Heroes don’t always wear capes. Sometimes, a man doing something as simple and reassuring as driving a truck can let us know the world hasn’t ended.

I’d long believed nothing would ever surpass the Father Morissette Boulevard bike lanes as the most egregious waste of road space in the city. But after today, I’m of the opinion the dedicated bus lanes on “the Big Fill” (formerly the Lord Overpass) have accomplished just that.

Maybe it’s the $21.6-million overall price tag on the project that vaults it to the top of the charts. Perhaps it’s the special red coloring that makes them more noticeable. It could be the constant presence of panhandlers guiding your eyes in that direction anyway. Or maybe it’s the fact that you can at least find rebellious motorists using the wasted space on Father Morissette, whereas you’re more likely to spot Bigfoot traversing down the giant new Thorndike Street “heat islands” than a big bus.

That’s why when an InsideLowell fan texted the photo earlier today, a tremendous sense of joy overcame me. I haven’t been this happy to see a Jordan’s Furniture truck since one delivered my free furniture after the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series.

Finally, someone had the guts to say enough of the needless backups where vehicles once traveled freely under the Middelsex, Jackson, Appleton, Chelmsford and Westford Street traffic jams.

The man we’ll call “Jordan” faced a choice; further clog the new intersection uniting Fletcher and Thorndike/Dutton Streets with the Hamilton Canal area and perhaps lead other vehicles to block the roadway, or make a clean break for that vast space of emptiness and experience the kind of freedom our founding fathers waxed poetic about in 1776.

Like a Hall of Fame running back finding a wide-open path to the end zone, or like O.J. Simpson barreling down a Los Angeles freeway in his White Bronco, this lounge-chair delivering legend had the foot-balls to do what I’ve wanted to do every day, but could never actually summons the guts to try. With a simple turn of the steering wheel, he veered left, traveled the nearly virgin red pavement with the white B-U-S  O-N-L-Y  markings and made it all the way to the light in glorious solitude.

What transpired after that, the photo doesn’t tell us. But it doesn’t really matter. “Jordan” took one small trek for man, one giant trek for mankind.

For that, every commuter going nowhere as seeming miles of open pavement sit unused at one of the busiest traffic points in the Mill City owes this mystery man a debt of gratitude.

“Jordan” is the hero Lowell deserves, even if he’s not the one a walkable city needs.