We Rode Local Transit from Canada to Mexico: Day 1

[@Skip6235]

Fun fact: when you turn on to Oak Street from W 6th Ave in Vancouver, you can drive all the way to Tijuana without making another sharp turn onto another street or taking an entrance/exit ramp!

[@charlesmoeller6667]

Really? How?

[@richarddickens2438]

@@charlesmoeller6667Oak St becomes Hwy 99 at W 70th Ave, which then turns into I-5 at the Peace Arch border crossing, running all the way to Mexico along the west coast

[@TheNewGreenIsBlue]

You'd just need to bring about 6 jerry cans of fuel and fill up on the highway shoulders ... unless you can allow the use of rest stops.

[@denelson83]

Tell me you're a car brain without telling me you're a car brain...

[@Absolute_Zero7]

@@denelson83 People are allowed to Nerd out about Roadway infrastructure without necessarily being Carbrained you know.

[@MilesinTransit]

This is awesome, so excited for the subsequent parts!!

[@thetransitbandit]

@@MilesinTransit Thank you so much!!

[@alexanderlaycock789]

I hope we see the rest of the trip soon!

[@stickynorth]

I love the idea of this... A modern version of North American backpacking...

[@adambuesser6264]

You can also cross the border from Abbotsford, BC, to Sumas, WA, and take a bus to Seattle.

[@MissionHomeowner]

He takes no greyhound type services, no amtraks. Abbie to Bellingham, yes, then locals to Seattle.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@adambuesser6264 You can and I’ve been meaning to try it! Just haven’t gotten that far yet

[@joshuateicher3553]

It’s so amazing how transit can take us everywhere - including to cross boarders! As always, amazing video, and I would be tempted to also try a transit trip like this.

[@thetransitbandit]

It's a lot of fun!

[@highway2heaven91]

You mentioned that there was another person that did this on X but there was actually a third person who did it recently as well. This was a TransLink Director who did it to show that it was possible and to advocate for better public transit in Vancouver. Ever since he made the news on CBC and Global last week I was hoping for a KZbinr to attempt the trip and thankfully your video came along at just the right time.

[@thetransitbandit]

Yes! The TransLink person actually did it about a week after we finished our trip, it was pretty wild to see!

[@highway2heaven91]

@@thetransitbandit The timing happened to work perfectly then.

[@eljefecom]

10:52 It's called Island Transit because it operates to and from Island county. Bus route 412 goes to Camano Island.

[@kiwiheaarts]

This is so, so amazing. Kudos to you and the mystery friend(s) for planning and executing this. The sprinkled bits of humour is good too, haha. The $1 fare from Blaine to Bellingham is wow (great)! Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[@thetransitbandit]

Thank you!!

[@Pedalshift]

This was amazing... I did this from DC to Boston a few years ago, but this... this is way more!

[@thetransitbandit]

@@Pedalshift Thank you!! It was lots of fun!

[@eugenetswong]

Pedalshift, did you document it?

[@Pedalshift]

@@eugenetswong I did! Audio only, but here on YT: part 1 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIbHg3aohKyMnaM part 2 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIDViKmcd7FgY7s and takeaways - kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqCrlZuDot-jipo

[@BC_Geoff]

I am taking transit from Seattle to Vancouver in 3 weeks because of your video from a few months ago.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@BC_Geoff Awesome, enjoy!

[@Sivah_Akash]

Same, but this week lol!

[@stevenroshni1228]

@@thetransitbandit how many hours does this take?

[@eugenetswong]

@@Sivah_Akash and @BC_Geoff , update us, please, and let us know how it went.

[@eugenetswong]

@@stevenroshni1228 To find out, it is probably best to watch the video where he made that trip.

[@Sivah_Akash]

Inspired by your Seattle to Vancouver trip, I'm making the same trip shortly as well. Thanks for the video (and the spreadsheet).

[@thetransitbandit]

Awesome, enjoy the trip!

[@AllycatlovesAG]

5:09 is this more south than the bus stops near Point Roberts? Obviously you can't connect to Mexico from the exclave, but it's just a street with bus stops and suddenly you're in USA, no highway

[@thetransitbandit]

@@AllycatlovesAG Oops, you might be right!

[@AllycatlovesAG]

@@thetransitbandit if you’re talking continental US, then you are correct! But the stops near point Roberts are right near the border! Could be another fun video! Not much to do in Point Roberts but can be nice to walk around

[@gtadena5012]

Indeed! There are stops along 1 Ave in Tsawwassen [Delta] which would be ~1.4km further south than the White Rock S. terminus at King George @ 8 Ave :P

[@EmanuelBorsboom77]

I've crossed into Pt. Bob using that bus, and it is indeed much closer.

[@Jer_Schmidt]

I love this, so excited to see the rest of your trip!! I swear I'm gonna do some crazy transit adventure like this someday, it looks so fun

[@bryan89wr]

It's called the "Canada Line" because the Canadian federal government imposed the name as a condition to help finance the project. The things BC has to put up with to still not get it's fair share of funding from Ottawa.

[@Somethingaweful]

#wexit amiright

[@TheNewGreenIsBlue]

I think it was a carrot that Translink used to woo the Federal gov't that perhaps BECAME a requirement. Olympic Line or Gold Line would have been a better name (Canada's first gold medal won at home was at those Olympics)

[@AMPProf]

Ha ha..

[@Thegamer-kw4vi]

Already looking forward for part 2

[@bobertbirkely]

Whoa, I'm in this video. We took the 512 together 🙌

[@thetransitbandit]

@@bobertbirkely That’s so wild!

[@cooljonathan]

$11.40 to go from Vancouver to seattle is pretty insane, definitely cheaper than the amtrak

[@thetransitbandit]

Much cheaper, and not too much slower! There's an earlier video on my channel going into more depth on this part of the trip itself, definitely recommend it if you have extra time!

[@awesomeman116a]

9:13 “Not anymore” LOL ur mystery friend is amazing!!

[@agntdrake]

Fun fact: The 351 bus used to go all the way from Burrard Station instead of Bridgeport before the Canada Line opened.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@agntdrake Right - Although i personally prefer it from Bridgeport since it’s much more frequent now! And less susceptible to traffic delays

[@agntdrake]

@@thetransitbandit it's definitely nicer with the increased frequencies, but it was nice having a single seat ride all the way to White Rock. Also, I've never walked down the freeway to cross the border, but I have walked down the beach/train tracks from Marine Drive. Just be careful of trains if you ever do that route. It's much more pleasant though.

[@TheNewGreenIsBlue]

@@agntdrake Not so pleasant with a roller bag, though.

[@buckleytransit]

Your transit trips never fail to amaze me, keep up the good work!

[@thetransitbandit]

@@buckleytransit Thank You!

[@Kevbot6000]

Ooh this will definitely be an interesting watch, can’t wait :)

[@rudydawgsmom]

Hey 👋🏻 your friend Caron told me about your channel…..loving this!!

[@thetransitbandit]

@@rudydawgsmom Welcome! Glad you’re enjoying!

[@TheWarrrenator]

In the intro, you mentioned ferries. Is there a ferry from VBC to Victoria? Because I know there is a ferry directly from Victoria to Seattle. Even though this is bus/lite rail I wonder if that could be feasible.

[@thetransitbandit]

There is a BC ferry from Tsawwassen (near Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (near Victoria) so that's definitely a possible routing as well!

[@stevenwagner983]

WAS! this was best when existed WSF had Sidney to Anacortes oh you mean the clipper likely Victoria to Seattle

[@EmanuelBorsboom77]

I think BC Ferries (at least the shorter southern routes) should count as public transit. So if you wanted to start at the furthest point north, I think you'd start at Deep Bay on Vancouver Island, to Victoria, then ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen on the mainland. Pity the Washington State Ferries Sidney BC-Anacortas WA route is on indefinite hiatus, that would be even better.

[@stevenwagner983]

@@EmanuelBorsboom77 only until 2030 lol WSF site says

[@thetransitbandit]

@@EmanuelBorsboom77 Absolutely, and that would be a really fun trip as well!

[@denelson83]

Meanwhile, here on Vancouver Island, the Comox Valley and Campbell River combined are a public transit island. To get from Courtenay to Qualicum Beach, private transport is required.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@denelson83 BC’s rural and regional public transit links are always more disappointing to me, especially having been spoiled living in Washington, which has fairly decent connectivity!

[@eugenetswong]

Maybe a ride hailing driver can offer fixed route service and those other locations.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@eugenetswong what’s funny about the one described is that it would be really easy to close the gap, I believe the only gap is between deep bay and Fanny bay which is maybe 10km

[@denelson83]

@@thetransitbandit Well my impression is that the gap is actually 30 km. Service to Deep Bay is not frequent enough for practical use.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@denelson83 That’s fair yeah - a longer and more frequent route would be huge

[@pauld2810]

Keep picking up mystery friends, and this could be a magical mystery tour.

[@davepubliday6410]

I actually did this once. But I took the bus to Tswassen, ferry to Victoria, ferry to USA arriving in the Olympic peninsula, bus to Seattle, Green Tortoise bus to San Francisco, Greyhound to LA, San Diego, then crossed into Mexico. (I ended up going all the way to Panama, 1999)

[@MissionHomeowner]

This is amazing. If I were younger I would be doing travel your way.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@MissionHomeowner It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to see new places!

[@realquadmoo]

What do you mean?

[@alexanderlaycock789]

Woah!!! So cool!

[@thetransitbandit]

Thank you!!

[@sammy7068]

wow nice never thought u can take transit to mexico from vancouver super cool ty for sharing your journey with us

[@Skip6235]

This is wild!

[@glowingfish]

Your friend was right, that wasn't a Stroad. Or at least, not the worst of Stroads!

[@thetransitbandit]

@@glowingfish it definitely could be worse!

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

No its called Island Transit because its run by Island County as all local transit agencies are run at the county Level in Washington

[@Seattlevids13]

Oh my god 😭 I’m pumped for this!!!

[@travisfinucane]

I'm astounded this is even possible without long-haul bus lines like greyhound. Are they allowed to use Amtrak commuter services like the Capitol Corridor (Sacramento to San Jose, via numerous intervening cities), or is that not local transit enough? I would love to see a little pan around at each station or bus stop to go along with the entertaining descriptions. This project is such a cool idea.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@travisfinucane No Amtrak of any kind! The full schedule and map of our journey are in the video description if you’re interested!

[@Frank-dr7dr]

To avoid the walk from white rock to Blaine, take the sky train to Lougheed station, pick up the Fraser valley BC transit direction Chilliwack (#66) to Abbotsford. Then the Local BC transit to Huntingdon. Walk 100 meters to border crossing . Then 100 yards to Sumas stop for The WTA to Bellingham. Distance and timing should be about the same, depending on connections.

[@thetransitbandit]

It is possible and I've looked into it for sure, but with the 71X from Sumas being significantly less frequent than the 75, and with overall travel time being longer we didn't think it would be the best move on this trip, although it's definitely something I'll try out in the future!

[@TheNewGreenIsBlue]

I wonder how far east you can go from the Pacific Ocean via public transit. Definitely wouldn't start in Canada as you'll only get to Chilliwack, but how far east can you get from Seattle? Can you get to Wenatchee? How far from Portland or San Francisco?

[@Frank-dr7dr]

@@TheNewGreenIsBlue not to nit-pick, but there is a rote Chilliwack to Agassiz and a route Agassiz to Hope, so it is possible to reach Hope. Then it’s e-bus which is a greyhound equivelant

[@TheNewGreenIsBlue]

@@Frank-dr7dr I didn't know there was public transit from Agassiz to Hope! Chilliwack to Agassiz makes sense...

[@eugenetswong]

@@TheNewGreenIsBlue I didn't know about the Agassiz to Hope route, either! I feel so privileged!

[@AlexPotvin]

Your White Rock South bus AKTuALly terminates on King George Boulevard within South Surrey. White Rock separated from Surrey and the whole area often goes by either South Surrey or White Rock (or both together). The whole border crossing and lack of bus connection to Peace Arch park is a disgrace to the system as the WTA operates routes much closer to the park. Makes no sense that Douglas gets no service, Douglas being the neighbourhood closer to the other crossing.

[@jools1978]

The White Spot he was waiting in front of at White Rock Centre is also actually in South Surrey, it's about half a block north of the White Rock/Surrey border.

[@ab-tf5fl]

Most people don't know about this, but there is a walking route from White Rock to the border that covers a small dead-end residential street, plus a footbridge, rather than needing to walk along the highway. If you look closely at Google Earth, you can spot the footbridge. I attempted the route myself several years ago in the Seattle->Vancouver direction and successfully confirmed that the footbridge indeed does exist.

[@eugenetswong]

@@ab-tf5fl Would you confirm the names of the street that intersect near the bridge, please? It seems to be 8 Ave & 160 St.

[@Spegg]

Whoo orca card territory! Watching here from Tacoma, WA

[@paxtothemax3824]

hey i think this video is great, but I will say if you were able to integrate maps that showed the routes you are taking I think it would make it even better. Miles in transit does it for his vids and i think it adds context to the journey.

[@BarkerVancity]

dude....how did you go that far with $11. i swear that only gets me to work and back in vancouver, let alone south washington. are busses free down there?

[@thetransitbandit]

@@BarkerVancity On that leg, all the buses had fares - although generally pretty affordable ones! But if you take advantage of free transfers with fare cards, you can stretch your money!

[@Geotpf]

It's weird somebody else just did this as you mentioned. Did you come up with the idea independently without knowing he did it? The other guy made the CBC news in Canada.

[@thetransitbandit]

It was fully independent - the one who made the news actually did it about a week after we had finished our trip! The person who did it before us finished their trip about a week before we did ours, so there were three in pretty tight succession there, as far as we know from social media / news!

[@EmanuelBorsboom77]

I think the timing is mostly because it only recently became possible to do this trip when new Redwood Coast Express opened earlier this year.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@EmanuelBorsboom77 It was possible otherwise but the RCX definitely makes it a lot easier and takes a few days off of the travel time!

[@1e1001]

it's like the PCT but public transit (and backwards)

[@thetransitbandit]

Hahaha true!

[@hbowman108]

I have heard it is possible to travel from Moscow to Vladivostok on elektrichkas. There are nine hundred stops and it takes four weeks.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@hbowman108 Wow, that would be incredible!

[@nevreiha]

have you calculated the price difference with other more conventional options?

[@thetransitbandit]

@@nevreiha I haven’t, although I might do that at the end of the series!

[@jasonmchuff8760]

Looking at your schedule, you could have done the trip cheaper by taking Golden Gate Transit to San Francisco and by taking buses instead of Caltrain and Metrolink/Coaster (I think there are buses all the way from LA to SD). And if you really wanted to be crazy, you could take local buses (instead of express ones) as much as possible.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@jasonmchuff8760 We could’ve done that, but we also wanted to experience new trains and didn’t have enough time to do all that. Additionally, it isn’t possible to get from LA to Oceanside without Metrolink.

[@sophiaschier-hanson4163]

So I am here because I had a bizarrely terrifying nightmare about trying to take Greyhound to California and then unexpectedly having to do this instead. 😂

[@thetransitbandit]

@@sophiaschier-hanson4163 That sounds quite wild!!

[@glowingfish]

I am really curious to see what route you took, and am tempted to check the document/map...but I kind of want to leave it a surprise! I know a few different ways you could do this trip, and want to be surprised by what route you took.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@glowingfish It’ll be a fun adventure, stay tuned!!

[@Zm4rf]

could you please add total time spent traveling and waiting (and i guess walking) in the end titles in future videos? thanks

[@thetransitbandit]

@@Zm4rf I’ll look into it! The full schedule is also linked in the description

[@1st1anarkissed]

"Canada line" is likely a multi year placeholder until they need to fund raise by selling off the name.

[@AhhhSukeSuke]

Dang. How long did this take??

[@thetransitbandit]

@@AhhhSukeSuke Overall the trip took 10 days end-to-end!

[@thetransitbandit]

@@AhhhSukeSuke Although we were a little slow, it probably could be done in 6-7 with some better planning

[@cmdrls212]

how's Amtrak not public transportation?

[@thetransitbandit]

@@cmdrls212 It’s a private company that requires tickets to be booked in advance

[@cmdrls212]

@@thetransitbandit according to Wikipedia, Amtrak is not a private company. the main owner is the US government and it is run as a quasi public corporation with its director appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate l. it receives a lot of public money as well. are you confusing them with bright line?🤔

[@thetransitbandit]

@@cmdrls212 It’s also the type of service - pre-reserved, longer-distance, higher-speed services. And while its primary stakeholder is the government, it was set up as a private company by Reagan (unfortunately). If you want to consider it transit then go ahead, I guess for this trip the criteria would then be more along the lines of local public transit if that makes sense!

[@IvyANguyen]

Very cool! A group of people in my region of the US called Megalopers (Megaloping) did something like this in May 2007 and got some of it on KZbin where they went from Fredericksburg, VA to Portland, ME exclusively by local public transit. Their channel is here: www.youtube.com/@megaloping (called 'megaloping').

[@thetransitbandit]

@@IvyANguyen I’ll be sure to check it out, sounds exciting!

[@ostkkfmhtsh012345678]

5:13 One key factor why transit is not sufficiently viable for #MetroVancouver-#WhatcomCounty cross-border trips. #TransLink really needs to extend the 375 and 321 which both routes serve the southernmost bus stop on the #TransLink system, even if it means working with #BCParks, #CBSA, and more for bus drivers’ facilities such as #BCParks’ washrooms shared with #TransLink, space for new bus stop terminus where bus drivers have very low or no chances of accidentally driving into the #US without valid documents, etc. Having to either risk getting run over by onramp vehicles and have to walk long distances between #TransLink bus stop and border or spend more time and money to cross at Abbotsford-Huntingdon/Sumas border crossing via #BCTransit Central Fraser Valley are key factors why driving is more viable over transit.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@ostkkfmhtsh012345678 Agreed!

[@eugenetswong]

I don't think that there is enough demand for transit to the border. Maybe a bike sharing service could be provided. Maybe the local hotel could provide a custom shuttle service.

[@thetransitbandit]

@@eugenetswong There is a fair amount of demand. While not huge, people do commute between Whatcom County and southern Metro Vancouver, and there are also people looking for cheaper alternatives to Amtrak and FlixBus

[@AutZeroOneGotBanned]

i was gonna do that and then sugbiuysbs

[@EthanHuang-u4w]

Who lives in Canada Vancouver me i do 👇👇

[@YahWay.]

I have to see how you did White Rock to the border, I did this trip once and had to walk down there from White Rock. Okay, I watched, you had the same problem I did. All the way from 8th avenue in White Rock to the border You should have explained about the Peace Arch Park, that Canadians and Americans can enter the park freely, and hang out together, you just can't cross to the other side

[@thetransitbandit]

That's a good point - it's a pretty cool park!

[@glaframb]

From Pacific Canada aka British-Columbia to Tijuana, Mexico

[@stevenwagner983]

I know limited schedule but I would of caught the sounder in Everett

[@thetransitbandit]

@@stevenwagner983 It’s not possible on this trip, there are two southbound trips, both fairly early in the morning, way earlier than possible to get from Vancouver to Everett by

[@rlwelch]

The word hero is used all too often lately

[@nose10620]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍