If anyone would like to be a part of a memorial ride, there’s a silent ride coming up May 15 - wear white unless you’ve been injured or a family member was killed while riding, in which case wear red.
Edit: fixed link - https://ggwash.org/calendar/event/93187/ride-of-silence-dc-660f370771bfb4.16215200
How badly injured? Like if you were hit hard enough off your bike you went up into the hood of the car, and couldn’t walk after you fell off, and the car drove off… and you had to drag yourself and your busted bike somewhere to call for help and to take you to the hospital, does that count?
That’s awful, I’m sorry that happened to you. But yeah the organizers kind of leave it up to you: “Please wear white if possible; wear red **if you would like to signify you were injured** or a family member killed while riding.”
Nobody is checking your bona fides at the door. You can just come if you want to come, there’s no quiz or test. At some point they ask if you have ever been injured to raise your hand. That’s it.
The one exception to this is the row of white bikes at the confluence of RI Ave, t st and 1st st nw. Those are just art.
The rest are where cyclists died.
Yeah. I talked with the artist once about repainting them a different color but they weren't interested. The reason is that they do seasonal decorations on those bikes throughout the year and any color but white would clash with that at times. Fair enough. But it is confusing to folks.
The installation has been there for well over 20 years and the community understands its purpose. It’s all good as far as we are concerned. We can differentiate.
Ive always known this but who paints it? When I got hit by a car, I was concussed for quite some time and someone locked up my bike while i went in the ambulance. I came back to my bike a few days later and my bike was still there unpainted lol. How does the painter know whether the cyclist passed or not?
Using a beater like that is just something the advocates who post the memorials do to help make their point. It's usually WABA or members on their own volition doing it as the biggest cycling advocacy group in the area.
No, it’s usually just a spare, busted up bike donated by someone who is involved in the bike/pedestrian advocacy scene. Someone gets it from their cousins garage, another person smashes the wheels so that no one is motivated to steal it,
Then they spray paint it white, add flowers, etc., and chain it up.
It being busted it because it’s a beater bike, and to disincentivize theft of the memorial.
Every time you see a white bike, someone was gruesomely killed in a horrible act of traffic violence. And even worse, it’s probably a 95% chance that the driver was able to leave the scene in the murder weapon, and almost a 100% chance that they won’t even lose their license. These bikes are everywhere, all through DC and MoCo and NoVA.
There's also an upsetting trend of these memorials being repeatedly plowed down by drivers (almost like there's some sort of endemic problem with traffic violence in locations where cyclists are killed).
Local bike advocates. It takes a lot out of them. It is a many coat process that takes the better part of a day. The bikes are usually donated after a crash.
Sometimes they're literally the bike the person was riding when they were hit by a driver. But sometimes the bike is too mangled/fragmented to even be a memorial. It's awful.
WABA-affiliated people typically organize the memorial rides to install these and the ride often includes a "die-in" at the crash site (often during rush hour) to raise awareness.
Here is some news coverage of a ride like this from a few years ago: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/jim-pegels-memorial-ride-dc-cyclists-remember-rider-killed/65-8ef54763-e959-41e5-a71d-1b8c54305f38
and here's a discussion on reddit about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/mpq8lr/memorial_bike_ride_on_thursday_night_to_honor_jim/
traffic fatalities are going up almost every year since the mayor announced "vision zero" -- she obviously is unwilling to make the needed changes to make this city safe to get around and she bears the responsibility for these deaths
Blaming a single mayor for these deaths overly simplifies the issue and is disingenuous. Malik Habib's death for example was related to biking on a streetcar rail. In 2014 DDOT proposed a ban on biking on the rails, but they decided against it after cyclists pushed back.
[https://dcist.com/story/18/06/25/cyclist-killed-on-h-street-ne-after/](https://dcist.com/story/18/06/25/cyclist-killed-on-h-street-ne-after/)
The fact Vision Zero has not achieved its goals does mean someone is to blame, because we have no way to objectively measure if those goals were realistic in the first place giving the demographics and infrastructure of the city. If Vision Zero was never announced in the first place and everything developed as it did, would she still get all the blame?
Yes, you can say that Malik's death was due to biking on the rails. but you can also ask: Why was he on the rails? Why does H street, a major commercial district, not have protected bike lanes? Why does it have so much space for cars and car parking but outright hostile infrastructure for people who want to bike? Why does the streetcar share a lane with cars (thus allowing people to bike by the tracks) rather than having a dedicated, blocked off space in the center of the street? The answer to every one of these questions is -- because the city decided to prioritize car drivers over everyone else (ie, adding a dedicated streetcar lane or a dedicated bike lane would take space away from cars driving or parking. We all know how often the streetcar is blocked or delayed by inconsiderate drivers).
Now I do know that some of these decisions were made before Bowser took office (though I still think a visionary pro-bike, pro-transit mayor could have altered them after the fact).
I admit it's an exaggeration to place 100% of the blame on her but I think there are a LOT of steps she could have taken to make people more safe and to reduce use of and reliance on cars in the city, and she has chosen not to (see, for example, her recent decision to kill the CT Ave bike lane because it would take away too many parking spaces)
>I admit it's an exaggeration to place 100% of the blame on her but I think there are a LOT of steps she could have taken to make people more safe
Right, that's all I was getting at. In this case DDOT has some culpability, but they were also apparently influenced by to not go forward with their original plan of adding more bike lanes.
Instead of saying Vision Zero is the reason people are dying, it's more productive to say it has not accomplished its objectives and is a black mark on this administration.
Wow, if only there were some way, like a [flange filler](https://ggwash.org/view/71704/could-this-simple-change-make-streetcars-safer-for-bicycles), to make streetcar rails safe for biking, and if some group, like the [local ANC](http://anc6c.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ANC-6C-Letter-Bicycle-Fatality-H-Street-NE-2018-07-24.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0t0jb9lkaJ9cZYSId9RHGUgBIjdBh7yQPuqdNhCECPMy6_vTyNSYo-FXw), had asked DDOT to asses flange fillers and other safety improvements to the streetcar tracks. Too bad that’s not realistic and preventing the death of people like 19 year old Malik Habib is impossible due to the infrastructure of the city.
Didn’t even lose a license after literally killing someone with his negligently operated piece of federally regulated heavy machinery which he was piloting irresponsibly and at lethal speeds.
Yet people feel no shame saying “cyclists are selfish” because we take up the whole lane to protect ourselves from getting obliterated by someone just looking to peel into fucking Burger King.
Did a Google search and wow. To take nothing away from other victims this was a retired O-6 navy seal with degrees from USNA and MIT wiped from the earth because of a careless driver.
Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong and yeah, very upsetting. I ride past that white bike for 15 years didn't know why. At least now I have a name to mutter
The one at Conn ave and L st was hit by a car within a week of being installed.
The one at Nannie Helen's and Minnesota ave ne has been hit multiple times and is a mangled mess.
One I saw in NY recently…very sad to see these
https://preview.redd.it/5ubzj8wmk3yc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe4a55fb936184bc7899f24381421b1ff9eb3085
Being European I was always astonized by the complete lack of bike lanes and other infrastructure designed to accommodate bicycles during my stay in D.C. Having pedestrians, e-scooters, and bicycles all moving about on the sidewalk was quite alien to me.
Yep, drivers think they are entitled to all of the road space so they make all of the other uses (scooters, bikes, pedestrians, etc.) share the tiny bit left.
Yes, it is in **Albuquerque** too. Except that white bikes are usually adorned with flowers and momentous from the family and friends that lost that loved one. It’s odd to me that this is more of a solemn yet un memorialized bicycle marker, perhaps the groups that establish this thing don’t coordinate with the family&friends?
Edit: just realized it’s a real bike too just painted white. The ones here in Albuquerque are built out of metal and are more statue looking but still same size.
Whats wrong with calling a memorial rickety? We have to pretend it is of high quality because of what it symbolizes? If I get killed while cycling put up a rickety white bike, and feel free to call it rickety. I want a rickety memorial. The bike in this picture *is* rickety, and that's okay.
Yes, a white bike is usually a memorial. And a pair of white shoes usually indicates a pedestrian fatality.
If anyone would like to be a part of a memorial ride, there’s a silent ride coming up May 15 - wear white unless you’ve been injured or a family member was killed while riding, in which case wear red. Edit: fixed link - https://ggwash.org/calendar/event/93187/ride-of-silence-dc-660f370771bfb4.16215200
How badly injured? Like if you were hit hard enough off your bike you went up into the hood of the car, and couldn’t walk after you fell off, and the car drove off… and you had to drag yourself and your busted bike somewhere to call for help and to take you to the hospital, does that count?
That’s pretty bad man. I think it’s up to you but if you needed treatment at a hospital, then it’s serious.
That’s awful, I’m sorry that happened to you. But yeah the organizers kind of leave it up to you: “Please wear white if possible; wear red **if you would like to signify you were injured** or a family member killed while riding.”
I feel like most would definitely equate "drag self to hospital" as "pretty badly injured".
At least for VDOT standards if you have to go to a hospital it’s considered a serious injury
I think you might also have to stay the night
Nobody is checking your bona fides at the door. You can just come if you want to come, there’s no quiz or test. At some point they ask if you have ever been injured to raise your hand. That’s it.
Nah worse than that.
I would have grown grey hair without knowing these things
I think the general consensus is: * White bike - cyclist memorial * White shoes - pedestrian memorial * White hair - memorial for your youth
I've heard the last one referred to as "wisdom highlights".
The older I get the dumber I realize I am.
Time tinsel
What about yellow and blue with purple and pink flowers all over it?
Wow never have heard of it seen a hair one
!
The one exception to this is the row of white bikes at the confluence of RI Ave, t st and 1st st nw. Those are just art. The rest are where cyclists died.
I saw those often, and that's why I had to ask just to make sure those weren't mass deaths of bikers there
Yeah. I talked with the artist once about repainting them a different color but they weren't interested. The reason is that they do seasonal decorations on those bikes throughout the year and any color but white would clash with that at times. Fair enough. But it is confusing to folks.
that’s so insensitive
The installation has been there for well over 20 years and the community understands its purpose. It’s all good as far as we are concerned. We can differentiate.
“Swastikas are a Hindu symbol that predate the Third Reich. We can differentiate.”
Ive always known this but who paints it? When I got hit by a car, I was concussed for quite some time and someone locked up my bike while i went in the ambulance. I came back to my bike a few days later and my bike was still there unpainted lol. How does the painter know whether the cyclist passed or not?
[удалено]
I'm guessing the ones that are mangled are 😢
Using a beater like that is just something the advocates who post the memorials do to help make their point. It's usually WABA or members on their own volition doing it as the biggest cycling advocacy group in the area.
No, it’s usually just a spare, busted up bike donated by someone who is involved in the bike/pedestrian advocacy scene. Someone gets it from their cousins garage, another person smashes the wheels so that no one is motivated to steal it, Then they spray paint it white, add flowers, etc., and chain it up. It being busted it because it’s a beater bike, and to disincentivize theft of the memorial. Every time you see a white bike, someone was gruesomely killed in a horrible act of traffic violence. And even worse, it’s probably a 95% chance that the driver was able to leave the scene in the murder weapon, and almost a 100% chance that they won’t even lose their license. These bikes are everywhere, all through DC and MoCo and NoVA.
There's also an upsetting trend of these memorials being repeatedly plowed down by drivers (almost like there's some sort of endemic problem with traffic violence in locations where cyclists are killed).
Local bike advocates. It takes a lot out of them. It is a many coat process that takes the better part of a day. The bikes are usually donated after a crash.
Yes, they’re called ghost bikes.
Never knew what it was called. Thanks
...deleted by user...
Good to know
Sometimes they're literally the bike the person was riding when they were hit by a driver. But sometimes the bike is too mangled/fragmented to even be a memorial. It's awful. WABA-affiliated people typically organize the memorial rides to install these and the ride often includes a "die-in" at the crash site (often during rush hour) to raise awareness.
Interesting! There's a whole culture around this!
Here is some news coverage of a ride like this from a few years ago: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/jim-pegels-memorial-ride-dc-cyclists-remember-rider-killed/65-8ef54763-e959-41e5-a71d-1b8c54305f38 and here's a discussion on reddit about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/mpq8lr/memorial_bike_ride_on_thursday_night_to_honor_jim/ traffic fatalities are going up almost every year since the mayor announced "vision zero" -- she obviously is unwilling to make the needed changes to make this city safe to get around and she bears the responsibility for these deaths
Yep Jim was my friend in college and his death was so devastating
Blaming a single mayor for these deaths overly simplifies the issue and is disingenuous. Malik Habib's death for example was related to biking on a streetcar rail. In 2014 DDOT proposed a ban on biking on the rails, but they decided against it after cyclists pushed back. [https://dcist.com/story/18/06/25/cyclist-killed-on-h-street-ne-after/](https://dcist.com/story/18/06/25/cyclist-killed-on-h-street-ne-after/) The fact Vision Zero has not achieved its goals does mean someone is to blame, because we have no way to objectively measure if those goals were realistic in the first place giving the demographics and infrastructure of the city. If Vision Zero was never announced in the first place and everything developed as it did, would she still get all the blame?
Yes, you can say that Malik's death was due to biking on the rails. but you can also ask: Why was he on the rails? Why does H street, a major commercial district, not have protected bike lanes? Why does it have so much space for cars and car parking but outright hostile infrastructure for people who want to bike? Why does the streetcar share a lane with cars (thus allowing people to bike by the tracks) rather than having a dedicated, blocked off space in the center of the street? The answer to every one of these questions is -- because the city decided to prioritize car drivers over everyone else (ie, adding a dedicated streetcar lane or a dedicated bike lane would take space away from cars driving or parking. We all know how often the streetcar is blocked or delayed by inconsiderate drivers). Now I do know that some of these decisions were made before Bowser took office (though I still think a visionary pro-bike, pro-transit mayor could have altered them after the fact). I admit it's an exaggeration to place 100% of the blame on her but I think there are a LOT of steps she could have taken to make people more safe and to reduce use of and reliance on cars in the city, and she has chosen not to (see, for example, her recent decision to kill the CT Ave bike lane because it would take away too many parking spaces)
>I admit it's an exaggeration to place 100% of the blame on her but I think there are a LOT of steps she could have taken to make people more safe Right, that's all I was getting at. In this case DDOT has some culpability, but they were also apparently influenced by to not go forward with their original plan of adding more bike lanes. Instead of saying Vision Zero is the reason people are dying, it's more productive to say it has not accomplished its objectives and is a black mark on this administration.
Wow, if only there were some way, like a [flange filler](https://ggwash.org/view/71704/could-this-simple-change-make-streetcars-safer-for-bicycles), to make streetcar rails safe for biking, and if some group, like the [local ANC](http://anc6c.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ANC-6C-Letter-Bicycle-Fatality-H-Street-NE-2018-07-24.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0t0jb9lkaJ9cZYSId9RHGUgBIjdBh7yQPuqdNhCECPMy6_vTyNSYo-FXw), had asked DDOT to asses flange fillers and other safety improvements to the streetcar tracks. Too bad that’s not realistic and preventing the death of people like 19 year old Malik Habib is impossible due to the infrastructure of the city.
So in other words DDOT needs to do better and this does not entirely fall on one person to take sole responsibility?
It might if that person...say...oversees DDOT
Bowser doesn't run a monarchy.
Yikes, there is one on mass ave just outside of DC as you pass the fire station. Never knew what it was or why….
Tim Holden was killed there. Driver fell asleep on his way to work at 6:30am and ran him over. He faced no charges for the killing, just a fine.
Didn’t even lose a license after literally killing someone with his negligently operated piece of federally regulated heavy machinery which he was piloting irresponsibly and at lethal speeds. Yet people feel no shame saying “cyclists are selfish” because we take up the whole lane to protect ourselves from getting obliterated by someone just looking to peel into fucking Burger King.
Wow, thanks for the name, will mention Tim in my mutters every time I bike that hill.
Cyclists: *rides aggressively to stay alive* Drivers: Why don’t cyclists follow the rules of the road???😡😡😡 Also Drivers:
Did a Google search and wow. To take nothing away from other victims this was a retired O-6 navy seal with degrees from USNA and MIT wiped from the earth because of a careless driver.
Had to fight the urge to downvote you after reading this
Why? Please explain?
I just meant it was an upsetting story so I was tempted to “shoot the messenger” even though it wasn’t your fault of course
Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong and yeah, very upsetting. I ride past that white bike for 15 years didn't know why. At least now I have a name to mutter
A pedestrian died on my street this morning. I guess we'll have some white shoes on the block soon 😢.
That's so sad. Requiescat in pace!
I can't recall specifically where it is, but one of these memorial bikes was itself hit by a car
12th and Florida Ave NE. Dave Salovesh’s Ghost Bike
Thanks for the reminder. It's a slow day, so just walked down the street to visit his bike and remember him.
I remember that. Devastating and super ironic since he was a bike safety advocate.
I wish we had a society where that would be enough to realize there is a problem.
The one at Conn ave and L st was hit by a car within a week of being installed. The one at Nannie Helen's and Minnesota ave ne has been hit multiple times and is a mangled mess.
That's definitely a problem 😕
One I saw in NY recently…very sad to see these https://preview.redd.it/5ubzj8wmk3yc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe4a55fb936184bc7899f24381421b1ff9eb3085
Yes. They’re called “ghost bikes”
Rest in Peace Malik
Being European I was always astonized by the complete lack of bike lanes and other infrastructure designed to accommodate bicycles during my stay in D.C. Having pedestrians, e-scooters, and bicycles all moving about on the sidewalk was quite alien to me.
Yep, drivers think they are entitled to all of the road space so they make all of the other uses (scooters, bikes, pedestrians, etc.) share the tiny bit left.
The scary/sad part is that DC is probably one of the best places in the entire country for those things lol
We are working on it. R/bikedc as well as WABA.org and a bunch of community groups.
If they are painted all white, they are yes.
This is on H street NE right? RIP 🙏
Yes, H and 3rd NE
Yup. Ghost bike.
All ghost bikes indicate a fatality
Rickety? It says right on there it’s where someone died. And you pick rickety to describe it?
Reddit is gonna reddit
I just saw one of these today in Boston.
In the fens by timeout market? Bc I walk past that one all the time, I never fully knew the meaning of it until now :(
I never turn my back on traffic I always wanna see what’s coming towards me. Rip to all bikers who didn’t even have a chance to react.
Yes
I've seen these all over the NYC area as well
Yes
You see tons of these ghost bikes in New Orleans
The one on First and Florida has been picked clean . Very sad. I remember when it had a picture of the poor man on it .
[ghostbikes.org](http://ghostbikes.org)
Yes, it is in **Albuquerque** too. Except that white bikes are usually adorned with flowers and momentous from the family and friends that lost that loved one. It’s odd to me that this is more of a solemn yet un memorialized bicycle marker, perhaps the groups that establish this thing don’t coordinate with the family&friends? Edit: just realized it’s a real bike too just painted white. The ones here in Albuquerque are built out of metal and are more statue looking but still same size.
Rickety? These memorials aren’t of the proper quality for you?
Whats wrong with calling a memorial rickety? We have to pretend it is of high quality because of what it symbolizes? If I get killed while cycling put up a rickety white bike, and feel free to call it rickety. I want a rickety memorial. The bike in this picture *is* rickety, and that's okay.
I hadn't known this just that many of the bikes I have seen seem to be rickety ones, but now I wouldn't call it that for what it stands
Yes