Race the Tube
September 17, 2014 1:02 AM   Subscribe

 
Very nice! Well this would have been quite easy with a light stroll for my commute home tonight, but I live in San Francisco, where sitting around not moving is Muni's normal mode of operation.
posted by zachlipton at 1:30 AM on September 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


Previously in Paris
posted by elgilito at 1:31 AM on September 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


Well, it brings back the memory of a younger myself racing after my girlfriend's bus to give her another kiss, from bus stop to bus stop. Reminds me of John Henry too.
posted by nicolin at 1:44 AM on September 17, 2014 [12 favorites]


Ha! My recollection is that the metro trip from Cluny La Sorbonne (where they start) to Odéon (where they end up) is one of the shortest in Paris - so he didn't have that far to run, but on the other hand, he had to run VERY fast.
posted by melisande at 1:56 AM on September 17, 2014


Much prefer the London one to the one in Paris. The Paris guy had to jump over a ticket barrier and run across a busy street which seem both not-allowed and dangerous. Also half the video goes by (showing us all the cool cameras) before he even gets started.

You can't outrun the underground trains when they get up to full speed. So it makes sense this would only work between two nearby stations where most of the time you are running, the train is still standing at the station.
posted by vacapinta at 2:27 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I've definitely thought about this, oh, a million times on various commutes through various train systems (and as a kid staring out the car, but then it's a motorbike riding alongside the car).
The thing I can't get behind is where he lies down on the floor of the train at the end. Dude. The floor?
posted by From Bklyn at 3:11 AM on September 17, 2014


Mod note: Derail deleted. This is not really a police-shootings, or US vs UK police shootings, etc. thread.
posted by taz (staff) at 3:57 AM on September 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


My favorite part of becoming familiar with a city are those moments when you realize you've been taking the subway/car/bus to get between neighborhoods you've thought of as discrete destinations, but you realize they flow into each other, and your mental map suddenly collapses.
posted by bendybendy at 4:01 AM on September 17, 2014 [35 favorites]


I'd like to see him try that between Canary Wharf and North Greenwich ...
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:07 AM on September 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


I like to see him try that in a rush hour, or as a Brazilian plumber...

But not to take away from this, it's an excellent video. This guy not only showed he could run fast, he knew exactly where to run too and good situational awareness, weaving his way through the people by the barriers quickly finding the optimal route.

Nicely done.

(Also an end to the idea that everybody in the tube minds their own business, as the people in the carriage were clearly in on the stunt...)
posted by MartinWisse at 4:19 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


What other pair of London tube stations could you have a shot of achieving this at?

Most of the ones in the West End are super close but they're mostly deep-level, right?
posted by dontjumplarry at 4:26 AM on September 17, 2014


What other pair of London tube stations could you have a shot of achieving this at?

Lots and lots, if they are not on the same line.

I could almost crawl from Chancery Lane to Farringdon, for example, and beat anybody using the tube between those two stations.

That sort of feeds into bendybendy's comment. If you know the physical layout of the city you can also know when its worthwhile to take the Tube and when you should just walk.
posted by vacapinta at 4:30 AM on September 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also, on the old Circle line you could, presumably, walk across London and get on the same train as you got off, while it is busy doing a big circle. You might be able to do this on the new Circle line.
posted by vacapinta at 4:36 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh yeah, I meant on the same line though.
posted by dontjumplarry at 4:48 AM on September 17, 2014


Or in Glasgow, on a bike, between Buchanan St. and St. Enoch.
posted by scruss at 5:08 AM on September 17, 2014


They have another video for Moorgate to St James's Park, which is a rather arbitrary route - he could equally have strolled to Monument to catch the same train much earlier.
posted by grahamparks at 5:21 AM on September 17, 2014




Given that this is the circle line, maybe he's just really slow, and caught the train on a subsequent revolution around the circle.....
posted by schmod at 5:29 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I've walked along King Street in Toronto and beaten six streetcars to the subway station. Do I get a prize?

(but seriously, the end of the video is the best when everyone's so happy the runner made it.)
posted by chrominance at 5:47 AM on September 17, 2014


The real degree of difficulty, I'd imagine, is getting on the same car at the same door.

Also, laying down on a train is something NYC me could only dream of doing. Ugh.
posted by nevercalm at 5:49 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wow, both the cars and stations seem so clean. Says the person about to head into a dirty CTA station.
posted by readery at 5:49 AM on September 17, 2014


Also, laying down on a train is something NYC me could only dream of doing. Ugh.

Come now. The Q is spic and span.
posted by dis_integration at 6:07 AM on September 17, 2014


Given that this is the circle line, maybe he's just really slow, and caught the train on a subsequent revolution around the circle

Sadly it turned out that circular transit routes are actually a really bad idea when it comes to knock-on delays and frequency regulation, so they had to re-engineer it a few years ago to break the circle. /nerdlinger
posted by forgetful snow at 6:31 AM on September 17, 2014


Wow, both the cars and stations seem so clean. Says the person about to head into a dirty CTA station.

That is my single lasting impression of the Tube. Do you know what Chicago would do to those plush upholstered seats?
posted by shakespeherian at 6:38 AM on September 17, 2014


If you know the physical layout of the city you can also know when its worthwhile to take the Tube and when you should just walk.

For years, I treated the London subway system like the Tardis. You get in, it takes you where you need to be, and then you get out again.

When I finally started walking around the place, I was gutted to find how close together that stuff actually was.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:42 AM on September 17, 2014 [7 favorites]


The real degree of difficulty, I'd imagine, is getting on the same car at the same door.

Not really. In Chicago subway trains stop in the same place at every station. There are even markings on the station showing where the train is going to stop. I imagine it is similar for other subways. If you see on the video, the car he gets into in the second station, the door opens right in front of the stairs. That car was probably chosen for that reason since it's probably the same car that always stops in front of the stairs. So you just note which car it is and get on that car at the first station.
posted by nooneyouknow at 7:09 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Waiting for the Chicago (or other city) parody where someone walks for 10 minutes and gets back on the same car.
posted by Mid at 7:09 AM on September 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'm sure they reconnoitred in advance and chose the carriage that stopped in the right place for this shot, but it's definitely not the case in the Tube's ad-hoc higgledy piggledy glory that the stairs and elevators are always located in the same place on every platform.
posted by forgetful snow at 7:31 AM on September 17, 2014


In well-designed systems, they will actually locate the stairs and whatnot in different spots along the platform at different stations on a line so that the train is loaded more evenly.
posted by jamincan at 7:35 AM on September 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


I want to snark on this but as a runner, I simply cannot. That collapse at the end is filled with so much joy. I love it!!?
posted by Fizz at 7:49 AM on September 17, 2014


the stairs and elevators are always located in the same place on every platform.

That's not the case for Chicago either. I meant that the trains stop at the same place on the platform. In Chicago, sometimes I like to ride on certain cars and on stations that I use frequently, I know exactly where to stand so that that car stops in front of me and even the doors are just in front of me when the train stops.
posted by nooneyouknow at 8:11 AM on September 17, 2014


I know exactly where to stand so that that car stops in front of me and even the doors are just in front of me when the train stops.

I call this Train Car Roulette. Pick a place to stand, see if the train actually stops where you expect it to today. Wheee!
posted by phunniemee at 8:52 AM on September 17, 2014


I've often figured I could run from Zushi to Shin-Zushi and hop on the Keikyu in the time it takes them to remove the extra cars from the Yokosuka line at the Zushi station. Alas, I would then be going the wrong direction on the Keikyu and have to backtrack.

Hyperdia will actually tell you when the quickest way is to get off and walk for a segment. I've usually seen this between Kawasaki and Keikyu-Kawasaki. You don't get back on the same train, though.
posted by ctmf at 9:06 AM on September 17, 2014


Diva: Paris Metro chase scene.

That French cop runs his ass off!
 
posted by Herodios at 9:25 AM on September 17, 2014


... so that the train is loaded more evenly.
posted by jamincan at 9:35 AM on September 17

Like sardines, one might say.
posted by Westringia F. at 9:31 AM on September 17, 2014


That's super fun.... good job, runner dude!
posted by ph00dz at 9:32 AM on September 17, 2014


I suspect you could ride a bike between Highgate and Archway faster than the Tube and thats over a mile between the stops.

And I think you could probably run from Graham Ave to Metropolitan Ave on the L train in NYC faster than the train.

I think this man should try both.
posted by 13twelve at 9:58 AM on September 17, 2014


I suspect you could ride a bike between Highgate and Archway faster than the Tube and thats over a mile between the stops.

I raced the train from Canary Wharf to Stockwell, which is about 6 miles, a couple of times. I lost, but not by that much, and I'm not particularly fast. A good runner would probably be able to beat it. That said, I was running surface to surface, not platform to platform, and the train-users would have to change lines at London Bridge.
posted by Pink Frost at 1:12 PM on September 17, 2014


I'm glad his Oyster Card was topped up. Queuing for the ticket machine would have spoiled the video.

I look forward to the video of desperately trying to change at Bank. Bank station is a bit like an Escher puzzle with wormholes - you keep spotting past selves passing you on escalators in search of the correct exit.
posted by eyeofthetiger at 2:21 PM on September 17, 2014 [5 favorites]


Wouldn't it have been less tiring to simply stay on the train?
posted by salmacis at 3:39 AM on September 18, 2014


Not to watch on youtube...
posted by polymath at 9:35 PM on September 18, 2014


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