Tuesday, 18 August 2009

The ghost bikes of Dalston and the World

As a cyclist, I’m acutely aware of government cycle campaigns, with Cycle Fridays being the latest from Boris, complete with big splashes in Time Out and plenty of Twitter action. The Police are also on their own mission, promoting cycle-lorry-driver harmony with internet videos and a PR drive. I was even stopped by police on Kingsland Road; they offered to sit me in a lorry driver’s cab so that I could find out for myself where their blindspots are. But the most poignant of all cycle campaigns (for me at least) has invisible protagonists.

I first spotted a ‘ghost bike’ as I was cycling along. I pursed my lips and thought to myself ‘Ooh! That’s a nice white bike. Maybe I should spray mine white’. Then after a few weeks, I kept seeing the same white bike everywhere (or so I thought). Then I thought to myself ‘I hope that this isn’t another art project’. But after a spot of Googling, I discovered that they are in fact junk bikes that have been sprayed white and placed at a spot where a cyclist had been killed.

http://www.ghostbikes.org

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