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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Ride of Silence

Last Sunday on my training ride I had a fellow cyclist ask me if I'd heard about the Ride of Silence. I had not. It is a nationwide undertaking to honor those who have been killed and injured while cycling. The intent is to raise awareness and to encourage motorist and cyclist to share the road.

On Wednesday night we met at the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. After a brief ceremony hundreds of cyclist of all types took a slow silent ride through the streets of the city, returning about a hour later to the Art Museum. It was a power and moving experience.

I've had some close calls, got bumped once by an elderly woman, and have a couple of near road rage incidents. I'm embarrassed to say I was the one in a rage. I've been know to flip off assholes, but a car is a lot bigger than a bike so I'm learning to keep it to myself. There are so many unaware or distracted drivers out there. We all need to pay more attention; cyclists and motorist.



Here is a GPS view of the actual ride from my Garmin. The green line is the route. Kinda hard to see, but it's there.





Here are cell phone pics from the ride



6 comments:

Erika (for Arianna :) said...

It is really sad the amount of people killed by people not paying attention cyclist and motorist alike. This hopefully will get all people to think twice and pay attention!

Alisha said...

I am always concerned about the safety of cyclists on the road. I think every road should have a designated bike lane. And I think if ppl would stop multitasking while driving, there'd be less accidents in general too.

Jane said...

I'd love to do that next year with you! Looks like a great ride for such a good cause.

brandi said...

~a beautiful way to honor and remember those who have passed...it must have been quite a ride filled with such emotion...wonderful of you to participate in this event...mine has been riding his harley and that is one of my biggest fears...i told him it is not so much him and the bike but all those on the road who pay little attention to what is really going on on the road...warm wishes and brightest blessings~

Annie Z said...

What a wonderful thing to have done, Breen!

Diana said...

hmmmm...this is poignant for me. My brother and his friend were hit by an elderly driver while cycling. Both, thankfully, recovered without significant permanant damage. They were on a cross country trip from here (NY) to San Diego, and made it all the way to AZ where the accident occured. It's a beautiful way to honor those in similar circumstances, and those less fortunate.