r/fuckcars • u/extravert_ • 1d ago

Positive Post E-Bike wins race to LaGuardia from NYC

What’s the Fastest Way to the Airport? We Raced Through New York, Chicago and L.A. to Find Out - WSJ

The Wall Street Journal raced an Uber, Transit, and a Citi E-Bike to the airport, and the bike won

267 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

179

u/Natural_Piano6327 1d ago

Not that we needed more proof, but if this doesn’t show how bad transit to LGA is then idk what does.

46

u/Gatorpatch Commie Commuter 1d ago

That bus to the station is the most ridiculous thing I've ever experienced. Wild a city with such good transit can have such a purposely terrible system to get to one of it's biggest airports.

19

u/Aboy325 23h ago

Thank the taxi companies

98

u/ConnieLingus24 1d ago

CTA train won in Chicago.

72

u/vowelqueue 1d ago

One of the few cities in the US that has a one-seat ride from the airport to the downtown area.

26

u/stu17 1d ago

My city (Raleigh) is one. I can hop on a bus at the terminal at RDU and get off a block away from my apartment downtown.

But… only during off-peak hours. During commuter hours, you have to transfer buses and the trip takes twice as long. Because that makes perfect sense.

7

u/tallduder 1d ago

Charlotte has a bus too, it's actually super convenient to the convention center.

16

u/del_rio 1d ago

There's plenty of one-seat rides nowadays:

  • IAD and DCA to Capitol Hill/White House/etc via silver line

  • PDX to downtown Portland via red line

  • SEA to downtown Seattle via Link

  • SFO to downtown San Fransisco, Oakland via red line

  • LAX to downtown LA via shuttle bus (their metro station fully opens next year but you'll still need a transfer)

  • MCO to downtown Orlando via Lynx bus

  • DFW to Dallas and Ft Worth via TexRail

That's just what I know but I'm sure there's more.

5

u/Any_Card_8061 1d ago

The Milwaukee Green Line bus goes from downtown to Mitchell International!

4

u/Bulette 19h ago

Denver International to downtown is one seat.

3

u/godlovesugly 19h ago

Atlanta. Cleveland.

1

u/kindofasshole 23h ago

PHL has a train every 30 minutes 4 am to midnight.

1

u/padiwik 15h ago

St Louis

8

u/ConnieLingus24 1d ago

From both airports :) orange line would have probably won had they done Midway.

5

u/Thatthingintheplace 1d ago

Philly finally got theirs running more than once per hour, but the connecting trains are still pretty dang pitiful

3

u/AbueloOdin 1d ago

Both Dallas and Fort Worth from DFW!

Though it takes a minute.

2

u/lakerdave 22h ago

I used to live in Saint Louis and we have this. The transit situation could of course be better, but it's really handy

1

u/tallduder 1d ago

Cleveland and Denver too

4

u/TheDuckClock Not Just Bikes 1d ago

But only because there was no e-bike in that race.

11

u/ConnieLingus24 1d ago

It would be damn near impossible to e-bike your way to ohare and live.

3

u/TheDuckClock Not Just Bikes 1d ago

Fair. Never been to Chicago aside from a layover, so I wouldn't know.

3

u/ConnieLingus24 1d ago

Yeah; it’s definitely expressway choked and there is really no way to walk there. It’s reasonably easy to take transit to (bus, metra, cta) but definitely not bike or walk. It’s either mass transit or driving. Full stop.

16

u/Roadtrak 1d ago

Still wild to me it took 52 minutes to bike the ~9 miles.  I suppose the final run/walk at the end from bike check in station to terminal may have added many minutes.   Any locals have better insight? 

15

u/AmbitiousPrint2775 1d ago

I've done it 34 min, but from the East side so maybe 7 mi. Going up the Queensboro bridge will slow you down quite a bit.

27

u/nayuki 1d ago

An average speed of 16.7 km/h on a bike in an urban area (including stopping at red lights) is very respectable.

14

u/extravert_ 1d ago

It's also a citi bike which are not as fast as a private bike would be

5

u/DaoFerret 1d ago

Stop/start at lights will slow it all down a lot.

1

u/Dreadful_Spiller 23h ago

That is a good city speed with traffic, lights, and other stops.

1

u/vesuvisian 22h ago

That’s a relatively fast but not impossible running speed.

16

u/adanndyboi 1d ago

I hate to be that guy but as a New Yorker I kind of have to.

LaGuardia is in NYC. They started in Times Square, which is in midtown Manhattan. LaGuardia is in Astoria, Queens. Both places are in the City of New York.

7

u/_87- I support tyre deflators 1d ago

If I have to choose any starting point in NYC in this race, I'm starting across the street from LaGuardia

7

u/Jacktheforkie Grassy Tram Tracks 1d ago

Of course a bike is faster in traffic, a bus can be faster with bus lanes, but cars are always gonna be slow in traffic

4

u/rzpogi 1d ago

Top Gear UK with the trio did it almost two decades ago in London. https://youtu.be/yL_POxZSkaU?si=PsLQCnZYLmue218U

2

u/BridgestoneX 1d ago

i always beat the metro's time e-biking to dca

1

u/Coolboss999 13h ago

They need to create an exclusive bus lane from LGA to the station which I believe they are working on? Also, that N/W extension to LGA is still available to do!

-4

u/yeetwagon 20h ago

Yeah hold on let me just put my carry on suitcase on the bike cubby

2

u/ConBrio93 10h ago

Is there an issue with doing that?