Results tagged “ghostbike”

On Friday night some two dozen cyclists gathered in Queens for what has become a sadly familiar ritual in NYC: The installation of an all-white ghost bike commemorating the traffic death of a cyclist. The notoriously dangerous Queen Boulevard has claimed the lives of two cyclists in the past 19 months; the most recent victim, 38-year-old James Langergaard, was killed by a car as he crossed the boulevard at 69th Street on the evening of August 14th. (In February 2008, Asif Rahman, 22, was killed when he was hit by a truck at an intersection in Elmhurst.)

The parents of a 10-year-old Bronx boy who was killed by an allegedly speeding van while riding his bike are suing the city for $10 million for failing to install a speed bump. 10-year-old Michael Needham was riding his bike with friends outside the Allerton Library after school on June 5th, 2008 when the van struck him; he died after 19 days in a coma. The suit, filed Tuesday in Bronx Supreme Court, argues that the city should have known that drivers near the Allerton Library "regularly exceeded the speed limit, failed to obey stop signs, raced to make traffic lights and otherwise operated their vehicles in dangerous and unlawful manners."

Today, the 4th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk, organized by the Street Memorial Project, is taking place. The Memorial Ride and Walk visits the sites where bicyclists and pedestrians were killed—according to Transportation Alternatives, "There were 14 known bicyclist fatalities and more than 100 pedestrian deaths in 2008, according to media reports."

Reader Allan send us these photographs, which show that the Ghost Bike Memorial for Carl Nacht had been "knocked down and mangled, still attached to the sign post it was locked to. it looked like the sign post was cut down." A note had been left at the sign post, and Allan called the person, who believes Gray Line Duck vehicle knocked it down. Gray Line, however, told Allan they don't know anything about it.

Curious about the fate of all those orange bikes with the DKNY website that were locked up around town? The ones the police didn’t cart away (some were illegally chained to trees) are being picked clean for spare parts. The tone deaf Fashion Week publicity stunt was presented by DKNY as an effort to promote cycling in New York, and the company did help raise awareness by, uh, distributing bicycle maps in their stores. Oh, and their website for the campaign has a photo of models riding a bike, though they’re too cool for helmets, of course.

DKNY is usurping a grassroots campaign to memorialize cyclists killed in New York City's traffic, with a guerrilla marketing campaign to push their product. Above is a picture of several orange-painted DKNY bikes, first widely noted at BikeBlog.

This Sunday, Time's Up! is organizing a 2006 Cyclist Memorial Ride that will honor all cyclists who were killed on NYC streets last year. There are two routes - one for Queens/Brooklyn/Manhattan and one for Bronx/Upper Manhattan - that will converge at West Houston and LaGuardia Place, where Derek Lake died in June and then visit other spots where cyclists were killed. More information after the jump; additionally, here's a list of Ghost Bike Memorials in the city.

Speedy Delivery, by Jean Lafitte.

After three biker deaths in three weeks, New York City cyclists are mad as hell-- and they're not going to take it anymore. At least, that's what they said to Mayor Bloomberg at their protest on the city hall steps this morning. Streetsblog has a good report from the scene:

- Looking at the this years tax returns for the folks who would be Governor.