ghostcycle
Ghostcycle #2 on Leary Way NW in Free-lard.
I rode my bike relentlessly during my last couple of years of living in New York City and expected to continue doing so living in Seattle. After a handful of bad car interactions and one incident of being dragged under the front of an oldsmobile on Pike, I tossed my bike into storage. I fear cellphone engaged, road-raging modern drivers sealed in their giant, one-ton steel wombs. Urban cycling in Seattle was feeling much more like an extreme sport as compared to New York where at least the drivers were alert, if still somewhat hostile. Maybe I’m just a wuss and what I really dislike is all these damn hills.
At any rate, I think Ghostcycle is a brilliant idea. Bikes painted white and strung up clandestinely near sites of reported bike accidents. I encountered my first one of these bikes today near one of my favorite brunch spots Dish.
Tags:
August 4th, 2005 at 7:31 pm
Congrats! Your blog fills with interesting topics and stories. Not to mention, I can’t live without coffee as well.
August 7th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Have you seent that some people have taken to a counter-awareness program, aimed at placing blame esclusively on cyclists? *shakes head*
http://ken.ipl31.net/seattle/ghostcycle.writeback
i’ve enjoyed your pictures, thanks. :)
August 7th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Not surprised considering some of the hostility I’ve seen towards cyclists here. I guess its a form of dialogue at least.
August 9th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Oh, *! You won an awards.
August 10th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Yay tony! You should, um, blog on your award :)
On Bicycling In Seattle: it’s hazardous, to be sure. I’m an ultraparanoid cyclist, who refuses to ride on “big roads”. Stopped biking downtown when I took a job that would require me to take Denny… what a deathtrap. Now I take the Burke Gilman (ie, the bicycle highway) pretty much every day- now if only we had a network of such highways running all over the city, cycling could be a transit alternative for more than just the spandex set.
August 10th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
Similar to: http://www.times-up.org/stencils.php
The first time I ever saw one of those stencils was in S.F.. I was riding fairly quickly and trying to figure out what I was seeing. Really chilling once I read the name, date and time and realized what I was riding over!
On the other hand I am often frustrated to see cyclists riding without helmets, flagrantly ignoring both laws and common courtesy; all in all angering drivers so they are that much less sympathetic when the encouter me! I really believe that if we want respect on the roads, cyclists need to ride responsibly.
Thanks for your Blog. I enjoy reading it.
February 3rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Very cognitive….