The Bay Area is a big metropolis. Not the biggest, but quite large. We have a metro rail (or subway) system called BART. We also have a regional rail system with Caltrain, while BART beyond Oakland and Berkeley acts more like a regional rail system.
What we don’t have is multiple and separate rail lines that cross each other or run parallel like may cities do. In Washington DC, the Metro lines cross themselves three locations (Metro Center, Gallery Place/Chinatown, and L’Enfant Plaza). The Atlanta MARTA system makes a cross, where all lines meet at Five Points. In Los Angeles the lines meet at 7th St/Metro Center and soon Union Station.
In Boston, the colored rail lines meet at a plentiful 4 locations. However connecting the four stations are all in very close proximity, effectively making one large hub, not multiple ones like in other examples.
Why have parallel lines or a hub transfer station where lines cross? Having two completely separate lines, whether parallel or crossing overs people different ways, options, to get to city centers. With a cross of lines, it means trains can come from all directions. If parallel, it means that depending where I am, or where I’m going, I have two options. This is especially useful if one of the lines is crowded or if there’s a train breakdown. I can always use the other line.
When looking at comparable city centers to Oakland or San Francisco, we see cities with similar densities like Washington, DC, Montreal, Toronto, and Philadelphia. All of these cities have parallel subway rail lines for at least two stations on each line. On average they are about 1/3 to just under 1/2 a mile apart; 0.35-0.45 miles apart to be precise, based on the cities I looked at.
Let’s just look at parallel lines and stations for now. I ask, how far apart should a parallel line be in the Bay Area. Today we look at how far apart train lines should or could be in Oakland.
Toronto
0.40 miles apart
Toronto’s looping Yonge-University (#1) Line swoops makes a distinct loop through the heart of the city center, turning back at Union Station. Although only one line, it acts like two.
Washington, DC
0.34 miles apart
Washington’s Metro system run by WMATA was built and designed in a similar time as BART. Much like BART, multiple rail lines. On the map shown, the parallel lines running north are 0.34 miles apart. The one to the left carries the Silver, Blue and Orange lines, while the line to the east carries the Yellow and Green lines.
Montreal
0.43 miles apart
Montreal’s has two metro lines, the Orange and Green run parallel for quite a long distance. Their separation varies, but is about 0.43 miles in the city center.
Philadelphia
0.3 miles apart
Oakland
0.43 miles apart between Broadway and Brush – the ConnectOakland I-980 proposal.
0.3 miles from Broadway is just west of Martin Luther King Way to the west and just east of Alice Street to the east.
0.43 miles from Broadway is to Brush St in the west and to Madison Street in the east.
So the I-980 proposal is in the range of existing parallel subway lines, on the outside edge of the range. Placing the parallel line on Castro St or Jackson St is 0.365 miles from Broadway – essentially the average distance in this small sample.
Finally, let’s look into the past to a late 19th century Chicago where the Chicago Loop was constructed in a less than currently dense city. The north/south roads of the loop, Wabash and Wells streets are 0.394 miles apart, which happens to be about the distance between Broadway and 12th St and the center of I-980 at 12th St.
Note that none of these parallel rail lines are closer than 0.3 miles. Making stations too close means they are overly redundant and are not spreading out the area that would benefit from transit and from dense development. Making the rail lines in Oakland less than 0.3 miles, say running down Webster and Harrison would be a mistake based on this analysis.
