Cyclists and Pedestrians Killed in 2014

At the end of our Tenth Annual Memorial Ride, we installed a ghost bike and sign for all those killed on the street in the previous year who never made the news.

This ghost bike was  placed opposite City Hall and just near the NYC Council Chambers. 

The volunteers of the New York City Street Memorial Project read all the names of cyclists for whom we installed ghost bikes over the last ten years.

This was the last memorial ride our group organized.

We were suprised that this ghost bike remained where we installed it for quite a while. Eventually it was removed. 

Before we read the names we read this statement: 

Thank you to everyone for being here today for the 10th annual memorial ride.

Ghost
bikes are just old bicycles, painted white, but if we have learned
anything these last 10 years, it’s that they can be so much more. 

I’ve had families tell me that a ghost bike was the only thing that made them brave enough to visit the place where their mother or sister or partner was killed.

I’ve had taxi drivers tell me that a ghost bike they pass every day reminds them, every day, to slow down.

So it’s just an old bicycle, painted white, except when it’s so much more.

In 2005, my friend Kevin Caplicki was riding his bike
in Park Slope, Brooklyn when he came upon the body of a 28 year old
lawyer named Liz Padilla. She was dead, killed by a truck driver while
she rode her bicycle on a residential street. 

We found an old bicycle and painted it white and locked it to a street sign where she was killed. That ghost bike
still stands today. Over the past decade, it has been hit by cars and
cared for by the restaurant next door. It’s been an old bicycle, painted
white, and it’s been so much more.

The year we built that first ghost bike,
24 people were killed riding their bikes. This year, 20 people were
killed riding their bikes. That’s not progress.  That’s fucking
terrible. 

We’ve installed 150 ghost bikes in New York City.  And for 10 years, every time we build a ghost bike, we say, “Please let this be the last.” 

And it never is, and it’s fucked up and I’m tired of it. 

I don’t want to build ghost bikes anymore. I want the Mayor and the City Council and every person driving a car or truck or taxi in New York City to get together and agree to make ghost bikes a thing of the past.  

We’re locking this ghost bike here at City Hall today as a reminder that when New Yorkers are killed while biking and walking, it is no accident. We’re locking this ghost bike here today to say: Retire us, please.  Put ghost bikes out of business, please. Please do something so that we don’t have to build another one.

We’re going to read the names of every person killed of their bike in the last decade now, then we’re going to lift our bikes in the air and be quiet.