Thank you for your coverage of the installations of “ghost bikes” (“Haunting reminder,” Metro, Sept. 25) marking the spots where two bicyclists recently died in accidents involving motorists. It is a deeply personal feeling that compels action to create a memorial for the fallen. Given how much I ride in the city, either of the victims could have been me. I suspect the same may be true of the other eight people who attended the installation on Morrissey Boulevard Sunday morning.
The comment from Pete Stidman, who directs the Boston Cyclists Union, speaks to another reason Doan Bui's tragic passing was memorialized. Stidman said, “It’s a reminder to the public and to the city that we have to do something.” As a community activist who is trying to urge the city and state to pick up the pace in terms of expanding bicycle infrastructure and educational efforts for riders and drivers alike, I view the ghost bike for Bui as a marker of failure.
The grass-roots advocacy group DotBike identified that stretch of Morrissey as the so-called missing link of the Harbor Trail four years ago, and our efforts have seen painfully slow progress. Ironically, city and state officials were out on Morrissey that same day looking at the dangerous situation at the crosswalk to UMass.
Hopefully, marking Bui’s tragic end will help raise the urgency at the Department of Conservation Resources to quickly install what is more than a nice recreational addition but rather a necessity for those of who traverse that stretch of road on a bicycle.