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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.

What would we learn if ghost bikers could talk?

Ghost bikes bother me. They remind me of a life destroyed needlessly. And every time a cyclist is injured or killed, at least one person comes up to me and blames "all those careless and law-breaking bicyclists." So I called some bike crash survivors to see if they were really careless and lawbreaking.

Ethereal reminders of road's risks: Across Chicago, streams of bicyclists pay tribute to ghostly white bikes, roadside memorials

In the shadows beneath the overpass that runs above Logan Boulevard and Western Avenue, a spray-painted white bike is chained to a streetlight pole a few feet away from where Tyler Fabeck was struck and killed by a car last month.

The bicycle stands silent sentry on the southeast corner of the busy intersection, flashing brightly in cars' headlights as they pass. Known as a "ghost bike," it was assembled by friends and family of Fabeck and is the latest addition to at least eight such monuments left by Chicago cyclists where they lost one of their own.

Cycle of life and death

'Ghost bikes' are appearing on streets around the world to commemorate cyclists killed in accidents. Geoff Dyer applauds a 21st-century twist on the memorial.

Micro Trends: Ghost Bikes are mysterious white-painted memorials to cyclists killed on the roads all over the world.

Britain is addicted to cellotaphs: those ad hoc dead-flower memorials taped to lamp posts near where a cyclist or pedestrian has been killed. However, hip cyclists (no strangers to sudden death or injury) have a more chilling way to remember their dead.

Portland, Ore., Acts to Protect Cyclists

“Ghost bikes,” riderless and painted white, were placed at two busy intersections in Portland, Ore., last October, makeshift memorials to two bicyclists killed when they were hit by trucks in accidents that month.

For a Moment, They Stopped to Look

Updated, Jan. 11, 2008

New Yorkers rarely stop.

Too rarely, in the view of the Street Memorial Project, which organized a memorial bicycle ride, walk and rally on Sunday to honor cyclists and pedestrians who were killed last year.

At the end of the event, a “ghost bike” was chained to a stop sign on Park Row, just outside City Hall.

It was painted bone white, like other such memorials, and adorned with flowers.

Chilling Memorials: Ghost bikes honor victims of bike-car collisions in cities across the country.

The first "ghost bike" to mark a car-bike crash was installed in St. Louis in 2002 by Patrick Van Der Tuin, who helps run a shop that caters to low-income cyclists, and witnessed an SUV hit a cyclist in a bike lane. "I didn't say anything to anyone when I did it, but it got people talking," he says. Van Der Tuin's idea has spread to cities nationwide, and even internationally, but remains semi-underground, organized by a loose collaboration of cycling advocates and concerned riders in their respective cities.

Roadside memorials recall deaths of bicyclists Ghost bikes left at sites of fatal crashes aim to remind drivers share road

CLIFTON PARK -- A memorial to a bicyclist killed by a reckless driver was placed on the spot of the 2004 crash.
The memorial, a bent road bike painted in white, is known as a ghost bike, and it joins two other similar displays in the Capital Region.

The ghost bikes are part of a loosely organized national campaign to raise awareness about cycling safety, though the people who placed the bikes in the Capital Region are remaining anonymous.
The ghost bike in Clifton Park was placed to honor David Ryan, a 32-year-old researcher who worked at GE Global Research in Niskayuna.

Ghostly Reminders

Along the Hudson River bike path in Manhattan, a gleaming white bike is chained to a street sign. Its tyres and brake-cables have been removed to deter vandals and colourful bunches of flowers have been stuffed between the spokes and around the pedals.

Above, a modest white plaque, neatly bolted on the post tells us why the bike is here. It's a memorial to the senseless loss of another young life.