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On 2/18/2000, two Bay Area kids, Michael Korby and Dennis Yang , will attempt what has previously been thought as all but impossible: go around the San Francisco Bay entirely on public transit. They will be armed only with a Bart Plus pass (and a laptop or something). The following is the itinerary of their travel.
Stay tuned to this site for live updates! A live travel log will be continuously updated as travel progresses.
Sponsorship opportunities are still available! For sponsorship information, please contact the venture's PR coordinator, Pius Lee
| Transit System | Route # | Destination | Approx. Time (min) | Bridge Crossed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MUNI | PH - Powell / Hyde Cable car | Union & Hyde | 15 | NONE |
| Golden Gate Transit | 60, 70 or 80 | San Rafael Transit Center | 40 | Golden Gate |
| Golden Gate Transit | 40 | El Cerrito Del Norte BART | 30 | Richmond - San Rafael |
| AC Transit | 7 | Rockridge BART | 52 | NONE |
| BART | Pitts / Bay Pt | Walnut Creek | 15 | NONE |
| County Connection | 121 | Dublin / Pleasanton BART | 70 | NONE |
| BART | Fremont | Fremont | 35 | NONE |
| VTA | 180 | San Jose Civic Center LR | 40 | NONE |
| VTA | Light Rail | Downtown Mountain View | 13 + 30 | NONE |
| Caltrain | California Avenue | 10 | NONE | |
| Dumbarton Express | DB or DB1 | Union City BART | 50 | Dumbarton |
| BART | Richmond / SF | Hayward | 10 | NONE |
| Foster City East Bay BART Shuttle | Hillsdale & Shell Blvds, Foster City | 67 | San Mateo | |
| SamTrans | 251 | Hillsdale Caltrain | 15 | NONE |
| Caltrain or SamTrans KX | Downtown San Francisco | 40 or 50 | NONE | |
PHILOSOPHY
Since it's relatively easy to go around the Bay using BART for the majority of your travel, we have decided to keep BART use to an absolute bare minimum. We will take BART only when absolutely required: when there is no other way to get there, or when time constraints will not permit us to explore another option.
Another rule of thumb we have followed when designing this route is to go on as many different transit systems as possible, to experience the maximum benefit of theBART Plus pass. You will notice that all of Bay Area's major transit systems will be ridden on.
We have also decided to try to go over as many bridges as possible, without compromising the big-loop-around-the-bay path of travel.
Some of the results of this philosophy will clearly take us out of the way or make us take a more challenging route. For example, we will take an AC Transit bus from El Cerrito Del Norte BART to Rockridge BART, and only get on BART at Rockridge to make our journey out to Walnut Creek. Similarly, there would be no reason for us to go out to Walnut Creek at all if we didn't have a goal of including the County Connection transit system in our route. And, while we could've ridden Caltrain all the way to California Avenue from downtown San Jose, we would have then had to miss out on riding the new Tasman East extension of the VTA Light Rail, which would be, suffice it to say, an utter disaster.
BIOGRAPHIES
| Michael
Korby, 24 Senior Software Engineer at Macromedia, Inc. This avid proponent of mass transit has set a life goal to experience all forms of public transportation ranging from the London Underground to the Tokyo bullet train to the famed camel caravan through the arid Sahara Desert. Michael, too, is a Cornell University graduate with a dual degree in Computer Science (BS, M.S.) and Horticulture (B.A.). Armed with dashing good looks as well as an unquenchable thirst to experience life to its fullest, this project has been Michael's brainchild ever since he experienced the thrilling Powell St. - Fisherman's Wharf cable car ride in San Francisco during the early 1990's. |
| Dennis Yang,
23 Production Engineering Manager at mySimon, Inc. This intrepid explorer began his love of adventure at the tender age of 13 with a trip to the Amazon rain forest. He has since conquered each of the seven continents with the exception of Antarctica. A graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and later a Masters in the same, Dennis Yang is consistently at the forefront of danger as well as the pursuit of intellectual advancement |
| Pius Lee, 25 Production Manager at mySimon, Inc. Working behind a computer for several years has not dulled this man's adventurous spirit. He has spent much time abroad, including a year-long stint as an English tutor/cherry picker in Biri. While he will not be doing any actual travailing on the day of the expedition, his experience in PR is invaluable to the team. Pius graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Industrial Engineering and Stanford University with an M.B.A. He is currently working on a PhD in Earth Sciences at Stanford. His thesis, entitled "Nuclear Espionage: Why, God, Why?," is still pending approval from the Dissertation Committee. Although he hopes one day to "eat shwarmas in Israel," his love of bridges currently keeps him at bay in the Bay. |
6:00AM
They're on the Powell St. cable car.
6:54AM
"We've taken the powell hyde cable car and are on the golden gate transit to san rafael. Everything is going as planned. Whooo hoo"
This is the first update sent by the travelers. Notice the excitement in their written voice as indicated by the "Whooo hoo" that concludes the sentence. These guys are definitely happy.
7:03AM
"703 am golden gate bridge crossed"
Succinct. You have to love that in a travelman. Just enough to convey what they want to say. Not enough to lose our attentions. (but then again, dennis is using a blackberry pager to email me so his thumbs may already be suffering from gangreen or the dreaded "nintendo thumb")
7:28AM
"We've made it to san rafael. Switching from the 70 to the 40 line.
Next stop cerrito del norte
Its really cold and I have to pee"
Guessing from this message, Dennis has actually lost the use of both thumbs. "san rafael" is not capitalized which can only mean one thing, his thumbs have been amputated to be replaced by grafting his big toes in it's place. One wonders how Dennis is going to urinate with his new found appendages. Hang on for details.
7:37AM
"737am on the richmond bridge. The sun is really bright. We just passed san quentin prison. Neato.
There's lots of oil things in the bay. Mike thinks this bridge is really narrow. I agree"
Hmm, no mention of how his urination went...A clear indication that he is embarrassed of a urination mishap due to the lack of opposable thumbs. I pray to the good Lord and baby Jesus that he brought along a change of underwear.
The mention of "san quentin prison" (again, uncapitalized) indicates that he is tiring. There is a subtle homo-erotic tone to this message. Allow me to draw your attention to the key words that lead me to believe that Dennis may see Mike as his male slut: "prison," "oil," "really narrow."
8:03AM
"803am Were on the ac transit 7 bound for the rockridge bart station.
Bonus, got a picture of the el cerrito del norte BART urinal.
Dennis"
Good job with the urinal pictures! As dehydrated and thirsting for manly love that you are, you still managed to stay focused and take pictures of urinals for our side venture, urinal.net.
8:25AM
"Go go CNeT!!
Were still on the ac transit bus. Its really pretty up here, with lots of views of the city. We should be entering berkeley soon. "
For those that are unsure of what "go go CNET" means, allow me to explain. It does not have anything to do with CNET's recent acquisition of mySimon and subsequent conversion of mySimon stock to CNET stock. Instead, it refers to a pet name that Dennis has obviously created for Michael "CNET" Korby. It is only speculation but these two may be engaging in some high risk behavior and it is our duty to look down upon them, not for being homosexuals, but instead for giving in to the pleasures of the flesh. Remember, thou shalt not commit adultery! Shame on you.
9:04AM
"we just barely made it on the 901 rockridge BaRT but we did. Were on our way to willow creek to catch the bus to san ramon. I've never been on bart before. Its nice and cushy and fast. "
Tisk tisk. I wonder why you almost missed the rockridge Bart. Perhaps you should pay more attention to your trip.
9:49AM
"We grabbed a quick sandwich at a deli here in walnut creek, and just boarded the 121 County Connection to dublin. Eta 1115am.
We'll be on this thing for a long time. Spirits are high, things are good. And... We got a picture of the walnut creek urinal.
Korby says "we got three urinal pictures so far for our friends at urinal.net. All from bart, but we're hoping to extend our range soon."
So far, so good. Except that we're gonna be on this bus for more than an hour, and the seats are uncomfortable. BART was a lot more comfortable.
Dennis and korby. "
I have recently been informed that there is no homo-erotic activity on the journey. As logical and reasonable as my speculation sounded, it was evidently incorrect.
11:20AM
" We're now on the bart from dublin. The county connection was a pleasant ride, we met some very nice folks on the bus.
The BART is much cushier than the bus, and we're zipping along faster than the stalled traffic on 580.
Dennis. "
I too have experienced BART and it is a very comfortable ride. I would highly recommend it but just don't get on BART at the 22nd street station unless you WANT to see a 7 foot tall drag queen in an open back cocktail dress. Due to this sighting, I will never love another woman again.
11:39AM
" Changed bart trains from the dublin line to the line that goes to fremont.
As korby explained, we're on a very rare "slopy front bart" that they haven't made since the 60s. "
And Korby should know about slopy front barts of the 60's. He has been riding BART ever since the great avacado famine of 1946.
12:17PM
" We just got off the bart station, and got on the 180 vta to san jose. There's a little tiff goin down with a guy who snuck on the bus. Uh oh.
Anyway, we don't know the exact time that we will be at the tasman station, but it will be between 115 and 145.. I'll let you know when we get on the train. "
OK, I know it's sloppy HTML but I just don't care anymore. I'm not going to resize this stupid background picture so you guys had better just live with it. I am sick of photoshop and sick of resizing. After the first 8 times, I wanted to kill the writers of photoshop. Now, I give up and will mainly focus on writing content for the site after I caress the large poster of Cheryl Tiegs that I have in my cubicle.
1:10PM
" vta complete Were on the san jose light rail heading north towards tasman. Korby almost got run over cuz he was using the bathroom across the street when the train came.
Luckily he didn't get run over. "
Ok, i have a lot of work to do so this is gonna be nice and quick. How's that for quick....hehehe.
1:35PM
" Ok. So, we got off the train at the tasman station, where droves of fans are supposed to be waiting. But... There's nobody around at all. It turns out that the tasman station is not the tasman station infront of the tasman food plaza, and there's nobody here. So, we missed that train, ans now we've boarded the next train.
The correct stop that they're at is LICK MILL. Damn that pius!!! Anyway, we'll be there shortly. Hopefully, our adoring fans are still at the station.
I have no idea why, but when I call pius' cell phone, it says it's disconnected.
We'll be at the lick mill in ten minutes "
By the way, in case you guys don't know, I'm going to Brazil for a few months leaving next wednesday. I hear they have some beautiful mountains for skiing in the wintertime so I'm packing up my snowboard, my galoshes and my Yoda (star wars) underoos to hit the slopes in Brazil. Ate lago suckas!
2:27PM
" We met pius at the lick mill plaza, after which we reboarded the vta light rail, headed for mountain view.
Dan called and arranged to meet us at the mountain view stop. The rockin thing is that we saw him at the central ave. RR crossing, and later as he flew down central on his bike doing 70mph. I got a great picture of him passing us on the train.
So, we're on our way up to palo alto on the caltrain now, headed for the dumbarton express, which (obviously) goes across the dumbarton bridge. Gotta add to the bridge count. Otherwise, yes, we could technically take caltrain all the way home.
But that would be too easy. "
Can't you just picture this scene in your mind? Dan, on his bicycle, is the spitting image of young Clark Kent running past the speeding locomotive in Superman One. Except that in this case, Dan's attempt to jump across the front of the train was met with utter failure. I am currently in the process of arranging a funeral but first I must dismember the corpse and send his mother a corsage.
3:07PM
" A pleasant caltrain ride included an added bonus -- the conductor never came around -- so, that ride was effectively free.
We wandered across to the palo alto transit center, where we boarded the dumbarton express to head over the bridge to union city.
Korby says 'Spirits are high, we're ahead of schedule; doing better than expected'
"
Ok, I lied. I'm only going to Brazil for 4 weeks but nonetheless, I am going to go skiing in South America. The first thing I will do when I get to Snowy Rio De Janeiro is to go to the bathroom and flush the toilet because the water flushes in the reverse direction as the northern hemisphere. Pretty cool huh? By the way, Dennis, I have already informed the proper authorities about you not paying for your fare. The transit police are currently en route to your house.
3:34PM
" We're crossing the dumbarton bridge now. It's not very exciting. Korby saw a dredging boat. "
Is anyone going to Burning Man this weekend? I need a ride. I'll pay for half the gas.
3:54PM
" Ok. This is the precarious part. Just got off the db express. Boarded bart up, where we'll get off at hayward in hopes of catching the 415 foster city shuttle across the san mateo bridge.
Otherwise we're stuck in the east bay, and that's not good.
Oh, and we have no idea where this bus picks up in hayward. This should be... Fun. "
Man, this spells trouble for our two travelers. What are they going to do? There's nothing worse than being stuck in a train station with only a few cents and a pack of cigarettes in your pockets. Take it from me, I've been there.
4:32PM
" So... 415 has come and gone, and there's no shuttle. The hot dog guy and the mervyns shuttle confirm its existence. Supposedly there's a 520 shuttle, so let's hope for that one, eh?
I guess, worst case scenario, we take good ol' BART back to sf. "
4:40PM
" Success! The fabled foster city shuttle DOES exist! It's an unmarked charter shuttle, and we're the only ones on this thing. Phew. That was nerve racking.
This shuttle is free, provided by AC transit and various bay area employers. The driver explained that it's mainly used to shuttle people from foster city to hayward, but not many people go our direction.
Spirits have been buoyed by the foster city shuttle. "
4:52PM
" We're on the san mateo bridge. Looks like mike masnick might come to meet us. That'd be the third. "
Boy, sorry, I was in the bathroom so I couldn't comment on the last few entries. Man, that mexican food is really not sitting well with me. But I don't remember eating corn? How did that get into my...uh hmm...back to Dennis and Mike.
5:15PM
"We got off the friendly foster city shuttle, after having listened to robert plant on the way -- that makes the foster city shuttle the only leg wit a sound system.
So, we met masnick in foster city, and began our leisurely stroll to catch the samtrans 251 -- until.. We saw the 251 turn the corner. So, we sprinted a block, and luckily we caught it. phew. Now we're all sweaty and gross. Yuck.
But, we've added yet another transit company to he list, samtrans, who unfortunately doesn't issue transfer tickets. "
Only a few more stops!!! They said it couldn't be done...but apparently it can!!!
5:57PM
"The samtrans leg was a near disaster. On the way to the caltrain station, there was quite the traffic snarl, caused by -- not one -- but TWO broken down samtrans busses. Apparently one broke down, and another came along and decided to break down in the adjacent lane. So, not only was traffic bad, but when we got there, we had to pickup he stranded passengers too. But alas, we made the 548pm express caltrain up to san francisco, due to the nice fact that the "express" was a bit late. So, we're on tha caltrain now, it's packed full of commuters who know nothing of where we've been today.."
Ah, a long day and journey have almost come to a close. We laughed at Dennis' toe hands, we cried at the death of Dan Dipasquo, cofounder of Urinal.Net. Wait, I think I have that reversed. Anyway, it was a wonderful day.
7:13PM
"So, we've finished. I'm on the J church heading back home. We suceeded in circumnavigating the entire bay area on public transportation. True, we technically skipped the palo alto to hillsdale leg, but I think that adding two bridges and two transit authorities more than makes up for that.
Korby and I are pretty exhausted after this ordeal, probably a lot more tired than if we had simply driven around the bay area (and even if we included novato).
But, thanks to the disjointed state of public transportation in the bay area, it was an interesting adventure.
Home now. Tired. Stay tuned for pictures. "
On behalf of Mike Korby, Dennis Yang, this is Pius Lee, signing off and wishing you a very happy Purim (March 6). Have fun in your Purim mangers.
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