An ambitious transit enthusiast just rode all the way from San Francisco (actually Oakland) to Los Angeles, a trek that cost a mere $61, but took two full days to pull off, and required an overnight hotel stay.
We are fans of people pulling ambitious public transportation stunts, like the Berkeley kids whose set a Guinness World Record for the fastest systemwide BART speedrun ever, or the two young men who rode all 24 Clipper Card-using services in 24 hours. So of course we were intrigued by this week's Jalopnik report that some fellow attempted to ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles using only public transportation, not even using Amtrak or Greyhound, but just public transportation.
“Every time I go to LA, I do it in a slightly worse way,” explains the Youtuber “Adam Does Not Exist,” aka Adam DuVander. He successfully pulled this off using exclusively public transit, on a sprained ankle even, though he often struggled to find a public bathroom.
Adam technically starts in Oakland, not San Francisco, and he uses a Baywheels bike to get to the Oakland 19th Street station. After BART, the journey is then all buses between Caltrain and LA’s Metrolink. Some of these buses had free WiFi or available USB chargers. But these buses would often stop every couple blocks, making for some interminably long bus rides.
And while Adam pulled off the SF-to-LA trip for a mere $61.10, it took two full days, and also required an overnight stay at a Radisson hotel in Santa Maria (cost not disclosed). Though Adam is funny and charming, and anyone who’s done a very long public transportation commute can certainly relate to these experiences.
But still, these videos are influencer bullshit. Both 30-minute videos are just glorified ads, with lengthy asides for products that have nothing to do with public transportation.
Still, would you ever do something this stupid? You might, perhaps out of necessity. Or if you’re just curious, here are the transit systems and costs that it would take you to get from SF to LA using only public transportation:
- Baywheels: $6
- BART: $6.15
- Caltrain: $7.70
- VTA: $2.60
- Monterey-Salinas Transit: $6 (Three rides, $2 apiece)
- SLO Regional Transit Authority: $5.50 (Two rides, $3.25 and $2.25)
- Santa Maria Regional Transit: $8.50 (Two rides, $1.50 and $7)
- Ventura County Transit: $5.75 (Two rides, $4 and $1.75)
- Metrolink: $11.50
- LA Metro Rail: $1.75
- LA Metro Rapid: $1.75
Image: Adam via Youtube
