This morning, the hosts of the Today Show played this segment for their 5.4 million viewers. It’s this year’s edition of Transportation Alternatives’ annual Great Commuter Race, where cyclist, transit rider, and motorist vie to see who gets to work first. TA’s Wiley Norvell emailed us to explain how the race made the transition to national TV:

After the tenth-straight cyclist victory, there seemed to be some
skepticism from the fourth estate about how legitimate the race really
was. Well, we took it to some of the most trusted names in America to
prove that biking really does come out on top.

A few observations:

• Matt Lauer really lays it on thick pretending not to know his way around the subway and the bus.
• The folks who run Commute by Bike should start polishing their TV pitches.
• Scoff all you want at the short route (72nd and Broadway to 30 Rock). But that means Meredith Vieira never had to drive through the insane traffic bottlenecks at NYC’s free bridges, while Al Roker took the Broadway bike lane, probably the slowest riding in the city, and still finished first.