Alice Swanson's ghost bike is back -- "with friends," says cycling activist Legba Carrefour, the purported author of the blog Alice Swanson Rides Again.
Swanson, 22, was struck and killed by a garbage truck owned by a Sterling, Va. company while riding her bike to work on July 8, 2008. As a memorial -- and a not-so-subtle suggestion that drivers need to share the road -- the Washington Area Bicycle Association installed a white spray-painted bicycle at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue with 20th and R streets, in front of Dupont resto La Tomate.
The D.C. Department of Public Works removed the bike nearly two weeks ago, much to the outrage of Swanson's family and friends, and the biking community as a whole. The city said that local businesses had complained about the presence of the memorial.
Says the new blog:
We assume the ghost bike's removal was some sort of simple error on the part of the mayor's office. Possibly, they mistook the bike for an escaped white lion. In that event, we salute the mayor's office for its continued vigilance in the fight against rare albino predators. But whatever the reason, we've decided to fix the problem and put the bike back in its rightful place.
So the ghost bike is back, along with nearly two dozen of its closest buddies -- there's one for each year of Swanson's life. Cycling activist Legba Carrefour, the author of the blog, says that if these bikes come down, more will replace them. Visit Why I Hate D.C. to see photos of the bikes.
