A Ghost Bike for Nick

Here’s Nick's ghost bike. His funeral was last Friday. I actually thought about going, but I also wondered if it’s ok to go to a funeral of someone you don’t know or is that considered weird in some way. But as a committed transportation cyclist, I’m acutely aware that I could have been in his place.

Even though I didn’t know Nick, I’ve been looking at his picture and reading what’s been said about him. I think it’s the saddest thing in the world that he was killed. The unfairness of this kind of thing is absolutely incomprehensible. I can think of plenty of slimey people without whom the world would be instantly so much better, and yet this happens to someone like him -- not only a really good person but on the springboard of his adult life. I feel so bad for his family.

It isn’t known yet what caused the accident – they haven’t finished the investigation. Probably it was a combination of things. But this doesn’t make me want to quit riding my bike. It just makes me want even more to vastly reduce the number of cars on our streets. Especially, any driver with a history of serious driving infractions (which I believe was the case here) should be prohibited from operating one of these moving metal deathtraps. And not after someone is killed , but before.