Group makes pact to bring ghost bikes to Calgary

A group advocating for safer streets in Calgary is bringing the ghost bike tradition to Calgary.

The memorial is what it sounds like — a ghost bike is painted white and locked to the site of where a cyclist has died, usually after being hit by a car. 

Like the roadside memorials you might see by a highway with a cross and flowers, a ghost bike is meant to be a physical reminder to those who pass by that someone has died there.

In other Canadian cities, the bikes are pretty common. In Ottawa, there's a white bike chained to the railing of City Hall — near the site of a crash where a male cyclist died in a hit and run. 

And this week in Kelowna there's the talk of installing a memorial for a 69-year-old man who died after he was hit with a semi-trailer truck. There are five spirit bikes in the city.

But in Calgary Solita Work says ghost bikes are relatively unheard of.

"I think that bicycle commuting in Calgary is fairly new and the people that have been doing it for a long time haven't necessarily been organised together," she said. "So we're starting to do that now." 

Calgary Ghost Bike & Walk plans to take their first ride on Aug. 25. With a white bike in tow, Work says she hopes the group ride will get a lot of attention on its way to the site of the crash at 11th Street N.E. and 53rd Avenue N.E. where a man was killed.

Recognizing unsafe streets

Of course, Work hopes they don't need to have many of these memorial meetups — but when someone dies on the city's streets she says she and others from her group will be there.

"We've made a pact to continue on and do a ride for every victim," Work said. "Until such time that we have safer streets that this is a very rare incident."

Coun. Druh Farrell says it is important for people in Calgary to recognize how unsafe the streets can be. She welcomes the initiative.

"I've been contemplating it for some time, some more formal way to recognise it, where people have been killed," Farrell said. "We recognise these deaths are not normal, they're anything but normal. But somehow we've accepted them as a regular part of city life. And that needs to change."

She says it is a shame that citizens have to be the ones thinking about how to draw attention to these deaths. But she welcomes the statement that Calgary Ghost Bike & Walk is planning.