Teen coder builds interactive tool to visualize Del Mar rail realignment

High school senior's website helps residents understand proposed SANDAG train routes, sparking local engagement and civic innovation

Del Mar resident Angelina Negila, left, and Canyon Crest Academy senior Nathan Qiu look over Qiu’s interactive website detailing the rail realignment options being analyzed by the San Diego Association of Governments. Steve Puterski photo

DEL MAR — A 17-year-old high school student is combining his enthusiasm for coding, geographical information systems and the controversial rail realignment in the city.

Nathan Qiu, who lives in Carmel Valley, will be a senior at Canyon Crest Academy this year, had his interest piqued about the realignment when he attended the San Diego Association of Governments scoping meeting on May 29 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. He probed SANDAG officials about data regarding several alternatives to moving the beleaguered tracks off the bluffs.

He connected with resident Angelina Neglia, who spearheads the resident group Safer Train. Neglia then introduced Qiu to Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland, who has represented the city on the SANDAG Board of Directors for years.

Gaasterland has been a staunch opponent of several alternatives, especially the Camino Del Mar option slicing through the heart of the city, but has recently pushed another in hopes the board and the agency will get on board to avoid massive impacts to homeowners and business owners in the city.

Gaasterland’s proposal to the board is to leverage the new events platform at the fairgrounds, then run the line around the southern end of the property (outside of the property line) where it will turn south above the San Dieguito River and run along Interstate 5 and exit at the pump station before Torrey Pines State Park and reconnect with the current line. This route is known as the Northern Yellow Line.

Qiu, whose dream university is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), offered his services to build an interactive website so residents and businesses can see where four new proposed lines would run, along with adding features such as the boring sites and tunnel portals.

“I saw all the SANDAG documentation on their website, and it’s all really complicated in-graphs,” he explained. “There’s a lot of information, and it’s really hard for the average person with a good technical background to read this information. I took all that information and built it into this interactive map. You can put in any address and see how far you are from each alignment.”

Qiu launched his site about six weeks ago and has reached about 250 unique viewers. Neglia has helped him with spreading the word in hopes more residents and business owners will use the site to understand the problems with three of the proposed routes.