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	Vienna \| 23.6.2007 \| 15:27 Letters from a shrinking globe: around the day in 80 worlds	Zita, Rotifer, Steve

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.

It was at this spot near Clarkson Street where Eric Ng died in December last year. He was just 22 years old and a fresh graduate from university when he was mown down by a drunken driver speeding up the bike path. Eric was just one of the dozens of cyclists killed every year in the city by motorized traffic.


	photo: Fred Askew

These tragedies can go by almost unnoticed in a busy city like New York. The white ghost bikes are there to make sure that doesn't happen. Ryan Knuckle was a personal friend of Eric Ng; and he's also a member of Visual Resistance, one of the two cycling activist groups behind the ghost bike project.

"We just wanted people not to forget," he says. "Life moves so fast in the city and a horrible tragedy can be forgotten in the time it takes to clean the streets."

For two years now, together with their fellow activists from Time's Up, Knuckle's group has been chaining ghost bikes at every site where a cyclist has been killed by a motorist in New York.

Sadly, the activists have been busy.

Over 40 of the make-shift memorials are currently chained to street-signs, lampposts or railings across the city's 5 boroughs. Many are plastered with photos and messages from the family and friends of the victims.


	photo: Peter Meitzler

Some local businesses have been taken aback by when a ghost back has popped up near their front doors. Some have taken them down, probably reasoning that few shoppers want to be reminded of their fragile mortality as they reach for their credit cards. Yet Knuckle says the ghost bikes have generally been welcomed by the local neighbourhoods, where the victims were known:

"People who live nearby have been known to adopt the bikes and refresh the flowers and let us know when they need repairs or a new lick of paint.


	photo: Tomas Melchor

Consolation

The activists say that the most important aim of the concept is to offer consolation to the victim's family.

As long as they were sober and did not leave the scene of the accident, few motorists face any serious consequences for the deaths of the cyclists they have caused. Careless driving is rarely prosecuted, it seems, and this can leave the bereaved families with the hollow feeling that no-one cares about their loss.

Barbara Ross, a volunteer for Time's Up, says her work is aimed at showing the family that that's not true:

"Usually when a cyclist dies in New York, after we've put up a ghost bike, we hold a memorial ride. We invite the family and often they come. They seem happy that people are remembering the loved ones that they have lost."

Changing Mind-Sets

Ghost bikes are poignant reminders of the fragility of life, but the project is also a drive to change the way people think about cycling.

The activists speak of the need to create more respect for cyclists, complaining that the hostile attitude of motorists is creating this negative climate that just leads to more deaths.

It's also an appeal to the city authorities to improve the infrastructure. "We're really trying to push the city to be more bike friendly, because it would be the most perfect place to cycle," says Ross.

Manhattan, for example, is almost entirely flat. It's so compact that nowhere is really far away and, let's be honest, it's very easy to navigate.

But until the infrastructure improves, says Ryan Knuckle, who cycles around Manhattan every day, paradise can really be rather hellish.

Safety in Numbers

Both Knuckle and Ross think that their project is having an effect. The monuments are highly visible and, bedecked with flowers, they're rather striking. They have become talking points and the activists are confident that, within two years, every New Yorker now knows what a ghost bike is.

Tellingly, Knuckle can't think of a single ghost bike that has been removed by the police, despite the fact that it is unlawful in the city to place painted messages on public streets. That could be interpreted as a silent acknowledgement from the city authorities that Visual Resistance and Time's Up do have a valid point to make.

Cycling is becoming more and more popular in New York and that is a trend that Ryan is excited about. The more people that cycle, he says, the safer it will become, since drivers get used to seeing cyclists on the road.

But if that is true, I ask, then isn't there a risk of these ghost bikes freaking people out and, rather than encouraging them, actually deterring prospective cyclists from using their bikes?

"I don't think so. What puts people off is the fact that it's not safe enough. We're just pointing that out and asking for change."



	Visual Resistance Time's Up Reclaiming the Streets


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