Unidentified on Mt. Baldy Road

Like many, most, maybe all, i discovered that the life of a cyclist had been lost on a local roadway a full week after the fact. When the wife brought home the latest edition of the Courier Friday evening, i read the short paragraph in the police blotter section with dismay for both the loss, and the fact that this was the first mention of it. I scanned back through BikingInLA - nothing; word had apparently not reached Ted either. I checked Danny Gamboa and Ghost Bike Documentary. Nothing. A Google search similarly turned up nothing. No word at all. Silence all around. With equal silence i added another 'unidentified' to the painfully lengthening list of the 2014 Ride in Peace Memorial.

Damn, i hate watching it grow, name by name, person by person.

I used to frequent Mt. Baldy Road, weekdays, after work during the summer - more daylight, lighter traffic. Almost immediately, though, it began to wear on my nerves - the speeding motor vehicles, the drivers who don't care shit (excuse the language) for the lives of others if it means they have to slow down.

I frequent it much less frequently these days. As Jason, of BicycleFriends noted, it may be a while before i can consider riding up there again. Which might make the motor heads happy, though it shouldn't; i drive the speed limit, and if they think it is an inconvenience to pass me when i am on a bike, it will be damn near impossible when i am in a car.

I hope that i can put a name in place of that unidentified, but after a week … well, who knows, it is still possible. It is the absolute least that can be done - recognizing a person by name, recognizing that a life, the life of a fellow cyclist and human, was carelessly and needlessly lost.