Yesterday marked the 20th annual Chicago Ride of Silence remembering those who lost their lives to traffic violence while riding bikes in our region. The local event is part of a global movement to raise awareness of cycling fatalities and lobby for safer street design.
Along with longtime Chicago ROS organizer Elizabeth Adamczyk, the Active Transportation Alliance has helped promote the rides. FK Law sponsored this year's event, and the Chicago Department of Transportation's SAFE Ambassadors served as ride marshals. Ashland Addison Florist provided white roses and carnations that were placed at crash sites.
"The lack of safe infrastructure for all road users combined with drivers traveling at unsafe speeds results in far too many crashes involving people walking and biking," said ATA Executive Director Amy Rynell in a statement. "There is an urgent need for safety improvements on many of our streets. No more people should have to die while biking or walking on any of our roadways in order to achieve needed safety improvements."
The press release for the event noted that Illinois crash deaths rose by some 40 percent between 2012 and 2021, and speeding by drivers is major factor in these fatalities. Peer cities like New York, Boston, Seattle, and Portland lowered their default speed limits to 25 mph years ago, with impressive safety results. But in February, the City City Council voted against lowering the city's default 30 mph speed limit, citing equity concerns. Since people struck at 40 mph almost always die, while those hit at 20 usually survive, that foot-dragging means more people are dying in collisions here than otherwise would.
Yesterday evening, about 100 people showed up in a cold drizzle to memorialize fallen cyclists, and call for action to prevent future deaths. They gathered downtown on the lakefront at Queen's Landing, 501 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
Adamczyk made opening remarks before the ride departed. "We continue to ride each year because we still need to ride," she said. "We unfortunately continue to experience tragedies on our roads, and we always wish to honor and remember those who have been killed."
"Tonight, we gather in community, some of us crash survivors, all of us here in support of each other," she added. "Tonight is a time of shared community, shared silence, shared sadness, shared joy, shared roads." She ended by reading the Ride of Silence poem by Mike Murgas.
The large group then wordlessly rolled out, riding for a couple of miles on the lakefront before heading northwest to Lincoln Park, for a total of about seven miles. We stopped at nine bike fatality sites along the way. At some locations white-painted "ghost bike" shrines to the fallen had been been removed due to pushback from neighbors or damage by reckless drivers. Others were still intact, in some cases maintained by loved ones of the victims. Flowers and an electric candle were placed at each site.
- Gerardo Marciales, 41, February 28, 2022 at Balbo Drive and DLSD
- Broderick Adé Hogue, 32, October 10, 2021 at Grand Avenue and Lower DLSD
- Jason Lundelius 21, 1996, memorial site at Oak Street Beach
- Blaine Klingenberg, 29, June 15, 2016 at Oak Street and Michigan Avenue
- Clint Miceli, 22, June 9, 2008 at Oak and LaSalle streets
- Neill Townsend, 32, October 5, 2012 at Oak and Wells streets
- Robert "Bobby" Cann, 26, May 29, 2013 on Clybourn Avenue between Mohawk and Larabee streets
- Liza Whitacre, 20, October 21, 2009 at Wellington and Damen avenues
- Robert “Bob” Levin, 61, September 2, 2024 at 2444 N. Ashland Avenue
Here's a gallery of photos I took at yesterday's ride.
After the ride arrived at Robert “Bob” Levin's crash site at 2444 N. Ashland Avenue in Lincoln Park, his sister Marianne Zemil laid flowers for him and addressed the crowd. "I'm gonna try not not to cry, but my brother was killed right at this spot on Labor Day 2024 when he was hit and thrown from his bicycle, and the impact caused him to go into cardiac arrest," she said. "A few days later, he died from his injuries."
"Bobby was a special kind of person," Zemil continued. "He was not just an avid bike rider, but he was someone who believed in giving back and was a complete animal lover. He would do anything to help out people with animals. He trained dogs, he dog sat, he walked dogs. He would do whatever. He even sometimes did things for birds and all kinds of other animals you wouldn't think would need someone to go check on them. But he did all of that."
"He was also really someone who loved his family and so much so that when my daughter, who is on FaceTime right now from Florida, where she's with her grandfather..." Zemil said. "He stopped raising money for PAWS [Chicago] because she was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2018, and every year after that he threw a major fundraiser separately to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicagoland and [was] on their team for the Chicago Marathon. Had Bobby made it to last October's marathon, it would have been his [75th] marathon that he ran."
"So I want to thank you again from the bottom of my heart for honoring my brother's memory, and I plan to continue to hopefully do some things to beef up bike safety in the city of Chicago," Zemil concluded. "Because if there had been a [protected bike lane] here, I believe that the [driver] that hit him would not have been able to get close to my brother. Thank you all."
Zemil's words were a reminder of how important it is for advocates to continue the fight for safer streets in Chicagoland.
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