Senior Harvy Chang gazes out the window of a Bay Area Rapid Transit train, watching the ever-changing landscape of San Francisco rush past him. He’s gone on many trips like this, sitting on the hard-backed seats. Sometimes, Chang will travel with friends on exciting, world record-breaking speedruns; other times, he embarks on less eventful journeys alone.
Chang first experienced the convenience of public transportation during a family trip to Japan in 2022. There, his family relied on a variety of trains and buses to travel around the country, inspiring Chang to research transit systems when he returned to California. Chang quickly realized that his brief encounters in Japan had sparked a strong interest in Bay Area railroads and public transport.
“There are stereotypes that public transport is dangerous, or that it’s dirty,” Chang said. “But one day I randomly decided to take BART to San Francisco, and I realized it was not nearly as bad as people said. I’ve now ridden hundreds of times and it’s actually pretty safe.”
While browsing the Caltrain website, Chang noticed that they had a Discord server for Bay Area transit enthusiasts. As of 2025, it has more than 4,000 active members. The server provides a place for timely alerts about train delays and for like-minded people to bond. In August 2024, Chang joined the Discord server with the intention of learning more about the BART. It was there that he discovered speedrunning.
BART speedrunning gained traction in 2018 after a group of students at the University of California, Berkeley achieved the Guinness World Record for a BART speedrun, with social media spreading the hobby. Speedrunners attempt to get to all of BART’s stations in the quickest time.
“The first time you ride BART, it can be confusing because there are so many lines and everything,” San Mateo High School sophomore and friend David Rabinovich said. “But after a few times riding it, you get the hang of it, and it’s a really easy system to use.”
With 50 BART stations in total, racing to each station in the least amount of time possible can amount to numerous transfers. On top of these transfers, inconvenient stops could mess up a good run, such as the stop at Oakland International Airport.
“The Oakland airport spur is actually a cable car,” Rabinovich said. “So you have to exit the train, run up a bunch of stairs and go through the fare gates, and that takes time, which is inconvenient for speedrunning.”
Both exhilarating and stressful, speedrunning bonds the BART community. Chang has made friends from several schools during his time traveling on BART. Burlingame High School junior Henry Smith first met Chang while speedrunning Muni — San Francisco’s public transit system — together.
“Midway through the run, one of our partners decided to go and sprint a bus connection instead of taking the bus,” Smith said. “He ended up making the train, but Harvy and I missed it, so we accompanied him as he broke the Muni record.”
Aside from friendships, there have also been other revolutionary moments for Chang. On July 6, Chang, Rabinovich and the rest of their team broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest BART speedrun with 5 hours, 43 minutes and 10 seconds, beating the Berkeley students’ previous record of 5 hours, 45 minutes and 7 seconds.
However, the group is still awaiting official certification for their speedrun. As opposed to community record guidelines, which are more informal rules set by the speedrunning community, Guinness requires a lengthy process to show proof of the record. For his speedrun, Chang kept a log book and prepared verification sheets for participants to fill out. Twenty-one people came out for the event, with fifteen people providing witness signatures to verify the record.
Although Chang is a speedrunning enthusiast, he also works to promote BART in general. Chang encourages more people to take the transit through his Instagram profile and a speedrunning website he and a few fellow speedrunners launched recently. He has faced difficulties in convincing many because of stereotypes surrounding public transportation. However, he emphasizes BART’s cleanliness and speed, as well as the freedom it offers.
“Especially before you have your license, I encourage you to go around and take public transit because you’ll find that even without a car, you can still get that freedom,” Chang said. “I encourage everyone to go around and explore the Bay Area.”
With the BART’s schedule changes on Aug. 11, the possibilities that lie ahead for Chang are numerous. Along with changes in departure times, faster connections save time for regular commuters and speedrunners. As he goes on more and more rides, Chang is able to connect with members of the BART community, speedrunners and regular riders alike. His experiences are only growing, and Chang reflects on the vastness of the world of BART.
“It’s really cool that I could meet all these new people,” Chang said. “BART is actually a really big network. There are so many diverse areas around the Bay Area, and you can’t really experience them unless you actually go to these places.”
