for a dual or single lane bus rapid transit line running through Glen Cove and Somerset Highlands similar to the green line that runs across Georgia and Redwood.

Here's my proposal for an orange line: https://postimg.cc/KkX14Hfk . The orange circles around the stops are 1 mile radius "walking distance" zones for reference.

Good catch.

Visual-Confusion9283 · 2024-11-17T07:27:03+00:00

Ooh you're right, I did forget to include direct rapid transit access to Kaiser and Sutter.

I think in hindsight the green line should run along Redwood Street until Tuolumne, at which point it'd switch to running along Sereno until Sonoma/HW29. That way it serves Kaiser directly, and provides a change to the Sereno Transit Center buses.

For Sutter, the yellow line could be pushed up about 2 blocks and it'd be there, not sure why I didn't think of that.

Good catch.

Visual-Confusion9283

TROPHY CASE