Olivia Rodrigo at Golden 1 Center: getting home to Davis

Olivia Rodrigo brings The Unraveled Tour, with special guest Devon Again, to Golden 1 Center on Tuesday, December 15. The venue lists doors at 6:00pm and the show at 7:00pm, at 500 David J Stern Walk in downtown Sacramento (Golden 1 Center). A second night follows on Wednesday, December 16, with the same doors and start time (Golden 1 Center).

That makes it a school night. The weekday tables on the train and the bus are the ones that count, and the trip home is the part to plan first.

Getting there on a weekday afternoon

December 15 is not on Capitol Corridor's holiday list, so the plain weekday table applies.

• Train: on the Weekday Eastbound table in force today, the 5:41pm from Davis reaches Sacramento at 5:56pm, just before doors. The 6:02pm reaches it at 6:25pm (Capitol Corridor). Sacramento Valley Station is at 401 I Street at 5th, and Capitol Corridor's events page puts the arena a six-minute, 0.3-mile walk away (Sports & Entertainment).
• Bus: Yolobus Route 42B runs the loop from campus into downtown. Its weekday table has a 4:43pm from the UC Davis Memorial Union reaching L & 5th (Golden 1 Center) at 5:48pm, and a 5:13pm reaching it at 6:18pm. Over an hour either way, so leave right after your last class.

The last train leaves two hours in

On the Weekday Westbound table in force today, the last train out of Sacramento leaves at 9:03pm and reaches Davis at 9:19pm. The one before it goes at 7:03pm, right as the show starts (Capitol Corridor). With an opener on the bill and a 7:00pm start, 9:03 is two hours in. Nobody publishes when the set ends, so plan as if the train is not your ride home.

Nothing wrong with the train itself: sixteen minutes, Sacramento to Davis, on that same table. The hours are the problem.

The bus home: two times, and a different corner

Route 42A is the same loop run clockwise, the direction that carries you from downtown back to campus. Its weekday table, as published today, has two late departures from L & 5th: 10:12pm, reaching the Memorial Union at 11:05pm, and 10:57pm, reaching it at 11:50pm. After that, the table is done.

Treat 10:57 as the bus you cannot miss: if it leaves without you, nothing else is coming. On a Tuesday, that also means getting back near midnight with class the next morning.

Then the catch. SacRT lists the L St at 5th stop as closed during Golden 1 Center events, with riders sent to L St at 9th (SacRT). That is the corner the 42A table names. Walk the four blocks on the way in, so you are not finding the stop for the first time with an arena emptying behind you. Check both pages the week of the show.

Driving: the pass runs out too

Golden 1 Center runs no lots of its own. It points you to pre-paid passes on the City of Sacramento's SacPark site, and the arena garages open two hours before the event. A pre-purchased pass is good until two hours after the event. Spaces are first-come, first-served, a specific garage "is subject to availability and is not guaranteed", and there is no shuttle from the downtown garages (Directions & Parking). Buy ahead, and leave with time on the pass.

Once you are downtown

SacRT light rail stops sit about a block from the arena, and your return trip starts at a different stop than where you got off, because the trains run on one-way streets downtown (SacRT). Useful inside Sacramento. None of it reaches Davis.

Or go with someone who is already going

Cars go from Davis to downtown on a weeknight evening and come back after the show, and most cars on any road have empty seats.

That is what TAGO is for: a carpool for students. Sign in with your .edu email, say where you are going, and see who else is going the same way. No fleet, no dispatcher. Students with a car and students without one, sharing the cost of a trip that was happening anyway.

Three things that matter on a school night:

The way back is planned with the way out. For events and places, the return leg is part of the same plan, settled that afternoon instead of on David J Stern Walk at 10:50.

Your share has a ceiling. What a rider contributes can never exceed the IRS standard mileage rate for the day of the trip, and past the first eight miles the per-mile rate eases down. How ride costs split walks through it.

Rated both ways. Riders rate drivers, and drivers rate riders. Is carpooling with students safe? sets out what we check, and what we don't.

Nobody can tell you a car will be there. Whether one exists depends on who is going that night, which is why posting early beats searching late. The Olivia Rodrigo in Sacramento on TAGO page shows what has been posted. Routes and names stay private until you sign in with your .edu.

Before Tuesday

1. Plan around the train home. On the weekday table, 9:03pm is the last one. Decide this week how you get back, not at 10:45pm.
2. Write down two times: 10:12pm and 10:57pm, the last 42A departures. Board at L & 9th if the event-night closure holds.
3. Driving? Buy the SacPark pass ahead. It stops being valid two hours after the event.
4. Bags: clutches and wallets smaller than 8" x 6" x 1", subject to inspection; medical and parental bags go through the X-ray (Golden 1 Center). Coming straight from class with a backpack? It is not getting in, and there is nowhere to leave it.
5. Agree a meeting point before you go in, and who is leaving for which bus.