Bikes vs. planes: battle of Carmageddon

Members of Wolfpack Hustle via Flickr user Sarah Sitkin

Members of Wolfpack Hustle via Flickr user Sarah Sitkin

(UPDATE, July 16, 12:48 P.M.) The bikers won, making it from Burbank to the Long Beach Aquarium in 94 minutes, according to the Wolfpack Hustle cycling team. Read about it here.

By now, you’ve probably heard that JetBlue Airlines was offering $4 tickets on two round-trip flights this weekend between Long Beach and Burbank airports. The tickets were all snatched up in short order, but L.A. Streetsblog is reporting that a group of cyclists — the fastest on the racing team Wolfpack Hustle — will race one of the airplane passengers door-to-door.

Both the airplane passenger and the cyclists will depart a home in Burbank at about 10:50 a.m. The cyclists will begin pedaling to the finish line at the Long Beach Aquarium. The airplane passenger will travel by taxi to the Bob Hope Airport, catch the 12:20 p.m. flight scheduled to arrive at 1:05 p.m. in Long Beach and then make it to the Aquarium.

The cyclists say they are going to “ride legal” — i.e. they will follow all applicable traffic laws. The cycling route will run about 40 miles.

Update: One of the race’s organizers, Gary Kavanagh, reports that he will be entering in the race as well — by taking public transit. So this is now officially a bike vs. plane vs. train/bus race. More details to follow.

USA Today also picked up the story, as did the L.A. Times. I for one am pulling for the low-carbon, low-noise bike riders to beat JetBlue’s A320.

2 replies

  1. I think moped/scooter and motorcycle riders have the best of both worlds; faster than a pedaling a bicycle, smaller than a car to lane split between cars and tight spaces, and no hassles to deal with at the airport for the short flight.