Riders in black honor victims of recent bike deaths

Thanks for the coverage. I just want to point out that although there may be 50 or so bicyclists in this photo, the overall number of bicyclists starting out from Summit and Snelling was probably more like 300. I found it an inspiring show of community solidarity and support.

This is a fantastic show of support and solidarity. I am glad to see helmets and traffic laws observed…I feel bad for the families of the victims.

Thank you for the estimate on the total number of riders, Steve. I’ve seen your number reported elsewhere as well and made the change in the story.

I happened to be standing on Lake St. as the ghost riders passed. I commend them for obeying traffic signals and wearing helmets (a few fools excepted). As a bike commuter, I get annoyed with scofflaws who give the rest of us a bad reputation by acting like stop lights are mere suggestions. The ghost riders set a good example. There’s much more to preventing more accidents and deaths than just wearing helmets and obeying traffic laws, but that’s something we can control.

I joined the group of 350 wearing black jerseys and orange ribbons yesterday morning on a bike crawl to three of the four Ghost Bike sites installed in the last month. These installations are awareness building tools similar to the white crosses in rural areas across different parts of this vast land indicating a tragic death. The group wants to build awareness through promoting shared use of roadways and mutual respect. Riders were asked to hand out fliers along the way to explain the meaning of the gathering. All in all a great showing and politeness prevailed, until the decision was made to roll through intersections against red lights. This was against the stated goal of the ride to “Observe traffic laws”. On the first leg from St. Paul to St. Louis Park there was full respect for the law (except for knuckle heads riding through stale yellow and fresh red lights).

1. The Route: Problematic, but representative of typical biking conditions in our friendly town. It would have been much easier, and faster to take the Midtown Greenway. This is my daily commute preference because it isolates bicycles from traffic, except for a few crosswalks which have been carefully engineered for the most part. It could have been used in traveling West from St. Paul to St. Louis Park, and East back to West River Parkway – and downtown (there may have been an even better route on the path that parallels the light rail along Hiawatha).

2. The Behavior: There were four cyclists including me who decided to observe the law after the decision had been made to roll through red light intersections. Blocking traffic at a stoplight or anywhere else for that matter is selfish and antagonistic. Being polite, yelling thank you and waving is no excuse for disrespecting the law. Imagine someone who is late for work seething behind the wheel while be blocked at a green light. I personally would be furious, unless I saw a police escort. This is the kind of behavior I thought we were trying to avoid. Critical Mass uses a flagrant disregard of traffic law to disrupt traffic and illustrate their point(s). If the MF’s want to ride without having to accommodate cars, buses, and pedestrians they are welcome to move to the country where they can ride without having to get along with others (or at least they’d be less likely to butt heads as frequently). The not so unexpected lesson was that we arrived at the same time as the group that blew through intersections, and we didn’t screw anyone out of their traffic rights. There were notably no police escorts during the entire ride, until the group arrived in downtown Minneapolis. With a cop in the intersection, a disruption is perfectly well understood and there’s a clear respect for the law.

3. The crew that made it happen: Great work. The families of the victims were clearly moved, and the point was made far more broadly than it would have been without your efforts. Guidelines for participation in future events might be printed and handed out to riders. If it is “legal” to block traffic in an intersection, I’d like the organizers to state that they’ve received permission from all law enforcement agencies who have jurisdiction on the route. The involvement of police escorts would have made the ride a lot safer, but I have no idea if this was even an option. The orange ribbon I have tied to my handlebars will now remind me of the four who have fallen, my vulnerability to automobiles, and the importance of respecting the rights of automobiles. Another observation was that motorists were using cellphones, texting, and generally pretty tuned out (particularly on Excelsior Boulevard). That in effect makes them about as attentive as a drunk driver. Keep that in mind and choose longer routes when you have an opportunity to avoid exposure to automobiles.