Miss the lamppost by inches - and hit a bike some idiot has left there.
Flowers are tacky, but harmless.
A bike increases the roadside hazard and should be removed.
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- I think it is a touching tribute - A Father has lost his Son -
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I love it. Much more moving than tacky flowers in flapping celophane.
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i might start selling them
lots of old bikes around
stick some dulux on them
bit of old bog chain and a poundland padlock
anybody want one
£69.99 delivered sounds reasonable?
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so if his son had died later in hospital, is he going to chain an old bike outside the ward?
Any death is sad but why the need to display your personal grief with tacky pieces of junk or flowers is beyond me.
Its tantamount to littering. And who's going to clear it up when it starts turning into a rusting heap?
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I have to agree with Mr X, its just another way unwanted American Culture is infiltrating our shores, and being forced upon us.
I have no issue with flowers - but thats just tacky and naff
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A person wrote an indignant letter to the local rag because the council binned her shrine of teddy bears, solar powered lights, etc. from the immaculate cremetorium gardens, having given plenty of notice, and it contravening their rules. I hope the litter laws apply to white bikes and are enforced.
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There's always a load of them chained to railings on canal bridges and canal sides in Amsterdam, slowly rotting away, and some spray painted. I always thought they were abandoned and that the graffiti merchants were having a go at them. Now I'm having second thoughts. After a session in the coffee shops, or on the Heineken, maybe cyclists are pitching into the water wholesale and the old bikes are memorials?
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Datostar, The ones in Amsterdam were an ecologists idea. Started in the '60's, white painted bikes were left around Amsterdam that anyone could use. A friend who lived there at the time said lots of people who no longer wanted their bike would paint it white and leave it for communal use. I believe it died out as so many 'disappeared'. Tried again the 2002 and presumably some are still around.
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I often wonder if we shouldn't prop up a tailors dummy with the face of the accident victim stuck on it and a sign saying ' Some idiot tried to cross here " especially when it's on a blind bend just a few yards from a proper pedestrian crossing which they were to idle to walk to and use.
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Heh heh... X is at it again...
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...Oh I don't know. I tend to agree with his observations much of the time.
Having said that, I wouldn't wish to get stuck with him in a lift!...
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Not sure we need to discuss this one further, it's bordering on the insensitive in places and I don't see it getting any better, so I've locked it.
Later that day... - following representation and further consideration I've reopened this thread. Please make sure that comments are suitably worded and won't cause offence or distress.
smokie
Edited by smokie on 15/07/2009 at 00:00
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I saw a lot of these on street corners in New York last summer. The problem with these types of memorials (and the same is equally true of simple bunches of flowers left at roadsides) is that they lose their effect quickly, and when there are so many of them around they just get ignored. As roads gradually get saturated with high level brake lights, daytime running lights, cones, hi-viz vests and countless often over-the-top road signs, we eventually don't take in the information any more.
I'm no expert but I would guess that the thought process involved on passing a memorial is "how sad - wonder what happened - better take care/slow down - nearly past - oh, it won't happen to me - off we go again - it's a 70 zone, so I'll be fine at 80...". With the exception of the very first thought, it's what goes through a lot of drivers heads on passing a police car or the scene of a crash and the associated "guilty conscience" seems to be very short lived.
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Later that day... - following representation and further consideration I've reopened this thread. >>
It still says "lcoked" at the top.
p.s. The previous similar thread on roadside memorials suffered a fate worse than being locked - it is "hidden" !
{I think you'll find it actually said [Read Only] - DD}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 15/07/2009 at 14:59
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It still says "lcoked" at the top. >>
Well it did, until the OP was "Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 15 Jul 09 at 12:32"
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Don't know how these things work in the States but in the UK they are not permanent installations. They seem to move like ghosts from one accident site to another.
Those I have seen (and we've has several fatals in the Euston/Bloomsbury area in the last 18 months) have been in place for a few days. All were, like on the picture in X's link, well off the road. Most were on the inside of the very railings which had prevented the cyclist's safe escape onto the pavement. They are a reminder to all of the cyclist's vulnerability and, I hope, a warning to my fellow 2 wheelers of the dangers of some junctions and the sheer stupidity of playing the form of Russian Roulette that is sneeking up the nearside of an HGV
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'which had prevented the cyclist's safe escape onto the pavement. '
and the pedestrians safety as bikes dive on to the footpath ?
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I'm not talking about the ones who dive, but those who scramble in blind panic to avoid death under an HGV.
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