Ghost Bikes are Real and they are a Big Deal!!!
Yes please, what is this Ghost Bike that I have heard of. Or more formally known as a Ghost Bike Roadside Memorial Tribute. Very distinct as the Ghost Bike Memorial is painted ALL white and left at the accident location or very close to it. This signifies that a very bad bicycle related accident happened here with sever injury or most likely death. The message that the Ghost Bike Memorial puts off can be however you want to take it. However, in the end you get the message very clearly.
It can be just way to see it and recognize it to a Bicycle Memorial or Ghost Bike Memorial respecting the death site and or to give a loud and bold statement to be aware of citizens riding bicycles on the road and pay attention. There are more reasons that they are set up and put up, but you get the point.
Also not to be confused with the German GHOST BIKE bicycle Company that makes top end branded Ghost Bikes. Ghost Bike Memorials or just the bicycle themselves are also called a Ghost cycle or White Cycle. In the end they are are representing the same thing. Also often times the bike has a plaque or sign letting passers by know some of the details of the person and or accident. Flowers and other supporting Ghost Bike memorial stuff is also decorating the Ghost Bike.
Somebody has died as a result of being on a bicycle on a roadway. Same basis as a standard Roadside Memorial except this person lost their life or very seriously injured while riding or on a bicycle in some way by a motor vehicle. The Ghost Bike used is usually not the actual bike that was involved in the accident but a donated or junk bike that somebody has painted all white to signify a Ghost Bike and then placed at the scene or very close location of the actual accident site. Sometimes the tires are taken off so that nobody can ride away with the Ghost Bike. Other times they ghost bike is locked up to something where it is located so that nobody steals it……god forbid.
How many Ghost Bike Memorials are out there in the USA and or the world. Who knows and it would be hard to really know. But Ghost Bikes are real and they do exist everywhere. We do know that there does not seem to be any kind of government State sponsored programs specifically for Ghost Bike Memorials in the USA as this point. We are lucky to have some of the regular Roadside Memorial State sponsored Programs that we do have in it’s limited capacity. For more in depth info on Ghost Bike Memorials, check out the Official Ghost Bikes Organization link here.
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