The bikes won by a long shot in Saturday’s “Carmageddon” bike vs JetBlue challenge in Los Angeles. So did LA Metro and rollerblades.
The bike victory wasn’t too surprising, though it surprised me to see the cyclists were almost to the destination airport before the JetBlue flight even left the ground.
Discussion on the race, how it unfolded and why it matters:
- Streetsblog LA Handy Dandy Twitter chronicle of the race.
- Bike Biz: Bicycles beat commercial airliner.
- Tom Vanderbilt in Slate: How a team of cyclists—and a guy on the subway, and a Rollerblader—beat a Jet Blue flight from Burbank to Long Beach.
- Damien Newton in Streetsblog LA: The Real Lessons of Carmageddon – Angelenos Aren’t Idiots, We Have Too Many Highways.
- LA Times Blog: JetBlue passengers, race participants describe experience.
- Straight out of Suburbia: Why Carmageddon is important.
And that doesn’t even factor in the time it took to make the cab, plane, airport, etc, vs the far less materials used for a bike, lycra, clipless shoes etc. We spend far more time and energy just making driving and flying possible, even without considering any usage.
…so, in one sense something was proven as regards efficiency & on top of that, the work crews finished early, which may have been bigger news & now that the hoopla is out of the way & the 405 has been reopened, they can all go back to a regular weekday commute & look forward to the usual gridlock…
…see…everything worked out fine…“…happy days are here again…”…