Press

For a Departed Daughter, a White Schwinn on a Manhattan Street Corner

For the past seven months or so, the couple has made the trip to the corner of 49th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan 20 times. There,
chained to a “no standing” sign, is a bicycle painted in white. This spot, rather than a grave site, is where they go to feel close to their daughter.

Ms. Geocos.
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

A ghostly reminder of dangers to cyclists

First seen in the US, ‘ghost bikes’ will mark the locations where cyclists were killed

LATER
TODAY a bicycle will be chained to a parapet railing on the banks of
the Grand Canal at Harold’s Cross Bridge. It will be secured with a
regular lock in an act so mundane that it seems not worth noting at all.

But
this bike will be very different from the many thousands of others
secured to lamp-posts and fences and bicycle racks across the city. It
will be painted completely white – wheels, tyres, spokes and chain.

Ghost Bikes memorialize dead cyclists

A small child's bicycle, painted white and chained to a guardrail on
Martin Luther King Drive, stands in tribute to 6-year-old Riley Boyle.

It
is a Ghost Bike, a link to a worldwide movement - physical and virtual
- that aims to memorialize the deaths of cyclists, spur a change in
motorist behavior, and compel cities to make the streets safer.

Ghost Bikes

If communal grieving is a basic part of what
makes us human, Ghost Bikes are a remarkable sign of humanity. Part
political statement, part memorial Ghost Bikes are an outward sign that
the bike community cares when one of our own is struck down.

The C Street apparition

Sometime in mid-November someone chained an all-white bicycle to a signpost in the median at the intersection of C Street and 40th Avenue, near where Jonathan Johnson was fatally struck by an SUV while pedaling to his job on the morning of October 19.

The bicycle is a memorial for Johnson. A bouquet of red roses was attached to it last week. Over the weekend it snowed and snowplow drivers seem to be respectfully dodging the memorial.

The spectral memorials that haunt our roads.

They started in San Francisco, spread throughout the States and are now appearing in cities worldwide ghostly white bikes adorned with fresh flowers that mark the spot where a cyclist has been killed. As they begin to appear across Britain, Geraldine Bedell talks to the creators of these poetic shrines and the victims families.

En honor a los ciclistas muertos.

Nueva York

En un día cualquiera en la ciudad de Nueva York hay 130,000 ciclistas. Entre jóvenes que hacen entregas a domicilio hasta profesionales del ciclismo, pasando por niños y adolescentes que usan este vehículos para hacer recreación.

Sin embargo, no son inmunes a accidentes. El año pasado murieron 23 ciclistas que fueron atropellados por carros.

Ghost Bikes both art, memorial to cyclists killed on Tucson roads: Six installations also serve as awareness cue for motorists

White bicycles stationed along several Tucson roadways are part art, part memorial, and mostly public service, say some who have installed the six "Ghost Bikes."
The bikes mark the spot at which a cyclist was killed. An accompanying Web site has a map of the locations and brief descriptions of the circumstances for each bicycle.

They serve as a memorial, alongside makeshift roadside memorials from friends and family. But these bikes are often installed by people who did not know the victim.

Bicicletes blanques recorden a tot el món els ciclistes morts / Bicis blancas recuerdan en todo el mundo a los ciclistas muertos

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• La iniciativa Ghost Bikes se ha extendido a más de 40 ciudades de nueve países

Lápidas urbanas. Bicis blancas que señalan una tragedia. Y, normalmente, una injusticia. Desde el 2002, gente anó- nima de todo el mundo coloca bicicletas fantasma en los lugares en los que un ciclista ha fallecido víctima de un brutal atropello.

Ghost Riders

As cycling in New York has become more popular, it has become increasingly deadly. The city is now spotted with viral, spectral memorials.