Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Mean Streets


The Brooklyn Paper has a new section called "Mean Streets" that will cover transportation issues in the borough. This recent article about the death of a cyclist is one of the first in the new section.
The scene of a biker’s death has become macabre memorial — a lasting reminder of the mean streets that claimed his life.Someone stenciled an outline of a splayed body at the corner of President Street and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope to pay homage to Jonathan Millstein, a 50-year-old Boerum Hill resident who died on Sept. 10 after colliding with a bus at the intersection.

The yellow and orange graffiti lists Millstein’s name, the date of his death, and a stark diagnosis: “Killed by bus.”

Ghost bikes have become very common in NYC, the stencil on the streets has been used for pedestrians and cyclists killed since 1998. In the past few years it has not been on the streets. Well, it looks as if they are coming back again to prove a point. These stencils are much more shocking and a reminder that someone was killed here. It functions much differently than ghost bikes, which are a memorial to the rider.

Every three days a pedestrian is killed in NYC by a vehicle. Will these stencils help make a difference on how we use our streets?

No comments: