Peter B. Cheung, a bike safety advocate who made Staley\u2019s memorial, said he installed the bike to mark the two-year anniversary of her death. Though ghost bikes are often accompanied by unveiling ceremonies, Cheung said he placed the bike without one to draw attention to the intersection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought that this intersection is a very dangerous intersection, a very high-profile intersection,\u201d Cheung said.<\/p>\n
Cheung said ghost bikes are meant to memorialize cyclists and to push for safer streets, drawing attention to locations where advocates say safety concerns persist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to remind all cars to share the road for all vulnerable road users, and to be aware of cycling and the infrastructure \u2014 to get any awareness to enhance the infrastructure to make things safer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Staley was one of three cyclists killed in Cambridge in 2024, a series of deaths that intensified calls for bike safety improvements. Two weeks after Staley was killed, Minh-Thi Nguyen<\/a>, a 24-year-old MIT graduate student, was struck and killed by a truck while biking near Kendall Square. Both of their deaths remain under investigation.<\/p>\n In September 2024, John H. Corcoran \u201984<\/a> was killed after an SUV struck him while he was biking on Memorial Drive.<\/p>\n Get The Crimson in your inbox.<\/p>\n A ghost bike<\/a> was installed near the site of Corcoran\u2019s death days later. The driver, 26-year-old Junming Zhu, has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and negligence, and a trial has yet to be held.<\/p>\n The three deaths drew renewed calls from advocates and city officials for safety improvements in the city, including separated bike lanes. At the intersection where Staley was killed, the city later added signage allowing cyclists to turn right on red and an additional bike signal for turning cyclists.<\/p>\n For many advocates, the memorials are a reflection of the personal experiences that draw people into bike safety work.<\/p>\n Michael A. Rogove, a Cambridge cyclist and safety advocate, said his own advocacy is rooted in his childhood.<\/p>\n \u201cMy own father suffered a traumatic brain injury when I was a child because of bad street infrastructure,\u201d Rogove said. \u201cAs a kid, after that point I became terrified of riding a bike, and it wasn\u2019t until I became an adult that I started doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Rogove said ghost bikes serve a dual purpose: calling attention to dangerous road conditions while creating a lasting monument for cyclists who were killed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an awareness thing, and it\u2019s also a form of memorializing and respecting the dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Though memorials for bike deaths have appeared in the Boston area for decades, Galen M. Mook, a bike advocate who helps coordinate the memorials, said local advocates have spent the last 15 years building a more organized network around the memorials.<\/p>\n Mook said his involvement with ghost bikes began in 2012 after the death of Chung-Wei \u201cVictor\u201d Yang, a 21-year-old Boston University student who was killed in a collision with a bus in Allston.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally came upon the crash scene walking in Allston while he was being literally put into the ambulance,\u201d he said. \u201cHis bloodied Red Sox baseball cap was still on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n Staley\u2019s memorial is the second ghost bike installed in Harvard Square and among at least a dozen in Cambridge, according to a Cambridge Bicycle Safety tracker. The first in the Square was installed in 2020 after Darryl Willis<\/a> was killed in a collision with a tractor-trailer on Massachusetts Avenue, across from the Smith Campus Center.<\/p>\n Cheung said the ghost bike ceremony became the only memorial service held for Willis.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never had a proper funeral or ceremony, and we had our ghost bike ceremony,\u201d Cheung said. \u201cThey had flowers and balloons and everything, and that was the only service this person had when he passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n Mook said families and friends often return to the white bicycles years after a crash, leaving flowers, tending the memorials, and gathering on anniversaries. In that way, he added, the ghost bikes become more than symbols of advocacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s probably the most important thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat it\u2019s actually used as a tool for grieving and processing for those who are close to the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/static\/media\/logo.dd5a92a7.svg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n