Tombstone is a nice idea but I think that additional ghost bikes would bring additional impact - Filling up the bike stands at Scottish Parliament with dead bikes will certainly make for a good photo op and (assuming we can get the media to pick it up) would get the ghost bike idea out into the mainstream conciousness a bit more.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Events, rides etc.
OPERATION TOMBSTONE
(178 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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@kaputnik "entirely the responsibility of our Minister for Transport, Keith "Not My Problem" Brown"
How about a gift of a nice new bike engraved with the names of the dead since he took office ?
Too much ?
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm coming around to the idea of ghostbikes outside the parliament.
6? (4 adults, 2 childs). Great photo opportunity, each with a little card on it saying why they are there designed something like my tombstone sketch.
Photo of bikes infront of parliament printed as postcard.
Send to MSP and councillor.
I know if 1 abandoned bike I can get my hands on. Might the bikestation or similar have 5 "beyond repair" clunkers we could take off their hands for a donation?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Could we mock ghost bikes up out of cardboard?
Could we borrow some children of the right age? (I.e. similar to the ages of those who died.)
Incidentally there is a large cardboard box in our flat right now - if a quantity of cardboard would be of use then speak up otherwise it will be going into the recycling quite soon.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I still don't know if I think ghost bikes are a good idea.
"
Noticing the effect that this had on motorists in the area, Van Der Tuin then enlisted the help of friends to place 15 more "ghost bikes" in prominent spots in the St. Louis area where cyclists had recently been hit by automobiles. They used damaged bikes, in some cases deliberately damaged to create the desired mangled effect.
"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_bike
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A ghost bike was placed near Fort William for champion cyclist and Olympic contender Jason MacIntyre on the first anniversary of his death."
Posted 11 years ago # -
Personal feeling is that ghost bikes identify too much with the loss of a 'cyclist', rather than the loss of a person who happened to be on a bike. Fine for infographics etc, but would I really want a temporary memorial to my untimely end to define me solely as a cyclist?
Borrowing children feels pretty ghoulish...
I've always felt things like the Cenotaph and the Shoes on the Danube are powerful because they don't try to neatly summarise and compartmentalise the people lost.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Good point, Darkerside.
The bit about children was misquoting someone (I think on here) who had a good quote about making use of their children in campainging. I can't remember the exact words that were used, which is annoying. (An example would be the poster (not, I think, the one I am failing to quote) whose interactions with local politicians were at least in part along the lines of the best way for his son to cycle to school.)
Posted 11 years ago # -
1 ghostbike (I have donor). 1 memorial?
I think both are hard hitting, tasteful and recognised campaigning tools.
I think impact of a ghostbike at Holyrood would be huge (although I'm sure council would have it cut off in days if not hours incase it was a "security hazard" to the parliament).
Leave ghostbike at Parliament, take memorial someplace prominent like Meadows? These things need to be seen by as many people as possible. They need to stop and see them and hopefully read and absorb what they have to say. They probably don't know that 22 people have been killed cycling in Scotland in 2 1/2 years.
Cardboard wouldn't last and cutting it is an immense and messy chore. Would need to have multiple layers to have any stiffness.
It's right we aren't defining people as "cyclists", but they were "cycling" and can't lose sight of that and make it so generic that people don't understand what we're campaigning about (to borrow PoP, "for a Scotland where cycling is safe for all")
Posted 11 years ago # -
If anyone interested / available in Edinburgh to help out I'd like to get this rolling.
It might involve a (very) early morning trip to Parliament to deliver and photoshoot.
It might involve some painting things white over the weekend (I'm not free on Saturday, so likely to be Sunday). Plywood and Jigsaw and Paint are current requirements. Happy to buy unless someone has spairs to donate. Maybe some matt varnish too. Oh and padlocks and chain.
Will try confirm plans tomorrow, but I'm inclined to do both ghostbike for parliament (make a board to go in the central triangle on which details can be painted) and a plywood, free-standing memorial-stone type board to be placed at another strategic, high foot/wheelfall location.
Register interest below.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Just checking the figures - at the time the casualty stats came out there had been 6 cyclists killed in Scotland in 2013 already (including one child). So these two make eight - there's a list of all UK fatalities here http://icycleliverpool.co.uk/2013/05/21/cyclist-fatalities-2013/
Posted 11 years ago # -
If still going with a postcard photo too, how about the ghost bike taken with people milling around but using a slow shutter speed to make them seem ghost-like? Happy to offer my time and camera skills for this (others may well be better equipped or skilled).
Posted 11 years ago # -
If you do want names and ages, here are the details:
Alastair Dudgeon, 51, Kincardine (A985) 6th January
Alistair MacBean, 74, Inverness (A82) 22nd January
Charles Aimer, 42, Errol (A90) 17th March
Craig Tetshill, 21, Gorthleck (unclassified road) 16th May
Kyle Allen, 8, Aberdeen (Great Northern Road) 21st May
David Wallace, 52, Perth (West Mains Avenue) 12th June
Douglas Brown, 79, West Lothian (B9080), 11th July
Connor Shields, 14, Ellon (A975), 17th JulyPosted 11 years ago # -
I have the white undercoat metal paint now, so ghostbike is agogo.
I'll take wirewool and turps to it tonight to prep the metalwork, strip off the grease etc.
Still require a donor lock, I have 1 I am willing to sacrifice, but a few would be good.
Anyone got plywood?
Can start the white undercoat tonight, if not tomorrow for sure.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I really like the idea of the ghost bikes at Parliament.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I am about to put a post up on POP about the death. My question is do you want a call to arms to get people to turn out or should we keep it low key until the monument and ghost bike is safely installed?
Wish I could help more...
Posted 11 years ago # -
Just reading through the discussion, the list of names and ages given by Sally seems to have more impact than just numbers. I'm not sure about what families would think tho or if they would mind.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I like the idea of both the tombstone monument and the ghost bikes. After the Bike Station board meeting on Tuesday we were talking about maybe doing something with a ghost bikes (and the Bike Station has a plentiful supply of suitable bikes). In London, they are using the ghost bikes to make a powerful statement that enough is enough.
I don't see that putting the names of the dead on the tombstone monument is disrespectful. These are all avoidable deaths, there is nothing inevitable about them, and this is a message which need to be sent out loud and that this is not inevitable and should not just shrugged off, the way the Sheriff tried to do in the sentencing of McCourt.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I thought I saw a Ghost Bike in Dorset last week.
A few days later I found that white bikes attached to road signs are used to advertise shops or markets like the artic trailers you see in fields here or the bike placards used to announce wandering sales of Tibetan kit we get in libraries.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@KarenJS in my (all be it limited) experience of meeting the families of these victims, they want to see road deaths stopped. They don't want it to happen to another family.
We are calling for an end to the deaths of vulnerable road users, these are not deaths by misadventure, the are caused by negligence of other. This is a culture we can and must change.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I think there should be a ghost bike outside parliament for every death this year.
8 ghost bikes would definitely make a statement (and it would take longer for them to be removed as well). Sourcing them could be a problem though
Posted 11 years ago # -
Have another sacrificial lock.
Posted 11 years ago # -
If you can get 8 (and one of them a child's bike) that would be pretty powerful.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Looking forward to this - well, as much as you can 'look forward' to something involving drawing attention to needless deaths.
I can offer assistance and equipment for the photography. If it's a bright and sunny day trying to get blurred movement/ghost effect can be a challenge without filters to reduce the amount of light going into the camera. Not impossible mind. You can always photoshop it afterwards of course ;)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Progress report.
This evening I managed to strip the unnecessary components off the donor bike I have, give it a good wash down in turps and get most of a coat of bright white primer onto it.
So at the very minimum, there will be the unveiling / dedication / leaving of a ghost bike outside the Scottish Parliament early on Monday morning, in time for people (including myself) to get to work. Therefore it will probably be before 8AM, although if you just want to take photos you can do that any time afterwards (until jobsworth come out with the bolt croppers to remove it).
I hope the bike will have an info-board inside the frame triangle, to detail at the very minimum the increasing number of cyclists dying needlessly on our roads. It will also have a little explanation of what a ghost bike is and why it is there (not everyone knows!)
The other plan is a memorial tombstone to be left somewhere prominent to catch maximum foot and wheelfall before some council bod removes it. It will have similar facts and info as the bike. This is not confirmed yet but chdot has kindly sourced some plywood and would hope to get the thing made on Sunday but there's only so much 1 person can achieve (especially at speed paint dries!)
I'm not sure we need a massive fanfare on this, it would be nice to have a small, dignified attendance and say a few words before taking photos and departing. Lots of tweets etc. always good. If tweeting a picture is all someone can commit to then that's great. Gets the message out there.
Anyway, making it up as I go along, but the bare minimum we will have is the leaving of a ghostbike outside the Scottish Parliament on Monday morning. I hope there will be more to accompany it. There's only so much I can achieve myself in a short timescale - if other people are willing or able to create a ghostbike or provide flowers, the more the merrier. Well, not merry, but you know what I mean.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Monday morning might be tricky for me, but may just make it as I'm very nearby. I presume the ghost bike will be locked to the bike stands there? I wonder how long it will last before Parly security or the police remove it?
Posted 11 years ago # -
When we fliered for PoP1, Anth and I did the racks there, and there was a bike which had clearly been abandoned there for some time.
I reckon that they won't even know it's not just another bike locked at the racks and think it's a council matter. So I'm hoping for at least a week!
Posted 11 years ago # -
A thought I just had on Facebook;
Let's put this in perspective.
London. Population 10 million. Cyclist deaths YTD 5. Scotland. Population 5 million. Cyclist deaths YTD 8.
And I've no idea what the higher cycling rate in London is, but it's probably 10 times that of the Scottish average.
The figures for Scotland are shocking and the government should be made to look embarrassed and culpable.Posted 11 years ago # -
Doing the sums.
Scotland, per capita cyclist deaths 2013 = 1.51 / million
London, per capita cyclist deaths 2013 = 0.52 / millionScotland cyclist deaths per capita = 2.9 that of London.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Alarming but still not necessarily the whole story.
Just a thought but you might want to take urban and non-urban areas and try normalising the figures with respect to the population density. London might be doing better because of lower vehicle speeds brought about by greater traffic.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I cannot help on Sunday but I will do my best to be there on Monday morning, though 1) I may forget and 2) I won't be able to stay very long as I have to get to Livingston as usual.
Posted 11 years ago #
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