City Could Make Memorial Ghost Bikes Vanish: Memorial bikes could go away under a plan to remove derelict bicycles
Channel 4 NBC
Published: Jun, 21 2010
Pour a little out for
the"Ghost bike."
The white-painted bikes left
behind at the scene fatal bicycle accident scenes to memorialize the
fallen rider and to serve a danger warning to future pedestrians and
cyclists could soon be gone under a new Department of Sanitation plan,
the Daily News reported.
The white ghost bikes appear
to be a victim of a Sanitation Department plan to remove "eyesore"
abandoned bicycles from around the city. Family members who lost a
loved one on city streets lamented the proposal.
"This is shocking. I can't
believe it," Lizi Rahman told the Daily News about the
possibility of losing the ghost bike memorializing her son, Asif, at
55th Road and Queens Blvd. "I go there because that's where
he breathed last. When I go there, people see me cleaning the ghost
bike. They stop and talk to me. They feel close to the family."
The ghostbikes, are part of
the Street Memorial Project,
which was developed in 2007 to remember those killed in street bike
accidents and to raise awareness for bike safety in the city. So far 67
"ghost bikes" have been chained near the sites of 108 known bicycle
fatalities.
The plan to remove the "ghost
bikes" along with abandoned bikes that are left to rot on city signs,
parking meters and other property was prompted by a handful of
complaints, Michael Bellew, head of the agency's cleaning
unit told the News.
The public will be able to
weigh in on the matter at a hearing on July 20th from 9:30 am to 11:30
at 125 Worth Street. If the new regulations are passed, sanitation
workers will start wrapping warners stickers around ghost bikes and
derelict bikes in September, the News said. If the bikes are
not removed, the locks will be clipped and the bicycles taken away --
including ghost bikes.
"There's not much we can do
about it but it's a shame a memorial like this can't stand," Steve Hindy, the founder of the Brooklyn Brewery, told the News.
Hindy's son Sam was killed riding across the Manhattan Bridge and is memorialized by a
ghost bike.
Published: Jun, 21 2010
Pour a little out for
the"Ghost bike."
The white-painted bikes left
behind at the scene fatal bicycle accident scenes to memorialize the
fallen rider and to serve a danger warning to future pedestrians and
cyclists could soon be gone under a new Department of Sanitation plan,
the Daily News reported.
The white ghost bikes appear
to be a victim of a Sanitation Department plan to remove "eyesore"
abandoned bicycles from around the city. Family members who lost a
loved one on city streets lamented the proposal.
"This is shocking. I can't
believe it," Lizi Rahman told the Daily News about the
possibility of losing the ghost bike memorializing her son, Asif, at
55th Road and Queens Blvd. "I go there because that's where
he breathed last. When I go there, people see me cleaning the ghost
bike. They stop and talk to me. They feel close to the family."
The ghostbikes, are part of
the Street Memorial Project,
which was developed in 2007 to remember those killed in street bike
accidents and to raise awareness for bike safety in the city. So far 67
"ghost bikes" have been chained near the sites of 108 known bicycle
fatalities.
The plan to remove the "ghost
bikes" along with abandoned bikes that are left to rot on city signs,
parking meters and other property was prompted by a handful of
complaints, Michael Bellew, head of the agency's cleaning
unit told the News.
The public will be able to
weigh in on the matter at a hearing on July 20th from 9:30 am to 11:30
at 125 Worth Street. If the new regulations are passed, sanitation
workers will start wrapping warners stickers around ghost bikes and
derelict bikes in September, the News said. If the bikes are
not removed, the locks will be clipped and the bicycles taken away --
including ghost bikes.
"There's not much we can do
about it but it's a shame a memorial like this can't stand," Steve Hindy, the founder of the Brooklyn Brewery, told the News.
Hindy's son Sam was killed riding across the Manhattan Bridge and is memorialized by a
ghost bike.