Monday, July 27, 2009

Atip's Latest Ghost Bike Removed; Dangerous Intersection Now More Deadly

Atip's latest Ghost Bike has been removed. Apparentely, the Ghost Bike was removed on Tuesday, July 21, less than 48 hours after the bike was locked up.

When I rode up to the corner of the University Ave & Park Blvd intersection on Saturday, July 25 to take-in and appreciate the awareness that the Ghost Bikes have brought to that deadly, car-centric intersection, I was saddened to ride up to what turned out to be a bike-less, naked, grey corner. It's disappointing to see that people's well-intentioned methods of physically memorializing a killed human being, can simply be scooped up, curbed, and tossed into the back of a City-owned truck like an abandoned shopping-cart.

City governments should be focused on protecting the well-being of it's citizens. Spending our tax dollars and wasting money to remove a safety-awareness-raising work of public art is backwards. Thank you City of San Diego Street Divisions for spending money to make a dangerous intersection more deadly---all so you can hide the weaknesses of your auto-centric, car-first, pedestrians/cyclists-last philosophy.

It's clear; Street Divisions, a City of SD department directed by an automobile-traffic-engineer, is determined to remove anything from the corner that is mildly associated w/ Atip and/or bike-safety (Source on Deputy Director's automobile-traffic-engineer background: Personal phone conversation before the original Ghost Bike Memorial was removed, 2008).

Fortunately, a permanent memorial is in the works. An awesome and super-fun fundraiser-event is being planned! Details very soon.


(The Ghost Bike that was removed appears above. Photo by Matt Lingo ( MattLingo.com ))

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