curbtender

Friend pointed out a memorial stone on a recent ride. Good replacement for those retired ghost bikes.

puma1552

GlennR

Forgot about this....

" Matt's story is one that should never have been written. On a beautiful July evening in 2009, Matt was cycling on the Wantagh State Bike Path. He could ride 20, 25 miles at a clip, and many times even longer. However, another bike, a Harley Davidson, being ridden by a drunk 44 year-old, had just left Jones Beach. The Harley biker headed north on the Wantagh State Parkway at a speed estimated between 85-100 mph and struck a beautiful 19 year old son, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend. Matt was airlifted to NUMC, where he was pronounced dead. Our lives were ruptured by a total stranger. Matt never would come home again. "

This statue is at the head of a MUP at Cedar Creek Park and runs 14 miles to Jones Beach State Park and continues to Tobay Beach.

Rollfast

There is a mangled motorcycle on a trailer with a cross in the yard of a guy a few blocks away that memorializes his brother, but it's in his front yard.

exmechanic89

^Now there's a great idea to memorialize someone!

livedarklions

Six years?!

canklecat

American kids are immersed in a death culture, steeped like bitter tea. They're growing up in an era when we accept murders of school children by the dozens as acceptable losses in pursuit of protecting a niche freedom. They play video games and watch cartoons that emphasize mindless slaughter.

I hardly think they'll be deterred from riding a bike by a few ghost bike memorials.

And people who hate bikes and cyclists don't hate us over ghost bikes. They hate us because we inconvenience them for a moment once in awhile. Or because they're taught to hate anything that differs from their insular values.

Siu Blue Wind

I don't know. Does one ever really get over death?

Rollfast

Only when you're gone.

Fastfingaz

We've got a ghost bike Mound here in New Orleans,,,,,,, Who Dat....

GlennR

My dad died 38 years ago at age 53. I'm over his death, but still miss him especially since i'm now a grandfather. Something he never lived long enough to experience.

livedarklions

I guarantee you that if you insist on keeping one of these permanently in front of someone's home, they are not going to get warm fuzzy feelings towards bicyclists.

As far as the amateur child psychology, I don't buy it. Kids are going to understand "a bicyclist was killed here, here and here", without really grasping that the events may have occurred decades apart.

Why leave this for just bicyclists? We could come up with ugly monuments for everyone who dies in public. At least that would give some sense of the relative dangerousness of bicycling.

indyfabz

****

livedarklions

You're the one who said " at least for a little while." So is that more than 6 years?

The question isn't whether people should stop mourning, it's how long they can impose symbols of their mourning on everyone else.

I'm not sure what "get over" means in this context, but yes we have to keep on living knowing death has happened or will happen to everyone we love eventually. It's even going to happen to us. It's called the "human condition" .

Let's not pretend that the people who put these bikes up are the only people who have survived a tragic loss.

livedarklions

Well, we finally found a thread where you won't be tempted to post a picture of your bike!

Milton Keynes

I never really understood why we Americans love to memorialize people who have died in traffic accidents right at the scene where they died instead of memorializing their lives. I'd rather be remembered for any benefit I've given to society rather than how I died. Why is it we're so focused on the death of people rather than remembering them in life?

bobwysiwyg

+1
When I first saw one many years ago, I was a bit puzzled. Nine times out of ten it seems they marked the spot where 'someone' made a mistake. Not knowing who, or what the mistake was, the purpose seemed odd to me.

indyfabz

Ever ridden in Montana? Countless white metal crosses mounted to rebar at fatal accident scenes. One for each death in an accident. (I saw one marker with 5 crosses.) They are not in memoriam of the victims but rather to remind motorists to drive carefully.

jefnvk

It was there for six years, and the person who took it down had just as much right legal right to do so as the person who put it there in the first place. As to reading the articles, the first one mentioned the homeowner originally asked the family if there was something a bit more memorial-like they could do instead, and the family refused.

I could be wrong, but wasn't that an official government initiative, not just random folks doing it on their own?

I do see those every now and again, I really like that idea.

indyfabz

They are put up by the American Legion.

jefnvk

Ah ok, run by the Legion but supported by the Governors office, State Police, and highway folks, a government-supported initiative: https://www.falloncountyextra.com/20...s-for-decades/

Something like that I have a lot less of a problem with, because there are policies and procedures on when they are setup, removed, and presumably someone upkeeping them, and even if not law they have at least the tacit approval of the relevant authorities. The ghost bikes scream far more of a free for all to me.

Caliper

There are plenty of roadside crosses and similar memorials for those killed in car accidents, bikes aren't the only one.

But, you do make a good point about the double edged sword of making them all perpetual. We'd run out of places to be if we memorialized in perpetuity every spot that anyone died on.

I'm not sure that the creators of the memorial don't memorialize the deceased in other ways also. I've never seen a ghost bike personally, but a number of roadside crosses for car accidents and have always taken it as a reminder to be careful and watch for the unexpected.

livedarklions

That link you put up is really interesting--"Furthermore, when a highway is reconstructed to correct what may have been the cause of a fatality, all markers are removed. "

Generally, I see these markers on more rural road and on the side of big highways. Ghost bikes seem to be a largely urban street phenomenon, which makes sense given that's where most people ride regularly and that's where the bulk of accidents will happen. The crosses are less obtrusive, and in places where there aren't going to be a lot of people having to stare at them every time they leave their home. In addition, it's a lot more obvious to a passing driver what the crosses are. To a passing motorist, a ghost bike is just a white bike.

livedarklions

You missed the "another of the type of vehicle" part. Roadside crosses are not "ghost cars". It may be a subtle point, but I think putting the bike up indicates that the bike is the instrument of death.

Caliper

No, I saw that, but didn't understand your wording that you were thinking of the memorial itself being another type of vehicle rather than being for another type of vehicle operator. Considering that cars are many times larger and more expensive than bikes, I'm not sure a similar "ghost car" would ever be practical. However, it is typical for High Schools to display a wrecked car in a parking lot now and then as a "don't drink and drive" reminder.