dedhed

No local politician wants their city to appear dangerous.

KraneXL

People make the same claim about billboards (especially on the freeway). But they keep getting bigger and brighter everyday. The "Drive Safely" sign is a good solution.

bobwysiwyg

I'm not always sure of the point. If it is merely that someone died there, that's one thing, still a distraction to me. If it is intended as something of an object lesson, without details of the circumstances, what's the lesson? We have one where I live, been there for 2-3 years. Vehicle driver was not at fault, how's a passerby (driving or riding) to know the point other than being briefly distracted.

Daniel4

The solid concrete post is a good idea. But drivers have also been known to smash into them.

Daniel4

There always will be a certain percentage of people where an obvious message will never be understood regardless of what the issue.

That's why road safety is so challenging to achieve.

livedarklions

To me, one of the "obvious messages" erecting bikes as permanent memorials sends is that bicycling is extremely dangerous and you shouldn't do it. I don't think that's the intention of people putting them up, but I think it's extremely likely how they will be perceived.

Lemond1985

That, and the other message is that maybe cyclists aren't all that bright.

Daniel4

Yes, exactly. Someone will always blame the victim.

This is probably what happens at city council when discussing memorials.

Milton Keynes

On the google maps street view picture there are no dark marks on the sidewalk, but who knows how long ago that picture was taken? I thought the mark on the lower part of the rear wheel might be mold, but then on a closer look at the other side of the wheel I think it's a tire mark from the car that ran the sign over. Still no idea what the black spots on the ground are, though.

FiftySix

Black on the ground and the bottom of the tires is what I think is moldy mildewed concrete. I've pressure washed my share of concrete that doesn't get enough sunlight, and the concrete tends to look like what's in the photo. On brick, a green mossy substance seems to form in the same conditions. At least here on the Gulf Coast.

Agree with you and dedhed about the tread marks on the upper portion of the rear wheel.

livedarklions

Having read the other comments and looking more closely at the picture, I think it's obvious that I was wrong, and it was struck by a vehicle. Besides the tell-tale marks identified by almost everyone but me, there is a very clear impact bending of one of the yellow markers on the post. I don't know whether that striking was accidental or intentional however.

livedarklions

Whoa, back up. My point is specific to ghost bikes, not memorials in general. I don't think the message of this practice has been well thought out. People seeing these who did not know the rider--basically almost everyone seeing them--are only being told that a bike rider was killed at this spot. Memorials generally don't consist of the object the person was on when they died or the instrument of their killing--people who die in bed aren't commemorated by ghost beds, drivers aren't commemorated by ghost cars, stroke deaths aren't commemorated by giant ghost clots, pedestrians aren't commemorated by ghost shoes. By emphasizing the bike as the object, repetition of this symbol sends the message that bicycling is causing the deaths. If the intended audience is drivers to tell them to be more careful, there's a lot of reasons it's poorly designed, not least of which is that to a passing motorist, they likely won't notice much of anything other than a chained white bike. But I think the message they're likely to get if they do know what it is is that getting out of their car and onto a bike is dangerous.

Lemond1985

During my travels, I discovered that in Dallas Texas, US presidents who are assassinated are commemorated with a small "X" in the road on the spot where it happened.

Daniel4

Interesting how you compare a medical condition to road fatalities as if they are equivalent.

Maybe we should install memorials at the HQs of fast food restaurants, food manufactures and cigarette companies.

Maybe we should install white ghost vehicles at all the locations where motorists and passengers have been killed to instill the message how dangerous driving really is.

If the messages are all missed, and viewed as eyesores, then we might as well remove all road and traffic signs. You know, the ones that say Stop, Yield, Slow, Maximum, No Parking, No Left Turn, No Right Turn, Do Not Enter. Every one of those indicate how dangerous driving is. And all those signs really are an eyesore.

livedarklions

I'm going to leave you to play with your strawman collection on your own. You're working way too hard to miss the point to be worth talking to.

Milton Keynes

They already do that with little white crosses.

mr_bill

Apparently those aren’t well thought out either since that sends the message that religion is dangerous.

-mr. bill

KraneXL

Careful of those bad words. You wouldn't want to get an infraction.

livedarklions

Gosh, Bill, what possible symbolic difference could there be between a little white cross vs. a big white bike on the roadside? Wow, that's a real head-scratcher!

If you can't make out the obvious "ride a bike and die" implications of putting these things around, that's not on me.

Pratt

I'm neither for or against the roadside memorials. I always feel a little sad and solemn when I see them, and wonder why Jewish people seem to be better drivers than Christians

Milton Keynes

Everyone knows that Jewish people drive with their hands at 10 & 2 and eyes straight ahead, phones down.

The funny thing is that with those little roadside memorials is that they're not just on sharp curves, but I see most of them on flat straightaways.

Lemond1985

Died while passing maybe? I've often wondered the same thing. Maybe they died in the ambulance in that spot, or possibly they were "thrown clear" and landed some distance from the actual impact.

Would be interesting to see a breakdown, but I bet a lot of these fatal wrecks happened at night, with alcohol being a factor in probably half.

livedarklions

I suspect that the qualities that make a dangerous curve dangerous have a big overlap with the qualities that make a memorial hard to spot.

Oh, and there's this:


Source: https://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2...memorials.html