The Ride of Silence: a loud cry for bicycle safety
Textbooks will tell you that statistics are the basis for most public health decisions. In reality, it's evocative displays of remembrance, solidarity, and outrage about lives lost that really get things done.
The Ride of Silence: a loud cry for bicycle safety
Jonathan Purtle, Doctoral candidate in public health. Works at Drexel's Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice
By Jonathan Purtle
Textbooks will tell you that statistics are the basis for most public health decisions. In reality, it’s evocative displays of remembrance, solidarity, and outrage about lives lost that really get things done.
Wednesday’s Ride of Silence is one such powerful display.
The Ride of Silence is an annual bike ride — many annual bike rides, actually, — that commemorates the lives of bicyclists who have been killed or injured on public roads. Motorists who see, hear or read about it can’t help becoming more aware of the threats that they pose to cyclists.
The Philadelphia ride will begin at 6:45 PM Wednesday in front of the Art Museum steps. It will be in memory of seven cyclists who were killed in 2011-2012 around the Delaware Valley; the locations have all been mapped. One was Gregory Loper, a city resident and father of 11 who was killed by a drunk driver in the 1900 block of East Lehigh Avenue in November. Participants will ride in silence as they make the somber, eight mile trip, escorted by police.
There are local Pennsylvania rides in Doylestown, Trappe, West Chester and elsewhere; and at the Shore, among other places in New Jersey.
The first Ride of Silence was on the streets of Dallas in 2003, after a cyclist named Larry Schwartz was killed by a school bus mirror while riding. A friend of his named Chris Phelan organized the initial ride. Word of its emotive power spread quickly, and today hundreds of Rides of Silence take place around world on the third Wednesday in May. An estimated 12,033 cyclists participated last year.
Bicycle enthusiasts Raymond Scheinfeld and John Siemiarowski organized the first Philadelphia ride in 2005, getting support from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department. “We long for the day that we can stand up and say that there were no deaths in the Delaware Valley this year,” said Scheinfeld, “but unfortunately this has yet to happen.”
According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 630 bicyclists were killed on U.S. roads in 2009, including 13 in New Jersey and 15 in Pennsylvania. Most of the deaths nationally were in urban areas (70 percent) and at non-intersection locations (67 percent). The largest proportion was between the hours of 4 and 8 p.m. (27 percent). In fully one third of the fatal accidents, either the cyclist or the motorist had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher.
The risks of cycling are relatively small, but quite serious — something that city officials should keep in mind as biking continues to grow.
A recent report by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia highlights the increasing preference for getting around on two wheels. In 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, Philadelphia ranked No. 1 in bike commuting among the nation’s 10 largest cities. More than 2.1 percent of Philadelphians reported bicycling as their primary mode of transportation to work (that would include both bloggers at The Public’s Health and, on occasion, our editor). Chicago came in a not-so-close second at 1.1 percent. Bicycle commuting in Philadelphia increased 151 percent between 2000 and 2009.
I hope you can join me and other bicycle advocates Wednesday evening. The Ride of Silence is free of charge and takes about two hours . Helmets are mandatory and lights are highly recommended. But you’ll have to save conversation for another time.
Read more about The Public's Health.
First, I ride my bicycle a lot. Second, most bicyclists do NOT obey traffic rules. Most don't signal turns, must weave in and out of traffic, none obey Red lights. It should be called the ride of ignorace since most bicyclists are ignorant of how to ride on the rode safely.— varsity- @Varsity--prefacing your statement with the fact that you “ride your bicycle a lot” doesn’t give you the authority to disrespect the lives of people that have been tragically killed. Yes, there is certainly an onus on bicyclists to obey traffic laws and bike safely. But, if you read at the stories attached to the map of locations I link to rather than draw your own misbegotten conclusions based on what you believe, you’ll find that most, if not all of the riders, were doing just that— publicshealth
- There is nothing misbegotten about my conclusions. Who am I going to believe? You or my lyin' eyes?
And there is nothing in those maps that shows that cyclists were obeying traffic safety or not. Look with your eyes and not your heart.— varsity - Varsity - if you truly do ride your bicycle a lot, then you can probably cite some experiences where you may have felt endangered by a vehicle driving too fast, too close, or without paying enough attention to the road. What kind of deeply sad soul would condemn a commemorative bike ride organized by an institution that promotes safe, rule-abiding cycling in the Philadelphia area?— jvjohnson322
