@kqednews: The term “speedrunning” was popularized in video gaming culture when a player attempts to complete an entire game as quickly as possible. But transit nerds have co-opted the trend and turned it into a real-life game, by visiting every train or bus station — traveling up and down every arm of the transit system — as quickly as possible. The prize: bragging rights. And possibly internet fame. While speedrunners have raced on San Francisco’s MUNI trains, San Mateo’s SamTrans bus lines and Santa Clara’s VTA light rail, among other Bay Area transit agency routes, BART is the most popular. The commuter rail agency has even created a webpage dedicated to speedruns and posts a log of each attempt its staff can find online. The current Guinness World Record (yes, there’s also a Guinness World Record for speedrunning) is held by a group of seven UC Berkeley graduate students, specializing in transportation, who completed the run in 5 hours, 47 minutes and 42 seconds in March 2024. To achieve that, last month’s event prioritized participation over time. For Harvy Chang and his friends, that meant working out a lot of logistics. Nowhere is that more critical than at transfer points, when the speedrunners got on and off the trains en masse as quickly as possible. ✍️: Adhiti Bandlamudi 📹: Adhiti Bandlamudi 🎬: Darren Tu

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Monday 27 October 2025 17:13:51 GMT