Here is a quick interview with Scott Strom who is helping to organize the Fort Worth ‘Ride of Silence’ event and was kind enough to do a quick interview with us today.
Please be so kind and introduce the Ride of Silence to folks that are not familiar with it.
On the third Wednesday of May, at 7 PM local around the world, cyclists will take to the roads in a silent protest of the carnage taking place on the streets.
Chris Phelan organized the first Ride of Silence in Dallas in 2003 after endurance cyclist Larry Schwartz was killed by a passing bus mirror on an empty road. The Ride of Silence is a free ride that asks its cyclists to ride no faster than 12 mph for no longer than an hour, and to remain silent during the ride.
The ride hopes to raise cycling awareness during bike safety month to motorists, police, traffic engineers, insurance companies, and city officials. The ride is also a chance to mourn, funeral-procession-style, those who have already been killed. There are no fees charged to participate.
This is OUR ride. We have charity rides for AIDS, diabetes, MS, disabled veterans, cancer and all sorts of other things. This ride is about bicycling. It’s our chance to, very politely and quietly, ask drivers to please stop killing us.
How did this Texas bike ride go global?
As I understand it, the first Ride of Silence drew a crowd of 1000, based purely on Word of mouth getting around. Clearly, people were really ready for an outlet of this kind when Chris put the ride together in memory of his friend. Chris felt very strongly that the world needs to be safer for cyclists and others and wanted to keep his friend’s memory alive. He decided to do the ride annually. He did interviews, used social media, created a web page, and other people started doing the ride in cities all around the world.
How did you personally get involved in Ride of Silence?
If I ever heard about the ride before last year, it didn’t really register with me. I think my daughter heard about it through Facebook and sent me a link. I found the directions to the Fort Worth ride and joined in.
I have only been cycling for a little over 2 years now. I rode a bike as a kid, and had one in the eighties. It embarrasses me how little I ever rode it.
In ’09, I decided that I needed to get some exercise to lose weight. My doctors have been telling me that for a long time, but I finally decided to do it. I tried walking at the mall and on the local school track, but I couldn’t stay on my feet for more than 5 minutes at a time. I had severe hip and leg pain that wouldn’t let me stand for any longer than that. I was working with my doctor on finding and fixing that, and trying to lose weight at the same time. I pulled the last bicycle we gave my son out of the garage, put new inner tubes on it and started riding. I found that I could ride much longer than I could walk and could get some really good exercise. I picked up a used bike for my wife and we started riding together.
The pain turned out to be from a broken vertebra from an injury 34 years earlier. I had spinal fusion and I’m now able to walk or run without the pain I used to have; but now I’m a cyclist. Why would I want to walk when I can ride?
On last year’s ride, my wife and I found that the route had a big, steep hill that scared off some cyclists who might have ridden if we took a different route. We made it up the hill, but it was the toughest hill we had ever climbed. I knew that I wanted this year’s route to be easier so that all the cyclists who wanted to do the ride would be able to. I designed a route that I knew would work and suggested it to the officers of every bicycle club I knew of in the area. Of course, everybody looked at it and, without actually saying it, let me know that I had taken the ball and it was time to run with it. I designed fliers and posters, placed those in 16 bike shops, notified every club of what was going on, talked to the city about permits and the police about traffic control, and have talked about the ride so much, people are ready for my silence to begin. I’ve gotten to know a lot of great people I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Can you share with us a story or two of people we will be honoring tonight?
One of our riders whose name I’ve misplaced let me know that she was hit by a car in July of 2010. This is only her 4th ride outside, since the accident.
I also received a call from Scott Rankin, thanking me for organizing the ride and asking me to include his name. He had an accident with a parked UPS truck in 2009 and is now a quadriplegic.
Last year, Lauren Huddleston was jogging on the Katy trail in Dallas and was hit by a cyclist and killed. On the trails, we are the cars. We have to understand that pedestrians can be unpredictable and that they deserve the respect from us that we expect from drivers on the road.
How many people/riders do you expect at the event?
I’ll be really shocked if we have less than 200. I won’t be surprised if we have over 500. We had over 110 confirmed on the event page on Facebook yesterday.
What can we in the cycling community do to prevent accidents?
Education is the biggest thing we can do. Both drivers and cyclists do a lot of things wrong. Many cyclists ride against traffic, don’t stop for traffic lights or stop signs, dart in and out of sidewalks and parking lots, and don’t have lights or even reflectors on their bikes. Drivers are distracting themselves with cell phones and other things while they drive, driving too close to cyclists they see, and there are still too many drunk drivers.
It is also helpful to let city and state officials know that things need to change to keep us from getting killed out there. Fort Worth just added several miles of bike lanes in the near Southside. They continue to add to the Trinity Trails and are adding more bike lanes and bike racks all over the city. This wouldn’t have happened without an active cycling community pushing for it all the time.
What would you like people to take away from this event?
I hope that the cyclists who ride tonight leave knowing that they are part of a big, loving community, where we care what happens to other cyclists. I hope those grieving for lost cyclists are comforted by this enormous, virtual-group-hug. I hope city leaders realize that a lot more needs to be done to make our streets safe. I hope that drivers realize that there are a lot of us out there and they need to share the roads with us.
If just 1 driver gets the message and decides never to text while driving again, and that driver passes by just 1 cyclist that he would have hit, every bit of effort we’ve put into getting this ride together was worth it.
Any last directions or reminders before the ride tomorrow, where can folks get more info if they so wish?
We’re asking everyone to park either at the Farrington Field parking lot or the Rosedale trailhead along the Trinity Trails. Several groups are parking even further away and riding in. We want to keep the parking inside Trinity Park clear for disabled riders and for other park users.
The ride requests black arm bands be worn, red only if you have had a bike/motor vehicle accident. Helmets are required; bright clothing and lights are highly recommended for the ride home.
Route maps are online at GMaps Pedometer and MapMyRide.com.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4410220
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/30079818/
There is a Facebook event for the ride at:https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197331356970679
The web site is: http://www.rideofsilence.org/
Thank you for granting us this short interview and we’ll see you tonight!
The Wheelbrothers
P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook
Detailed ride information for all of Texas Ride of Silence
