The haunting sights are becoming only too common. What rider hasn\’t seen a ghost bike? Those sad, white-painted bicycles mark a tragic encounter between bicycle and motor vehicle.

Naturally my home town has its share of ghost bikes. Not long ago one appeared on the route I take to my bike shop. A bit ironic, that.

I didn\’t realize that ghost bikes had been around for so long. The complement of ghost bikes is, I suppose, the annual Ride of Silence. I took part in that ride years ago, when it left from the local park.

Then the ride switched its venue to another park that\’s about six miles away. To get there I\’d be riding a route that I don\’t often use. On the way there, I would have to deal with rush-hour traffic. I\’d be riding home in the dark afterwards. I\’m used to riding in the dark, but not alongside traffic.

So I paid little attention to the Ride of Silence for a long time. Happily, this year\’s Ride of Silence leaves from the nearby park again. Fortunately nobody I\’ve ever known has been killed while riding a bicycle, but a friend was hit by a pickup truck last Fall while cycling. Maybe I can do the Ride of Silence this year, for him. I\’ll be able to ride home from that park with minimal contact with motor traffic.

Avoiding traffic while I ride? Maybe I\’m a scaredy-cat, but as I\’ve said, these haunting sights are only too numerous; and I don\’t want the next ghost bike to be for me.