But I'm glad to see the good feelings all around these days...

There are two design challenges in coming up with an appropriate marker. The first challenge is that there is no obvious icon (like the white bike); the second is that due to the frequency of pedestrian deaths it would have to be something very simple so that anyone could take it on.

Seriously, though, to Visual Resistance or any artists out there thinking of starting such a project, keep victims' families in mind--what I mean is, most seem to agree that ghost bikes are a gentle and respectful, if remarkable, image. I hope artists keep that model in mind. Certain families of peds killed by cars might get very upset by an image that's much more jarring or shocking than ghost bikes.

This makes me feel more protected than ever out there, cause I know you all got my back, front, sides and my heart.

And Ill get off my bike and walk in any action to memorialize the far too many pedestrians who died last year.

we have talked about a similar project for pedestrian deaths. . .we came up with white shoes. as part of our ride, we attempted to memorialize the 134 pedestrians who perished on the streets of nyc in the past year, we didnt have the time or volunteer power to get 134 pairs of white shoes to 134 yet unknown locations around nyc. but if we did, would that discourage people from walking?

i encourage anyone who can to go to Bogota, and check out the black spot(star) program. it is a similar project that is completely publicly funded and run. imagine if bloomberg's administration considered death in traffic a problem and put a mark on the street, anywhere someone died in traffic (pedestrain, cyclist, motorist, or passenger).

aaron, i dont think you personally believe the ghost bike project or a well publicized memorial ride to be bad for cycling? i think you were just playing devil's advocate, and making brief point about how people can interpret art. also, you had to know that the organizers of sunday's event would read this, since we read streetsblog quite religiously

I don't think anyone who attended on Sunday would say that the Memorial Ride is bad for cycling. More cycling groups participated in this ride than in any other NYC bike ride in recent history. It was incredible to see the vast diversity of cyclists- messengers, activists, recreational cyclists, pedicab drivers, commuters, young, old- everyone was working together and supporting each other. It was an amazing day.

Furthermore, we really made an effort this year to involve families of the victims in this ride. I cannot tell you how grateful they are that this whole community honored their loved one in this way. Particularly when the rest of the city doesn't pay adequate attention to their loss. One person that we honored this year, Jamel Lewis, was an African-American man killed in Harlem on November 30th. His death was never even reported in the press. Almost none of these drivers were held responsible for their actions. I think it's important for these families to know that there is a huge community of people who are there to support them.

Regarding pedestrian memorials, this year was the first year we included pedestrians in our memorial ride (http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualresistance/350970857/). We are all volunteers and work with almost no budget and therefore could not install individual memorials for all 134 pedestrians killed in 2006. We installed a memorial at Park Ave. and 96th that honors all pedestrians killed on the streets. It is my hope that a group with more resources will step forward to honor all the pedestrians killed on the streets. The Black Star program (http://www.flickr.com/photos/81659532@N00/279625790/)that an earlier commenter mentioned was paid for by the government. Obviously that isn't going to happen here, but it would be great if a group would step forward and take that on.

But, do the memorials convince anyone not to cage?

-Mark

Good to see that your NBC affiliate gave you airtime!

Interesting to compare the numbers: NYC, with its much larger population and presumably larger cycling population, only had 1 more fatality in 2006 than Chicago.

(Note: though we rode for 14 fallen cyclists yesterday, Noah at TA got a call today from one of the "dead" cyclists, Ivan Morales, who was thankful that we remembered him even though he wasn't quite dead. He was pronounced dead at the scene of his crash but was revived in the ER - one example of the divergent numbers of fatalities that different city agencies list. According to Noah, Ivan is back on his bike.)

The ghost bike project started as a quiet and personal response to the death of Liz Padilla. In the past year and a half, it has grown in ways we never expected.

I think yesterday's memorial ride showed that the ghost bikes are only a small part of a diverse movement towards bike and pedestrian safety, sustainable living, and a better city.

The ghost bikes only call attention to the true source of non-cyclists' fears: unsafe streets.

The San Francisco Bay Area has a bike-buddy program, which seems to have government resources behind it. Seattle used to have a program, until their grant ran out.

Here's the local NBC coverage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSE65o33tFo

We rode to remember the 12 cyclists killed on Chicago streets in 2006.

But there are ways to encourage biking, and make it safer, even if the government drags its feet. To create safety in numbers, a bike group in Sydney, Australia, organizes "BikeBuses" -- groups of riders who follow a fixed route and schedule every day. See their website for details. A BikeBus has some resemblance to Critical Mass rides, but it's smaller, explicitly organized, and completely legal -- even in New York.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in the attitude of drivers. If we can get them relating to the plight of pedestrians when they aren't in their cars perhaps they will take this when they are behind the wheel.

In my opinion the polling numbers of people who _say_ they would ride if it was safer are very unreliable. TA uses the numbers in their advocacy- and I don't blame them- but asking people if they would do something virtuous like exercise more frequently if it wasn't for some excuse is bound to get a very inflated number.