The Great Bicycle-Airplane Race of 2011

In a race between an airplane and bicyclists, the bicycles won!

The 405 in Los Angeles was closed the weekend of July 15, 2011 for the demolition of a bridge overpass. What was described as Carmageddon turned out to not be so bad. People had plenty of notice to plan their weekend travel needs.

Jet Blue had a great PR idea for the weekend. They had four flights between Burbank CA and Long Beach CA for a fare of $4.00 with an upgrade for $1.00 to give more leg room. The distance is just under 40 miles. The 600 seats were sold out in two hours.

Some bicyclists proposed a race.  The start point was an intersection in North Hollywood close to the Burbank airport. The end point was the Aquarium in Long Beach. The bicyclists made it in an hour and thirty-four minutes.

Flying is not just air time. The man who was to fly had to drive from the intersection in North Hollywood to the airport, arrive the required hour in advance, fly, then get from the airport to the aquarium.

There are other elements to flying than airtime. I learned to fly with the idea of getting an airplane. It made sense financially and for improved time for my travels. What finally killed the idea was (1) what will I do when I land especially at small airports at night and (2) what about thunderstorms affecting my plans?

One time I did a the car part of a car-airplane race and almost won. A friend of mine needed a car brought back from Newport Rhode Island to his home in Gloucester Massachusetts. We flew in his V Tail Bonanza to Newport and went to lunch with the man who had been using the car. I dropped my friend off at the airport and on my own decided that I would try to beat him back. He would have to walk to his airplane and go through the pre-trip and FAA procedure to be able to take off. At the other end he would have to land at Beverly, the closest airport, tie down, and then drive the remaining distance home. When I got to his home, he was sitting in the living room with a beer looking as if he had been there all afternoon. Later his wife told me that he had just come into the house when I came into the driveway.

I have found that on a flight of less than 900 miles I can  get there quicker by driving. Kansas City for sure because of the distance into the city from the airport. Even more time is gained when there is the consideration of schedules and advance ticket purchases. Driving also allows more flexibility in leaving and return times and dates.

With everything we do, both program and process, we need to consider all factors. We may think of like cycles of products but we need to consider use cycles. Just with hand tools how many times do we misuse tools when we do not have the correct one at hand?

For the great bicycle race, did we establish the viability of bikes in LA or the non-viability of flights of short distance? Or both?

David Sneed