A ghost bike sits at the corner of 28th Street and Violet Avenue serving as a memorial to those who have passed away in bike-related collisions. (CU Independent/Zack Shapiro)
Painted white and adorned in flowers, a bike appears on the side of the road where Casey Najera lost his life.
The 60-year-old cyclist was struck by a car in September at the corner of Violet Avenue and 28th Street in North Boulder.
This was not the first time one of these white bikes was seen in Boulder.
In 2008, 49-year-old Matthew Powell was killed after colliding with an SUV as he rode across Mapleton Avenue and 14th Street. After the crash a Ghost Bike appeared, fastened to a pole near the intersection.
Some say that the ghost bikes are more then just memorials.
“It’s a simple symbol, but recognizable,” Leah Todd, a 27-year-old spokeswoman for the New York City Street Memorial Project, told the CU Independent. “For family it’s very much a memorial, while for others it’s a stark reminder.”
The New York City Street Project, who founded the ghost bike Web site, is not responsible for installations outside of New York City, Todd said.
“Most bikes have been installed by friends and family, or anonymously,” Todd said.
According to The New York City Street Project Web site, Jo Slota of San Francisco was the inspiration behind the ghost bike movement.
Slota began painting abandoned bikes white around his city in 2002 in an art project he called Ghost Bike. The following year, a white bike appeared as a memorial to a cyclist killed in St. Louis, and the installations started to show up elsewhere as groups and anonymous individuals made their own.
“When I started painting bikes in 2002, I wasn’t thinking about people being killed,” Slota told the CU Independent. “My focus was on abandoned bikes and the curious social phenomena of loss and wasted potential as they are stripped down and forgotten.”
Slota said he heard about ghost bikes being used as memorials several years after he began his project. Slota has since stopped painting abandoned bikes white to avoid confusion with the new trend, and said that he supports their reinterpreted meaning.
“The icon of the ghost bike has become a powerful tool to get people’s attention and advocate for the safety of people on the street,” Slota said. “To have any connection to this movement is a great honor for me.”
Peter O’Donnell, a 20-year-old Spanish major on the CU Cycling Team, said there is still a tension between motorists and cyclists, and that he has seen reckless driving firsthand.
“[Drivers] think we’re all just arrogant pricks, so they don’t feel bad if they cut us off or buzz us or something,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve been clipped three times by people turning right at intersections — they don’t really realize there’s a bike lane. One time the person stopped, the other time they just took off.”
A Colorado bicycle safety law went into effect August of this year, requiring that motorists leave at least three feet of space between themselves and cyclists when passing, something O’Donnell said is extremely important.
“Bikes are on par with stop signs when it comes to what you should pay attention to,” O’Donnell said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Noah Wanebo at Noah.wanebo@colorado.edu.
1 comment
While I agree with O’Donnell that drivers definitely need to pay more attention to bicyclists (I’ve had several friends get hit by cars, and all of the cars were definitely at fault), part of the reason drivers see bikers as arrogant is that they don’t pay attention to the laws of the road themselves. When a bike is on the road, it must follow those laws: stopping at lights, stopping at stop signs, signaling to change lanes, yielding the right of way, the speed limit, everything.
Very frequently I see bicyclists not doing these things. At the 4-way stop by the Ideal Market complex, I’ve almost hit bicyclists multiple times because they ride in front of me as I’m driving, after making the proper stop. They simply ride through like they own the road. It’s frustrating.
And it’s also saddening that a lot don’t have lights on their bikes at night, or don’t ever wear a helmet. Bikes are very close to invisible at night unless you’re viewing from the right angle.
And one new law I’m upset about is that bicyclists can ride 2 abreast. And they often do so while partially in the bike lane, which means they’re using up an entire lane and slowing down traffic. As a child, I was taught never to ride 2 abreast, so others could pass, others could come down the other way (on a 2-way trail, etc), and so it wouldn’t hold up traffic of any sort. And I saw many adults before the law riding side-by-side for no reason.
Both sides need to take a look at what’s going on, and what they’re both doing wrong. Because neither one is right, but nor are they wrong.