Carmageddon: Bicyclists declare victory in race with JetBlue flight

[nmbluesky]

The six bicyclists racing a JetBlue flight from Burbank to Long Beach Saturday proved the power of the pedals, beating the flight by a long shot. The cyclists, members of the urban bicyclist organization Wolfpack Hustle, made the trip in 1 hour and 34 minutes, using the path along the Los Angeles River for most of the trek.
Full story:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/carmageddon-bicyclists-declare-victory-over-jetblue-flight.html

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Awesome!

And hilarious to boot.

:toast:

[eilen]

2. "maybe how ridiculous it is to fly 40 miles." Indeed. nt

[dsc]

6. this was to avoid carmageddon

and at four bucks, which is what Jet Blue charged, would be cheaper than a car getting less than 40 miles per gallon. Though you still had ground transport to deal with.

[taught_me_patience]

3. This is a 45 mile trek

Their "claimed" time is 1:35. That's an average of 28mph. I'm call BS on this one... this group would have to be world-class elite riders... and the guy pictured, with the beer gut, just doesn't look like an elite rider.

[Wilms]

7. Hang on. Google maps says 35 miles by road.

Following the river probably knocks a 2 or 3 miles off that.

And they're dropping elevation.

[JDPriestly]

4. It's great for the young, but at my age I don't think I could

ride a bike in the heat for an hour and 34 minutes.

I really don't dare ride anymore at all.

Bikes are not safe, and a lot of bike riders do not follow the safety and traffic rules when they ride.

We need to license bike riders. They should get tickets if they do unsafe things.

When I am driving, I stay as far from bikes as I possibly can. You never know what will happen with them, and they really get the short end of it in an accident.

Hate to see them on the streets. Scares me to see them in LA traffic.

Drivers have so many, many distractions on LA streets. Bikes are yet another very unpredictable danger to deal with.

On edit, my suggestion is to dedicate streets parallel to major streets for bikes and local traffic only. Then the bike riders would have safe places to ride and automobiles would have safe places to drive.

Also, if certain streets were bikes and local traffic only, a lot more people would start riding bikes for local rides. I might try it for a few blocks even at my age. But I sure could not ride an hour and a half. No way. And our population is aging.

I take public transportation when possible because I do support alternatives to cars.

The dedicated bike streets would be a good idea.

[taught_me_patience]

5. They rode down the LA river

a dedicated bike path with no obstacles. It does cut right through compton, though.

[JDPriestly]

8. Sounds like fun! Wish I were about 30 years younger.

[Baclava]

9. so for $5 and a few extra minutes I could sip a drink in an airport bar

then fly over and land where they were pedaling?

beats an hour and a half bike ride on bumpy roads - what a deal

but that's just me...my wagon trail days are over