Virginia Beach

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2 ghost bikes were installed in Virginia Beach in 2010

From this article

Beach cyclists rally to mourn loss, push for safety
Cyclists ride away on Sunday after dedicating a ghost bike to Daniel Hersh near the spot where he was killed last week on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. (Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot) Over a hundred cyclists gathered for a memorial ride on Sunday in honor of Daniel Hersh who was killed last week when he was struck by a SUV on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. (Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot) Stephen Hersh, 20, pauses next to a memorial bike during a Sunday ride in honor of his father, Daniel Hersh, on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. (Preston Gannaway |The Virginian-Pilot)
Cyclists ride away on Sunday after dedicating a ghost bike to Daniel Hersh near the spot where he was killed last week on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. (Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot)
1 of 3 photos: Cyclists
ride away on Sunday after dedicating a ghost bike to Daniel Hersh near
the spot where he was killed last week on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach.
(Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot) View all 3 photos

By Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 27, 2009

Carole Taylor will ride her bike on Shore Drive only on weekends. Her friend Fred Adams won't ride on it at all.

Too scary, they said Sunday, standing in a parking lot off Shore
Drive, a few feet from where police say bicyclist Daniel Wayne Hersh was
struck and killed by an SUV on April 19.

"Even though we have the right to be on the road, I just don't feel comfortable," Taylor said, as cars whipped by at 45 mph.

But she's a recreational rider, she said. Those who ride their bikes
to work take the same commuter roads used by cars, she said, and the way
things stand now, those riders aren't safe.

More than 100 bicyclists took to the streets Sunday to call attention
to bicycle road safety and to memorialize Hersh, 54, who was hit while
on one of his regular early Sunday morning rides.

On a sunny spring day, the group took to some of the city's biggest,
busiest roads - Virginia Beach Boulevard, Independence Boulevard and
Shore Drive - to demonstrate that bicyclists ride on the same roads and
under the same rules as cars and they expect the same justice, according
to ride organizer Wes Cheney.

The group stopped to set up a "ghost bike" - a bicycle completely
covered in white paint - in memory of Hersh, in front of a gas station
near where he was killed. Hersh's two sons, Greg, a senior at Virginia
Military Institute, and Stephen, a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth
University, locked the ghost bike to a telephone pole. The y both wore
black for the ride.

Hersh, an experienced cyclist who his family said had been riding
since he was a teenager, was traveling east on Shore Drive early April
19 when he was struck by the right side of a Ford Explorer traveling the
same direction, police said.

A white "X" on the ground just outside of a right-hand turn lane
marked the exact spot where Hersh was hit, his brother, Bob Hersh, said.
Daniel Hersh's six brothers and sisters and his mother all came out on
foot to support the ride Sunday.

Hersh is the second cyclist to be killed on a Virginia Beach roadway
in a year. On Sunday, the group also set up a ghost bike for Kenneth
Craver, who was struck and killed on Witchduck Road in May. No charges
were filed in that case because investigators determined that Craver
veered into the vehicle's path.

As of last week, no decision had been made regarding charges against
the driver who struck Hersh. Police said alcohol and speed did not
appear to have played a role in the incident.

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com

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