UC Berkeley students attempt to set record time while visiting every stop on BART system
For a lot of commuters, getting on BART for their commute is a race against the clock. But a group of UC Berkeley students recently made that daily rush an actual race the goal of setting a world record awaiting them at the finish line.
Ameen DaCosta, Jacob Champlin, Paul Liu and Winnie Zhuang — each studying either city planning, transportation engineering, plus a friend, Chance Wen, recently embarked on a high-speed mission to hit every single BART station along every line.
"Everyone's been asking us, 'Why would spend hours on a Saturday to do this?' and I think it's just a love for transit," DaCosta said.
Their goal was to score a Guinness World Record for hitting all 50 stops in the shortest time possible.
Called "speedrunning," the trend has become increasingly popular with people vying to conquer their transit systems in cities around the globe. There is no official Guinness record for riding BART to every station yet, but the last attempt by a local YouTuber earlier this year put the unofficial record at 5 hours and 49 minutes.
Which is why these Berkeley students decided to trade their textbooks for transit maps. After months of planning, they made a run for it.
"The most important thing the day of was making sure that we got all the required proof thorough the trip," DaCosta said.
That meant live-streaming their entire trek, gathering signature from witnesses and taking photos of each station along the way, which at times proved harder than it seemed.
"We had to step out of the train at some of them run out to the platform, grab a photo really quick and make sure to hop on before the doors closed again," DaCosta said.
It all nearly came to screeching halt when a single missed connection almost cost them the title.
"We ran up the stairs and the doors closed right in front of us. We had to wait another eight minutes," DaCosta said.
The drama of it all even caught the eye of BART officials.
BART's chief communication officer Alicia Trost said the moment she noticed the livestream she had to give them a shoutout on social media.
"I right away messaged to them, 'When you're done, let's get you in front of the board of directors at a board meeting and we're going to congratulate you,'" she said.
Their final time was five hours and 47 minutes, beating the unofficial record by two minutes.
It was reminder, they say, that even when life goes off the rails, you can always get back on track.
"Sometimes you just got to go out there and venture out and do things that you wouldn't typically do. It's silly but that's what makes it fun right and that's what life is about right?" Wen said.
The students are now waiting on Guinness World Records for certification, which could take a few months.
They're all members of UC Berkeley's transportation grad students organizing committee, which covered their just under $28 total train fare for all four people.