Bike riders ask for prayers and laws to make streets safer

At Pine Grove United Methodist last week on busy Central Avenue (an especially nerve-racking road for cyclists with its multiple lanes of zooming vehicles), the coalition read the names of dozens of bicyclists and pedestrians killed.

Coalition President Ed Brennan thinks most vehicle-bike collisions may occur due factors like distracted drivers—or cyclists–or speeding and intersection blind spots. But others die in what he calls “road violence.” He sees reflections of our era’s enraged conflict over values reflected on the road. And a hefty vehicle can transform some people who are having a rough day into bullies or “monsters,” he noted.

“Some drivers see bicyclists as intruders, someone trying to frustrate or crowd drivers on a road meant for vehicles,” Brennan sighed. “I’ve had drivers throw bottles or garbage at me, blow diesel smoke in my face.”

But as Brennan notes, streets are “supposed to be meant for everyone, cyclists and pedestrians, even if roads aren’t always designed that way.”

The Rev. Al Johnson’s church hosted the Central Avenue vigil and he wonders if angry drivers would calm down if they understood that some people are on bikes because that’s the only transportation they can afford to get to work, worship services or a doctor’s appointment. 

“Not everyone can afford car repairs or today’s gas prices,” Johnson said. “We have a staffer who does maintenance work on the church. He was homeless and works hard, rides a bike everywhere … the bus isn’t the fastest way to get to different jobs.”

Last fall, a Colonie Wendy’s fast food worker finished her night shift and was cycling home in the rain when a driver struck and left her lying in the road in a coma. She could not afford a car. No buses run at 3 a.m. near her workplace.

“This is my neighborhood, where I live and work,” Johnson said. “I still feel like crossing Central is scary.”

The bike coalition supports the Crash Victims Rights and Safety Act as a way to make roads safer for everyone. It enhances driver education and outlines legal rights to victims of traffic violence. And proposed legislation would allow New York towns and cities to decrease speed limits for certain streets.

 Dangerous by Design, a 2021 report researched by the Centers for Disease Control and nonprofit, nonpartisan Smart Growth America, found only 5 percent of cyclists are killed if a car is driving 20 mph, while 45 percent of humans hit by cars driving 30 mph die.
Longtime coalition member Lorenz Worden counts 13 deaths and two serious injuries in our area over the past decade based on their study of local news and police reports. 
 
“Of 13 deaths, five were clearly motor-vehicle-driver error,” Worden explained. “The other eight are undetermined, fuzzy in some cases. Our assessment is that police reports and articles based on them – especially in cases of no witnesses other than the motor vehicle driver – leave room for many questions.”

Coalition members worry that police may too often clear the driver of blame when the cyclist or pedestrian is dead—especially if the nondriver is the only other witness.

The bike group hopes the vigil will serve as outreach to the faith-based community with whom it shares many causes and values. 
They do more than advocate for bike trails and road safety. Members raise funds for a host of community service groups, including Black Lives Matter. They rode to Allison Joseph’s launch of Black Girls Do Bike to show support.

When a little boy was killed crossing a street near Ezra Prentice low-income housing years ago, coalition riders joined residents protesting diesel trucks they said often drove too fast through residential streets near the rail yard.

Brennan raised funds recently for Living Resources, a local nonprofit that serves the disabled, riding his bike from Williamsburg, Va., to Miami.

ABC sometimes mourns the dead by caring for their ghost bikes, a worldwide phenomenon.

Eight ghost bikes haunt Capital Region locations where cyclists were killed. Bike frames (stripped of gears and chains) and tires are painted the palest ivory white, then chained to a nearby fence or pole. They are cyclists’ version of street altars. 

After the vigil, cyclists paid their respects to Jeremy Williams by riding to where he was killed on Central Avenue, then to a Colonie corner where Roger Sawyer died and finally to the Fuller Road site of Nicholas Richichi’s death. Ghost bikes weren’t needed to honor the dead because the cyclists knew the locations by heart.