Artkansas 

A couple of days ago I committed N-1. It's not as bad as it sounds, but maybe worse.

Last month, an acquaintance was riding home from an event that demonstrated how traffic calming and sharrows could be used to improve safety and traffic flow. She and a car connected and though she fought bravely she passed away a few days ago. That's the worse part. She was a respected member of the cycling community and an office in the largest bicycle club in the state, and she would have felt quite at home here in the 50+.

The better part was that N-1 became a ghost bike to mark the site of the collision. It was an old Huffy 3 speed, lacking chain and a few other bits. It really did make a nice ghost bike, the chain guard gave the bike a solidity and presence that most bikes don't have.

Since the accident, a large petition was submitted to the city council about putting sharrows in over a long section of roads including the place where she went down. It's become a focal point, and may ultimately speed up adoption of bicycle safety measures.

fietsbob

You going active in the city council meetings too?

Closed Office

Dictionary.com doesn't have an entry for sharrow or sharrows. (I'm used to it. My whole life is like that )

GeorgeBMac

It was good of you to put up the ghost bike. It sounds like she left a positive mark on your community. It is a good way to remember her...

Bikey Mikey

https://www.sfmta.com/cms/bsafe/28372.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=sharr...w=1352&bih=774

Burton

Thanks for sharing both stories.

Sure seems to take a lot to wake dome people up! The whole concept that someone can kill another person simply in the process of travelling from one point to another should be totally socially unacceptable.

spokes5678

Artkansas, I'm spokes on the ar blog follow it to the end and you'll see I'm with you all the way.I met Diane on a camping trip last year, a very sweet woman.Just why killing cyclists in Little Rock is just fine with the district attorneys is beyond me..........................

B. Carfree

I hope to live long enough to see the day when these sort of stories no longer appear. We've had a lot of dark history in this country, and the open-season situation with respect to both cyclists and pedestrians that we are living through is one of them, in my opinion. I would hope we are civilized enough that we don't have to wait for the self-driving car to become the norm or for the end of global oil supplies before our public roads are safe, but perhaps that's what it will take.

Good on you for placing the ghost bike, Artkansas. I hope it wakes some people up.

BigBlueToe

What is a ghost bike?

10 Wheels

16 year old kid was killed here.

10 Wheels

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...Bou02AWeqICICg

qcpmsame 

No problem with placing Ghost Bikes, where riders were killed, as a memorial to the fallen rider, and to make people aware of the presence of bicyclist. We have had a few here in the Pensacola area. The problem I have is that someone raids every Ghost Bike placed here for the parts they can unbolt or cut off and eventually an empty white frame is lying beside the road. If this is someone with a real need for a part and cannot pay for it the shops and charities in our area would help them out. I hate to think that it is low life characters just wanting to show they can take anything they wish, hopefully not, but modern times say this is probably what is happening.

Edit, I forgot to say that you did a great thing in donating the bike for the memorial, well done, Sir, well done. Godspeed for your friend.

Bill

climberguy

To the OP--that's a wonderful use for an older bike, and very nice memorial. I was not familiar with that custom but now that I am, I like it. Perhaps it will help others remember and perhaps even think about what happened in that spot.

Artkansas 

Looks like the karma is going around. Today I picked up a little girl's bike at a garage sale for 10 bucks and plan to give it to Recycle Bikes for Kids. It's not thrashed and rusted like so many kiddie bikes. Oddly, it's got 3 brakes. Two hand brakes for front and rear wheels and a coaster brake as well. The bicycling energy flows on.

Cleave

Hi, a sad but good use of N-1. Glad to see more and more communities installing sharrows. Sad to see that killing cyclists is a trivial matter in another U.S. city.

Artkansas 

A bunch of us went down to the city council meeting to present the petition. We are well known to the mayor. This required a teaching moment because many of the council members did not know what a sharrow is.

billydonn

Sorry for your loss Art.