
What's the longest distance that can be traveled by using free transportation? - jxub
https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/151994/whats-the-longest-distance-that-can-be-traveled-by-only-using-free-transportati
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keiferski
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.

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dsfyu404ed
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.

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ramphastidae
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#Sa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fung_Wah_Bus_Transportation#Safety-
related_incidents)

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.

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dsfyu404ed
Yeah, they were a shitty low class bus line with all the baggage that comes
with that but they offered $5 tickets and that's what people could afford.
Being able to go between Boston and NYC for $5 made a heck of a lot of
people's lives better.

>Megabus and Boltbus in their wake is unequivocally a good thing.

Only if the difference between $5 and $15 (or even $35, which is what the
Megabus website is telling me a Boston-> NYC ticket for today costs) is not
meaningful. $15 tickets and Fung Wah coexisted. Clearly there was no shortage
of people willing to take on the extra risk of riding Fung Wah in order to
save $10. As far as I care that makes it a useful service you can hemm and haw
about whether or not it was justified but the fact of the matter is that said
useful service no longer exists thanks to the state.

>Fung Wah being shut down isn't an elitist conspiracy — they were completely
irresponsible, riding their buses was dangerous,

This is exactly what I mean. If you don't care about the difference between $5
and $15 then of course you don't see any reason for Fung Wah or any similiar
service to exist because it is all downside.

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PaulDavisThe1st
>Clearly there was no shortage of people willing to take on the extra risk of
riding Fung Wah in order to save $10.

How many of them knew what the risk was?

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greenyoda
And a poorly maintained bus with an unlicensed driver speeding down a highway
or a city street is a danger to all the vehicles and pedestrians around it.
Those random people certainly didn't agree to take that risk.

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forgetfulusr
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.

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froindt
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!

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forgetfulusr
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.

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zip1234
International crime could get you extradited for 'free'?

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rjsw
Afghanistan to Gitmo is quite a long way.

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e12e
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...

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Grue3
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...

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codesnik
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.

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patneedham
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
London: probably 25 miles for £1.50 ([https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/how-
far-can-you-go-with-...](https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/how-far-can-you-
go-with-the-1-50-hopper-fare-100316)) 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.

~~~
Symbiote
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.)

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wopian
Yup Terminal 5 to Epping is possible for £1.50 (2 routes bypassing zone 1).
Else its £5.10 direct through zone 1.

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

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At1C
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)

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

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PopeDotNinja
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.

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m3kw9
Infinite distance if you can find a loop..

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anotheryou
rules say "flight of the crow"

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sunstone
Sailboating could be cheap if you can borrow the boat.

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egberts1
Downhill?

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thelookingglass
How far can you two feet walk?

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jtbayly
Is hitchhiking “free transportation”? What about walking?

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carc1n0gen
> 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

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abyssin
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.

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brenden2
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.

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NickM
If you read the original question on the linked page, it specifically rules
out self-powered transportation.

