On Saturday in Los Angeles the Department of Transportation shut down the Interstate Highway which runs through what was once the capital of car culture for another road widening project. Before the sun set six cyclists, a transit rider and a rollerblader had outraced a jet airplane.

The national media called it "Carmageddon," the traffic snarled cultural and economic breakdown which was supposed to follow temporarily excising ten miles of interstate highway through the center of Los Angeles from the traffic system. Huge emergency plans were made. People were warned to stay at home.

Thankfully, since the steady diet of fear being forced down the throat of America meets periodic resistance, some people resolved not to take the problem or themselves so seriously. Jet Blue decided to offer four dollar flights from Burbank to Long beach for four dollars. This would afford travelers the opportunity to fly from one side of town to another while the road was shut down.

That didn't make much sense once you factored in the time spent in airport security, driving to the airport and getting to your final destination in a taxi. It didn't make much sense for Jet Blue either, who must have lost money on every seat. However, it was reported across the nation and the seats on every flight rapidly filled up. It bounced around the internet until a cyclist pointed out on Twitter that he could probably beat that airplane to Long Beach.

A cycle club called Wolf Pack Hustle challenged Jet Blue to a race across the hot landscape of auto centric LA, a place we all assume nobody rides a bike. Jet Blue, already enjoying the rare luck of a corporation whose publicity stunt has actually worked, accepted the challenge and opened up two seats on the sold out flight for competitors in the race. Soon another cyclist said they would race the plane by walking and using the subway.

In under a day, with nearly no organization, millions were engaged in the challenge which was largely organized and publicized on Twitter. It is an old story. John Henry takes on the steam drill with his hammers.

It is hard to say that it was a fair race. The flyers conformed to Jet Blue's own standards for getting to the airport early which meant lots of time on the ground before the plane took off. They were members of the Bike Team themselves, racing their friends. The Tour de France was climbing hills on the other side of the Planet with the best cyclists on earth in a real race where national pride was on the line. However national media picked the story up. Hundreds of thousands were following twitter and its linked content when the race began Saturday.

East Cooper CARTA Riders (www.eastccrider.com), our local organization of transit advocates, cheered on the subway rider on the internet. Cycling clubs across the nation backed up Wolfpack Hustle. Hundreds of thousands of Jet Blue supporters found the event on their Twitter feed.

The flyers drove to the airport, got their carry on bags through and used their home printed boarding passes to get through security, all as suggested by Jet Blue. It all worked so well they ended up having drinks in the airport bar while they waited an hour for their scheduled take off time.

Wolfback Hustle waited on nothing. Six cyclists shot out across the near desert which is LA, including a long run down the bike path which runs along the concrete trench of the Los Angeles River. They followed the rules too, stopping for lights, slowing down for pedestrians but cranking along at a swift 26 miles an hour.

The transit rider walked from home to the subway, boarded one line, transferred to another and emerged from below ground near the Queen Mary in Long Beach, walking again.

Finally the Jet began to board. Running way behind, there was some possibility that at 360 miles per hour, they could overtake the competition.

About half way through the seven minute flight Wolfpack Hustle reached the Long Beach Lighthouse, winning the challenge. The transit rider walked in about ten minutes later. After that, a roller-blader, who had also made the trip, showed up.

Finally the flyers, whose luck gave them a taxi driver who didn't know where the park was, reached the lighthouse, dead last.

Carmageddon never happened. There was no nightmare traffic snarl in LA. People went around it on what was bound to be a light traffic day. They shopped closer to home.

What happened was that six guys on bikes, a passenger on a subway and a rollerblader outraced a jet airplane and proved our assumptions about what is fast and what is important are often wrong. Jet Blue proved its PR department can get millions of dollars in free publicity for flights which actually make money and sense elsewhere.

No need to cry for the losers.

However last week, Charleston saw experienced cyclist get killed riding his bicycle in the proper lane on the James Island Bridge. A few days later we learned the fine for hitting that cyclist was only one hundred and thirteen dollars. It was some consolation that my own son enjoyed biking across the once impassable Cooper River Bridge on Wonder's Way several times that week, fully protected by a three foot concrete barrier between him and traffic. Hopefully some day there will be a safer way to reach West Ashley from Charleston using a lane on the Ashley River Bridge and a safe cycling route from Folly Beach to the Isle of Palms will finally be available.

There are also disputes about the plans for bike lanes on the new sections of Johnnie Dodds Boulevard now being constructed as well. It is still not clear where the bus stops on that road are going to go.

Many continue to assume that the future will only be about cars and planes, the "fastest ways to travel."

However what is really clear is we often don't know where we're going or how to get there.

(William Hamilton (www.wjhamilton.com) is an attorney who lives in I'On Village.)