Ghost bikes serve as 'powerful reminder of the importance of sharing the road'
Daily Camera
Published: Aug, 14 2013
Boulder cyclist started placing memorials around Boulder 5 years ago
A 'ghost bike' near the scene of the accident on Valmont Road on Tuesday that killed Randy Herndon, 62.
(
PAUL AIKEN
)
Just before 7 a.m. Tuesday, emergency crews responded to the scene of the accident that killed Randy Herndon, 62, near Boulder.
He
was cycling west on Valmont Road when, officials say, an eastbound semi
trailer made a left turn in front of him. He was caught in the truck's
rear tires and killed.
By early Tuesday afternoon, a "ghost bike" had been quietly placed near the scene.
The
eerily eye-catching, all-white bicycles have become a fixture at the
locations of fatal cycling accidents in the Boulder area in recent
years.
Since 2003, ghost bikes have been set at more than 500
fatal accident scenes around the world as part of an informal awareness
movement, according to the website Ghostbikes.org.
While the site provides information and instructions for creation of ghost bikes, the work itself is left to individuals.
In Boulder, the bikes, including the one placed on Valmont Road on Tuesday, are the work of Rich Points.
"As
soon as I hear about something like this, I drop everything I am doing
and take a few hours to honor the person that has fallen," Points said.
"I think Boulder is one of the best places in the world for cycling, and
I just try to make it even better, as do so many others in this town.
This just shows us that we have more work to do when these types of
things happen."
Points prefers to produce and place the ghost
bikes quietly and anonymously. He has been living in Boulder car-free
for the past 14 years and is the executive director of bicycle advocacy
group Community Cycles, though he said the ghost bikes are not
affiliated with the organization.
Points said he started placing
ghost bikes around Boulder about five years ago at intersections
including 14th and High streets, Colorado Avenue and 30th Street, and
Violet Avenue and 28th Street.
Points said the bikes are relatively easy to produce. The most recent bike cost him $17.
Roadside
memorials are illegal if they are within 7 feet of a street or
otherwise impede travel, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's
Office. Transportation crews often remove roadside memorials if they are
deemed a problem.
Points said he has seen some ghost bikes remain in place for as long as six months or as briefly as a few weeks.
Sometimes
the bikes gather other items, including flowers and personal mementos,
as friends and family members visit them to remember their loved ones,
Points said.
"I think they're a really powerful reminder of the
importance of sharing the road and being aware," Points said. "And you
know, my heart goes out to the cyclist and certainly to the driver as
well. They're not out gunning to run a cyclist down. I can't image what
they experience."
Boulder resident Ray Keener said he sees ghost
bikes as a way for cyclists to support one another during a difficult
time, as well as a place to pay respects.
"I think that cyclists,
especially those that use their bike for transportation, kind of think
of themselves as family. Even though we are not related by blood, I
think there is an element of that in the ghost bikes," Keener said,
adding the bikes also serve as a warning about potentially dangerous
areas. "When a tragedy like that happens, you want to see something good
come of it, and I think the ghost bike helps accomplish that."
Martha
Roskowski, former manager of Boulder's alternative transportation
program, is familiar with the challenges of creating a safe environment
for bicyclists in a motorist-dominated culture. It is central to her
work with Bikes Belong, a Boulder-based national cycling advocacy group
where she is leading the Green Lane Project, a two-year effort to
jumpstart the creation of protected bike lanes in six U.S. cities,
including Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Protected
bikes lanes -- those separated from traffic by a physical barrier --
have been popular in Europe for decades, Roskowski said, but up to 2011,
just 62 had been built in the U.S. She said 40 new green lanes were
built in the U.S. last year, and another 100 could be in place by the
end of 2013.
"They're really taking off because cities are
becoming more and more interested in getting people on bikes for various
reasons, and the main reason people don't ride bikes is they don't feel
safe," she said. "They're scared of traffic, and they're scared of
being hit by a car."
Roskowski called the ghost bikes an
"emotional gut check" and a visible reminder of how quickly things can
go wrong on the roadways.
She said the ghost bikes provide and
opportunity to mourn but also to be thoughtful about how to address the
root causes of tragedies like Tuesday's.
"What can we do to
reduce likelihood of the crashes?" Roskowski said. "Can we change how
our streets and roads work? How our system works? Can we better educate
all road users to be more careful, to be more aware?"
Published: Aug, 14 2013
Boulder cyclist started placing memorials around Boulder 5 years ago
A 'ghost bike' near the scene of the accident on Valmont Road on Tuesday that killed Randy Herndon, 62.
(
PAUL AIKEN
)
Just before 7 a.m. Tuesday, emergency crews responded to the scene of the accident that killed Randy Herndon, 62, near Boulder.
He
was cycling west on Valmont Road when, officials say, an eastbound semi
trailer made a left turn in front of him. He was caught in the truck's
rear tires and killed.
By early Tuesday afternoon, a "ghost bike" had been quietly placed near the scene.
The
eerily eye-catching, all-white bicycles have become a fixture at the
locations of fatal cycling accidents in the Boulder area in recent
years.
Since 2003, ghost bikes have been set at more than 500
fatal accident scenes around the world as part of an informal awareness
movement, according to the website Ghostbikes.org.
While the site provides information and instructions for creation of ghost bikes, the work itself is left to individuals.
In Boulder, the bikes, including the one placed on Valmont Road on Tuesday, are the work of Rich Points.
"As
soon as I hear about something like this, I drop everything I am doing
and take a few hours to honor the person that has fallen," Points said.
"I think Boulder is one of the best places in the world for cycling, and
I just try to make it even better, as do so many others in this town.
This just shows us that we have more work to do when these types of
things happen."
Points prefers to produce and place the ghost
bikes quietly and anonymously. He has been living in Boulder car-free
for the past 14 years and is the executive director of bicycle advocacy
group Community Cycles, though he said the ghost bikes are not
affiliated with the organization.
Points said he started placing
ghost bikes around Boulder about five years ago at intersections
including 14th and High streets, Colorado Avenue and 30th Street, and
Violet Avenue and 28th Street.
Points said the bikes are relatively easy to produce. The most recent bike cost him $17.
Roadside
memorials are illegal if they are within 7 feet of a street or
otherwise impede travel, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's
Office. Transportation crews often remove roadside memorials if they are
deemed a problem.
Points said he has seen some ghost bikes remain in place for as long as six months or as briefly as a few weeks.
Sometimes
the bikes gather other items, including flowers and personal mementos,
as friends and family members visit them to remember their loved ones,
Points said.
"I think they're a really powerful reminder of the
importance of sharing the road and being aware," Points said. "And you
know, my heart goes out to the cyclist and certainly to the driver as
well. They're not out gunning to run a cyclist down. I can't image what
they experience."
Boulder resident Ray Keener said he sees ghost
bikes as a way for cyclists to support one another during a difficult
time, as well as a place to pay respects.
"I think that cyclists,
especially those that use their bike for transportation, kind of think
of themselves as family. Even though we are not related by blood, I
think there is an element of that in the ghost bikes," Keener said,
adding the bikes also serve as a warning about potentially dangerous
areas. "When a tragedy like that happens, you want to see something good
come of it, and I think the ghost bike helps accomplish that."
Martha
Roskowski, former manager of Boulder's alternative transportation
program, is familiar with the challenges of creating a safe environment
for bicyclists in a motorist-dominated culture. It is central to her
work with Bikes Belong, a Boulder-based national cycling advocacy group
where she is leading the Green Lane Project, a two-year effort to
jumpstart the creation of protected bike lanes in six U.S. cities,
including Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Protected
bikes lanes -- those separated from traffic by a physical barrier --
have been popular in Europe for decades, Roskowski said, but up to 2011,
just 62 had been built in the U.S. She said 40 new green lanes were
built in the U.S. last year, and another 100 could be in place by the
end of 2013.
"They're really taking off because cities are
becoming more and more interested in getting people on bikes for various
reasons, and the main reason people don't ride bikes is they don't feel
safe," she said. "They're scared of traffic, and they're scared of
being hit by a car."
Roskowski called the ghost bikes an
"emotional gut check" and a visible reminder of how quickly things can
go wrong on the roadways.
She said the ghost bikes provide and
opportunity to mourn but also to be thoughtful about how to address the
root causes of tragedies like Tuesday's.
"What can we do to
reduce likelihood of the crashes?" Roskowski said. "Can we change how
our streets and roads work? How our system works? Can we better educate
all road users to be more careful, to be more aware?"