The closure of Los Angeles’ 405 Freeway was done ahead of schedule, with demolition completed yesterday. JetBlue’s widely-publicized $4 flights from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank to Long Beach inspired a competitive attitude among area bicyclists, who decided to have a race:
The cyclists and a blogger aboard the JetBlue flight left at 10:50 a.m. from the same intersection in North Hollywood –- with the blogger having to drive to the airport, arriving an hour before the 12:20 p.m. flight, then catching a ride to the aquarium in Long Beach, the finish line. The plane had just taken off when the cyclists arrived.
The cyclists had boldly predicted victory earlier Saturday morning. Joe Anthony, 33, who took the JetBlue flight, said the race was meant to show “how feasible cycling is in L.A.,” And, he said, “maybe how ridiculous it is to fly 40 miles.” (Emphasis mine)
The race route didn’t start at the airport, but out of curiosity I looked up the distance and time estimates between the two airports on Google, coming up with these alternatives to the 20-minute flight time of a passenger jet:
Car: 44 minutes (estimated, not including delays for #carmageddon)
Public transit: 2 hrs 33 mins by bus and rail
Bike: 3 hours 33 minutes on bike paths
Transit might be faster if LA had done better planning. Further implementation of bus rapid transit will help a lot. Of course, most cyclists can travel the 38-mile distance far faster than three-and-a-half hours: I’ve been out of the saddle for years, but when I was in shape I regularly covered 25 to 30 miles in 75 minutes. But what caught my eye this weekend was the LAPD chasing joggers and cyclists off the suddenly-empty 405 Freeway:
An Orange County mortgage lender and bike enthusiast garnered a bit of media attention Saturday morning when he rode alongside a CHP officer around 6:30 a.m. on the northbound 405 Freeway.
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Another two shirtless bicyclists were arrested around 2 p.m. Saturday for trying to ride on the southbound side of the 405 near the Wilshire Boulevard exit, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesperson.
The upshot of all this: with the nation facing a $2 trillion infrastructure funding gap, House Republicans hot to trim the transportation budget, Peak Oil, declining gas tax revenues, and austerity budgets for most US states, scenes like this will become the new normal. More and more roads will be closed to cars — many of them permanently — to become public spaces or be claimed by those who travel under their own power.
This will not be a top-down, centrally-planned, “socialist” trend, but a rational response to market conditions. Americans are already driving less these days due to higher fuel prices and growing rejection of the hour-long commute. It’s why corporate America is leaving the suburbs for the city. It’s one reason why gas tax revenues are down. This is not the future; it is the now.
The slow disintegration of our road infrastructure will not bring society crashing to a halt, but it certainly can make us change the way we get around. We may choose a better Carmageddon or a worse one, but it will come, and state DOTs that ignore transit and bike infrastructure are actually insuring the worst possible transition when the inevitable happens.
