12 ms·

What's the longest distance that can be traveled by using free transportation?

71 points by jxub 7y ago

jtbayly 7y ago
Is hitchhiking “free transportation”? What about walking?
- carc1n0gen 7y ago
  > You cannot walk for more than 500 meters at a time to switch between two stops. Edit: plenty of the other rules outlined would rule out hitchhiking
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - abyssin 7y ago
    It is definitely possible to hitchhike with the rule of not walking more then 500 meters. Sounds like a cool game by the way! I loved hitchhiking with arbitrary rules, an entire continent becomes a playground. Having read the rules, I do believe is is possible to hitchhike in such a way that it qualifies as free transportation that allows to travel the longest distance. A simple way to do so it to get a single ride that is several hundred kilometers long. The author of the question on StackExchange accepted hitchhiking as a valid answer.
- colourgarden 7y ago
  > The transport must run regularly, not just as a one-off event.
- notahacker 7y ago
  They've ruled out hitchiking. Which is a shame, because I'm reminded of the 'Jailbreak' charity fundraiser, where students are challenged to get as far as possible [with sponsors paying per mile] from their starting point using only transport offered for free. Some of them managed to persuade airlines to give them long haul flights...
patneedham 7y ago
I think the more interesting question would be which public transportation routes greater than X miles (or kilometers) in length have the highest distance to price ratio.
- jxub 7y ago
  London: probably 25 miles for £1.50 (https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/how-far-can-you-go-with-the-1-50-hopper-fare-100316 https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/how-far-can-you-go-with-...) or one of the rare £1 EasyBus tickets from Paddington to Luton which would cover around 37 miles. The second one is not really public transportation though, and we're getting dangerously close to the £15 Ryanair flights territory.
  - kimburgess 7y ago
    Potential competitor: North (Gympie) to South (Varsity Lakes) on Brisbane Australia’s ‘inner city’ train network. 260km (160 miles) for AU$20 (£10.50) - cheaper off peak or with concession. Buses also extend this further in each direction using the same ticket.
    - ouchjars 7y ago
      Sydney trains have a more forgiving fare structure for this purpose. Scone to Bomaderry or Goulburn is at most $8.86 for over 300 km straight-line distance.
  - Symbiote 7y ago
    A London Underground fare, off-peak, avoiding Zone 1, is also £1.50. So, Heathrow Terminal 5 to Epping should be a contender. It's around 28 miles. (And being run by a private company can't exclude MegaBus, since almost all public transport in the UK is run by private companies.)
    - wopian 7y ago
      Yup Terminal 5 to Epping is possible for £1.50 (2 routes bypassing zone 1). Else its £5.10 direct through zone 1.
forgetfulusr 7y ago
Only free transportation I have come across in the Midwest is Free shuttle to nearby casinos. Now I hope they also have a shuttle or two to the next city center but I have my doubts that I can reach Atlantic City from here. I should try that next spring.
- froindt 7y ago
  Is that all within the same city, or is the casino shuttling people from nearby cities? If multiple nearby cities, you could go anywhere in the network via the casino!
  - forgetfulusr 7y ago
    The casino is 45m away from a major city, and they have a few routes going through it. It isn't in a big town itself, so I hope they can connect me to another big city from there. Casino-touring here I come.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Only free transportation I have come across in the Midwest is Free shuttle to nearby casinos. When you get out into the really small towns there are often free, regularly scheduled shuttle busses and vans paid for by the state or county that ferry people to the nearest medium-sized town for groceries and pharmacies and such. Usually it's the elderly and poor that use them. Some of those routes are an hour or two each way.
- RegnisGnaw 7y ago
  This would violate the "It must be available free of charge to any person regardless of citizenship, residency, age, occupation, gender or any other characteristic." rule though. Would the bus accept a 16 year old?
  - forgetfulusr 7y ago
    I was underage when I used it, when the shuttle driver asked if I had the years I asked him if they ID on the shuttle or at the entrance of the casino. I stayed on. EDIT: I guess it does discriminate on age. Having trouble editing OP.
zip1234 7y ago
International crime could get you extradited for 'free'?
- rjsw 7y ago
  Afghanistan to Gitmo is quite a long way.
  - e12e 7y ago
    And since the war on terror appears to be permanent, it wouldn't appear to break the rules! In fact, if you manage to get sought after, you might be able to split a reward with a friend that turns you in...
- skrebbel 7y ago
  Breaks the rules: > It must be free regularly, not just during special events. I'm pretty sure getting extradited is a "special event" :-)
- ritchiea 7y ago
  I would assume they charge you for extradition as part of your court fees. Similarly to my knowledge if you get deported or have to leave a country for visa reasons you have to pay for your own travel even though the date of departure is enforced by customs and/or law enforcement. Though fortunately I have never been extradited and I hope to keep it that way.
keiferski 7y ago
Doesn't quite count as free, but when Megabus was getting started a ±decade ago, they used to have $1 tickets available if you booked them far enough in advance. I have some nice college memories of getting from Pittsburgh to NYC to Boston (about 600 miles/950km each way) and back for ±$5 total. Not sure if they still have similar deals, but I imagine there is some sort of new transportation startup offering cheap/subsidized bus/car rides.
- agilebyte 7y ago
  The Megabus Toronto - Buffalo route at 160 km (or 100 miles) is still selling for $2.99 CAD ($2.29 USD) each way.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  It sounds like you were a few years too late to appreciate Fung Wah. $5 Chinatown to Chinatown (Boston and NYC) and no shenanigans with buying tickets in advance. They were absolutely crushing the competetion and growing. Then they had a couple accidents and had the microscope of state scrutiny put on them (no low margin business without insane economics of scale can survive that scrutiny at least in MA) which drove them out of business. Then Megabus and all the other discount bus lines that are owned by the major bus lines showed up to fill the vacuum. Don't get me wrong, Fung Wah had some growing pains and the fact that their service was the kind of thing that the upper middle class love to hate did them no favors (cue jokes about sitting beside someone who is transporting live chickens) but it's a classic case of corporate interests and (hopefully well meaning but) misinformed regulators destroying a business that provided great utility to lots of people who couldn't afford anything else.
  - ramphastidae 7y ago
    This is dangerous misinformation. Fung Wah was incredibly irresponsible, repeatedly ignored the law and regulation, the drivers were often unlicensed and the buses unmaintained, they ignored street laws and designated pick-up areas and was generally a menace to NYC. The reason was NOT "the microscope of state scrutiny" as you say, but because Fung Wah actively blocked regulators from accessing safety records after it was discovered that 21 out of 28 of their buses had multiple structural cracks in them. You can also see what this comment flippantly refers to as "a couple accidents" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Wah_Bus_Transportation#Safety-related_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Wah_Bus_Transportation#Sa... Anecdotally, I have taken Fung Wahs that have pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of a highway to pick up random passengers, have broken down before even leaving the city, and where the driver has abandoned the vehicle in the middle of traffic to get in a fistfight with another driver. Take off your rose tinted glasses. Fung Wah being shut down isn't an elitist conspiracy — they were completely irresponsible, riding their buses was dangerous, and the rise of Megabus and Boltbus in their wake is unequivocally a good thing.
thelookingglass 7y ago
How far can you two feet walk?
At1C 7y ago
Does the longest running ferry in the world count. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kootenay_Lake_Ferry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kootenay_Lake_Ferry
m3kw9 7y ago
Infinite distance if you can find a loop..
- anotheryou 7y ago
  rules say "flight of the crow"
Grue3 7y ago
I dunno about free transportation but I've been thinking of creating a 1 day Moscow sightseeing tour route that requires only a ticket for 1 subway ride. Since it's possible to transfer from subway to some suburban trains/monorail with a whopping 90-minute interval transfer allowance, this allows you to get a lot of mileage of just one trip. Some potential transfer points include - VDNKh - Luzhniki Olympic Complex - Moskva-City - Belorusskiy Rail terminal (with a lunch at Depo Food Mall) - Tsaritsyno Palace You can spend all day on just one ticket...
- codesnik 7y ago
  I think you can use the ticket for only one subway ride in one go, that severely limits your plan. And 90 minutes are counted since the first trip.
- codesnik 7y ago
  and 1 day unlimited pass is a thing, for just 230 rub.
brenden2 7y ago
I rode a bicycle from SF to NYC (about 2500 miles, ~150 miles per day), and that was "free" in the sense that I didn't have to pay anyone to do it. I'm also assuming you don't count the cost of food. You could probably walk, too, if you wanted. It's pretty amazing what can be accomplished with nothing but human power and some determination.
- NickM 7y ago
  If you read the original question on the linked page, it specifically rules out self-powered transportation.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
egberts1 7y ago
Downhill?
ZanyProgrammer 7y ago
I’m surprised no one went straight here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport#List_of_towns_and_cities_with_area-wide_zero-fare_transport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport#List_of_...
PopeDotNinja 7y ago
Does hitchhiking count? I've hosted couch surfers who have hitchhiked thousands of miles. One couple came to San Francisco all the way from Ecuador.
sunstone 7y ago
Sailboating could be cheap if you can borrow the boat.
djohnston 7y ago
Get into a kayak. Don't paddle as to abide by the rules. You can go as far as the river takes you.

71 points by jxub 7y ago

jtbayly 7y ago

Is hitchhiking “free transportation”? What about walking?

carc1n0gen 7y ago
> You cannot walk for more than 500 meters at a time to switch between two stops. Edit: plenty of the other rules outlined would rule out hitchhiking
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- abyssin 7y ago
  It is definitely possible to hitchhike with the rule of not walking more then 500 meters. Sounds like a cool game by the way! I loved hitchhiking with arbitrary rules, an entire continent becomes a playground. Having read the rules, I do believe is is possible to hitchhike in such a way that it qualifies as free transportation that allows to travel the longest distance. A simple way to do so it to get a single ride that is several hundred kilometers long. The author of the question on StackExchange accepted hitchhiking as a valid answer.
colourgarden 7y ago
> The transport must run regularly, not just as a one-off event.
notahacker 7y ago
They've ruled out hitchiking. Which is a shame, because I'm reminded of the 'Jailbreak' charity fundraiser, where students are challenged to get as far as possible [with sponsors paying per mile] from their starting point using only transport offered for free. Some of them managed to persuade airlines to give them long haul flights...

patneedham 7y ago

I think the more interesting question would be which public transportation routes greater than X miles (or kilometers) in length have the highest distance to price ratio.

jxub 7y ago
London: probably 25 miles for £1.50 (https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/how-far-can-you-go-with-the-1-50-hopper-fare-100316 https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/how-far-can-you-go-with-...) or one of the rare £1 EasyBus tickets from Paddington to Luton which would cover around 37 miles. The second one is not really public transportation though, and we're getting dangerously close to the £15 Ryanair flights territory.
- kimburgess 7y ago
  Potential competitor: North (Gympie) to South (Varsity Lakes) on Brisbane Australia’s ‘inner city’ train network. 260km (160 miles) for AU$20 (£10.50) - cheaper off peak or with concession. Buses also extend this further in each direction using the same ticket.
  - ouchjars 7y ago
    Sydney trains have a more forgiving fare structure for this purpose. Scone to Bomaderry or Goulburn is at most $8.86 for over 300 km straight-line distance.
- Symbiote 7y ago
  A London Underground fare, off-peak, avoiding Zone 1, is also £1.50. So, Heathrow Terminal 5 to Epping should be a contender. It's around 28 miles. (And being run by a private company can't exclude MegaBus, since almost all public transport in the UK is run by private companies.)
  - wopian 7y ago
    Yup Terminal 5 to Epping is possible for £1.50 (2 routes bypassing zone 1). Else its £5.10 direct through zone 1.

forgetfulusr 7y ago

Only free transportation I have come across in the Midwest is Free shuttle to nearby casinos. Now I hope they also have a shuttle or two to the next city center but I have my doubts that I can reach Atlantic City from here. I should try that next spring.

froindt 7y ago
Is that all within the same city, or is the casino shuttling people from nearby cities? If multiple nearby cities, you could go anywhere in the network via the casino!
- forgetfulusr 7y ago
  The casino is 45m away from a major city, and they have a few routes going through it. It isn't in a big town itself, so I hope they can connect me to another big city from there. Casino-touring here I come.
reaperducer 7y ago
Only free transportation I have come across in the Midwest is Free shuttle to nearby casinos. When you get out into the really small towns there are often free, regularly scheduled shuttle busses and vans paid for by the state or county that ferry people to the nearest medium-sized town for groceries and pharmacies and such. Usually it's the elderly and poor that use them. Some of those routes are an hour or two each way.
RegnisGnaw 7y ago
This would violate the "It must be available free of charge to any person regardless of citizenship, residency, age, occupation, gender or any other characteristic." rule though. Would the bus accept a 16 year old?
- forgetfulusr 7y ago
  I was underage when I used it, when the shuttle driver asked if I had the years I asked him if they ID on the shuttle or at the entrance of the casino. I stayed on. EDIT: I guess it does discriminate on age. Having trouble editing OP.

zip1234 7y ago

International crime could get you extradited for 'free'?

rjsw 7y ago
Afghanistan to Gitmo is quite a long way.
- e12e 7y ago
  And since the war on terror appears to be permanent, it wouldn't appear to break the rules! In fact, if you manage to get sought after, you might be able to split a reward with a friend that turns you in...
skrebbel 7y ago
Breaks the rules: > It must be free regularly, not just during special events. I'm pretty sure getting extradited is a "special event" :-)
ritchiea 7y ago
I would assume they charge you for extradition as part of your court fees. Similarly to my knowledge if you get deported or have to leave a country for visa reasons you have to pay for your own travel even though the date of departure is enforced by customs and/or law enforcement. Though fortunately I have never been extradited and I hope to keep it that way.

keiferski 7y ago

Doesn't quite count as free, but when Megabus was getting started a ±decade ago, they used to have $1 tickets available if you booked them far enough in advance. I have some nice college memories of getting from Pittsburgh to NYC to Boston (about 600 miles/950km each way) and back for ±$5 total. Not sure if they still have similar deals, but I imagine there is some sort of new transportation startup offering cheap/subsidized bus/car rides.

agilebyte 7y ago
The Megabus Toronto - Buffalo route at 160 km (or 100 miles) is still selling for $2.99 CAD ($2.29 USD) each way.
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
It sounds like you were a few years too late to appreciate Fung Wah. $5 Chinatown to Chinatown (Boston and NYC) and no shenanigans with buying tickets in advance. They were absolutely crushing the competetion and growing. Then they had a couple accidents and had the microscope of state scrutiny put on them (no low margin business without insane economics of scale can survive that scrutiny at least in MA) which drove them out of business. Then Megabus and all the other discount bus lines that are owned by the major bus lines showed up to fill the vacuum. Don't get me wrong, Fung Wah had some growing pains and the fact that their service was the kind of thing that the upper middle class love to hate did them no favors (cue jokes about sitting beside someone who is transporting live chickens) but it's a classic case of corporate interests and (hopefully well meaning but) misinformed regulators destroying a business that provided great utility to lots of people who couldn't afford anything else.
- ramphastidae 7y ago
  This is dangerous misinformation. Fung Wah was incredibly irresponsible, repeatedly ignored the law and regulation, the drivers were often unlicensed and the buses unmaintained, they ignored street laws and designated pick-up areas and was generally a menace to NYC. The reason was NOT "the microscope of state scrutiny" as you say, but because Fung Wah actively blocked regulators from accessing safety records after it was discovered that 21 out of 28 of their buses had multiple structural cracks in them. You can also see what this comment flippantly refers to as "a couple accidents" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Wah_Bus_Transportation#Safety-related_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Wah_Bus_Transportation#Sa... Anecdotally, I have taken Fung Wahs that have pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of a highway to pick up random passengers, have broken down before even leaving the city, and where the driver has abandoned the vehicle in the middle of traffic to get in a fistfight with another driver. Take off your rose tinted glasses. Fung Wah being shut down isn't an elitist conspiracy — they were completely irresponsible, riding their buses was dangerous, and the rise of Megabus and Boltbus in their wake is unequivocally a good thing.

thelookingglass 7y ago

How far can you two feet walk?

At1C 7y ago

Does the longest running ferry in the world count. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kootenay_Lake_Ferry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kootenay_Lake_Ferry

m3kw9 7y ago

Infinite distance if you can find a loop..

anotheryou 7y ago
rules say "flight of the crow"

Grue3 7y ago

I dunno about free transportation but I've been thinking of creating a 1 day Moscow sightseeing tour route that requires only a ticket for 1 subway ride. Since it's possible to transfer from subway to some suburban trains/monorail with a whopping 90-minute interval transfer allowance, this allows you to get a lot of mileage of just one trip. Some potential transfer points include - VDNKh - Luzhniki Olympic Complex - Moskva-City - Belorusskiy Rail terminal (with a lunch at Depo Food Mall) - Tsaritsyno Palace You can spend all day on just one ticket...

codesnik 7y ago
I think you can use the ticket for only one subway ride in one go, that severely limits your plan. And 90 minutes are counted since the first trip.
codesnik 7y ago
and 1 day unlimited pass is a thing, for just 230 rub.

brenden2 7y ago

I rode a bicycle from SF to NYC (about 2500 miles, ~150 miles per day), and that was "free" in the sense that I didn't have to pay anyone to do it. I'm also assuming you don't count the cost of food. You could probably walk, too, if you wanted. It's pretty amazing what can be accomplished with nothing but human power and some determination.

NickM 7y ago
If you read the original question on the linked page, it specifically rules out self-powered transportation.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

egberts1 7y ago

Downhill?

ZanyProgrammer 7y ago

I’m surprised no one went straight here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport#List_of_towns_and_cities_with_area-wide_zero-fare_transport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport#List_of_...

PopeDotNinja 7y ago

Does hitchhiking count? I've hosted couch surfers who have hitchhiked thousands of miles. One couple came to San Francisco all the way from Ecuador.

sunstone 7y ago

Sailboating could be cheap if you can borrow the boat.

djohnston 7y ago

Get into a kayak. Don't paddle as to abide by the rules. You can go as far as the river takes you.