By Jefferson Siegel
At the last stop of Sunday’s ride, on Houston St. near Lafayette St., at a memorial for eight unnamed bicyclists killed in the city last year in traffic accidents, cyclists do a bike lift in their memory.
On Sunday, Time’s Up! the East Village bike advocacy group, organized a five-borough ride to memoralize the 21 cyclists killed in traffic accidents in New York City in 2005. One hundred fifty cyclists from all five boroughs participated.
The procession started in the outer boroughs with cyclists riding to locations where bike riders had been killed by motor vehicles. By late afternoon a group of 40 cyclists had gathered at the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge and headed Downtown. Shortly afterwards, a large group of riders could be seen crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, heading into Manhattan. The two groups converged near City Hall and headed to their first Manhattan stop at Water St. and Governeur Ln. It was here that, on Sept. 16, Jen Shao, 65, from Chinatown was killed by a private bus while riding her bike.
By late afternoon, the mass had pedaled north, making their way along Houston St. and stopping at Avenue A to pause and lay flowers at the spot where Brandie Bailey, 21, was struck and killed by a garbage truck while riding her track bike home to Williamsburg on May 8. At the time, the truck driver, who later claimed he didn’t know what had happened, continued driving north for over 20 blocks until finally being pulled over by police. Bailey commuted to work by bike, as so many others do. She was a waitress at the Red Bamboo Vegetarian Soul Cafe in the West Village.
The ride continued on to Elizabeth and Houston Sts., where Andrew Ross Morgan, 25, was crushed to death under a truck on June 22. As cyclists gathered on the narrow street, Ryan Kuonen of Time’s Up! stood by a ghost bike. The white bicycle, chained to a pole, was created by Visual Resistance to remind people of the place where a cyclist died. The crowd stood silently as Kuonen spoke of Morgan. She then placed flowers by the bike in his memory. Morgan worked at the Blue Ribbon Bakery Market on Bedford St. The bakery also sponsors the semipro Blue Ribbon bike racing team, which Morgan, an avid cyclist, hoped to qualify for.
Their final stop was a block away near Lafayette St. where a sign and a miniature ghost bike with wings was afffixed to a pole. A sign attached to the pole memorialized eight more cyclists who were killed last year. As they had at every stop along the ride, the 150 cyclists did a bike lift hoisting their rides over their heads in a moving, silent tribute to those killed by automobiles.
Bill Di Paola, founder of Time’s Up!, said, “While cyclists know of the hazards of riding on our unsafe streets, the community at large, unfortunately, only takes notice when one of us is killed.”
Noah Budnick, project director for Transportation Alternatives, said, “The demand for cycling and safe streets is outpacing the supply of safe streets.”
Perhaps the day’s sentiments were best reflected in the words on the plaque near Lafayette St.: “Save Lives: Drive Safely And Respect Each Other.”
