 "Photo: Jordan Gomez")
White bicycles stand chained to trees and utility poles across Austin. Each represents a bicycle casualty, usually a fatal one.
The spectral bikes, a labor of love for bike messenger Ben Lynch and friends, stand to raise awareness amongst both cyclists and drivers.
The Ghost Bike Project is a nationwide awareness movement with roots in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, but Lynch and crew are working independently from the national model.
"I thought it was a really cool idea to get people's attention," Lynch said. "The first one we put up is the one on Sixth Street."
The bike, arguably the city's most prominent, stands against a light pole in front of Waterloo Records at the busy intersection of Lamar Boulevard and west Sixth Street.
The second memorial erected stands on the western side of the 1100 block of south First Street, directly across the street from the Texas School for the Deaf football field. The bike stands as a memorial to Krishna Walters, who was struck by a Capital Metro bus in 2001.
"I personally put that bike up after she died," said Amy Moralez, a former Austin resident who has since relocated to Connecticut.
"I'd seen something about the white bikes on a Web site, and I've always worked in bike shops, so I had access to plenty of bike parts," she said. "The first two got taken down by the Texas Department of Transportation, I think, but the third one I put up has been there for a while now. I did put a super heavy lock on it."
Lynch recommends that bikers use Bouldin Avenue rather than S. First Street.
"Bouldin's not as busy - there's not a bus - and the cars seem a lot cooler to bikes," Lynch said.
The third white bike stands at the intersection of south Congress Avenue and St. Elmo Road.
"Some kids called about that bike. They'd seen others and wanted to make a shrine to their friend who'd been hit," Lynch said. "We went and put a bike up. It was stolen almost immediately, but after that, they started maintaining it themselves."
For a time, both thieves and authorities were removing the bikes, but most have been in their current locations for years.
Statistics from the Austin police department indicate that there has been at least one Austin auto-bicycle collision resulting in death every year since 1993, the earliest year the department had statistics available.
According to the City of Austin's traffic safety Web site, 39 out of 41 cyclist fatalities involved a motor vehicle. In most cases, the cyclist was not wearing a helmet. Austin passed a mandatory helmet law in 1996, but it was soon amended to apply only to those 17 and under. The University advises all who bicycle to school to wear a helmet, but in many cases helmets would do no good.
"The kid on south Congress got creamed by a big truck, and the bicyclist on South First Street got hit by a bus. A helmet wouldn't have made a difference," Lynch said.
There are more than 4,000 bicycles registered with UT, according to parking services supervisor Blanca Juarez. Fortunately, there have been no bicycle fatalities, said Officer Darrell Halstead of UT CampusWatch.
"I've watched a bike knock over a pedestrian, but then they got up and everything seemed decent. No one was running from the scene," Halstead said. "But it was never reported either."
Software developer Aaron Shannon never reported his run-ins with a heavier vehicle.
"I've been hit twice, once nine years ago and again a couple of years ago," he said. "It was a hit and run both times. The first time, I was on my way home from work and woke up in the middle of Rundberg Lane with tire tracks on the side of my face. I got a CAT scan, an MRI, and it cost me $20,000, but I don't have brain damage."
On the first occasion Shannon was wearing a helmet, which was crushed into the back of his head.
Despite the haunting presence of the ghost bikes, auto-bike collision fatalities have stayed relatively consistent. Halstead partially blames it on changing times.
"We were told as kids to ride against traffic so you could see what was coming at you," he said. "Staying on sidewalks and ignoring stop signs was just what you did."
Those rules don't work anymore, Halstead said. A bicycle is a vehicle by definition, and a vast majority of traffic laws still apply.
"There are more cars and cyclists all the time. Anything people can do to make themselves safer, I would recommend it," he said.
