Video: How (and Why) To Paint a Ghost Bike

Roadside memorials to victims of traffic violence are an unfortunately common sight across America. Even more unfortunately, though, those altars are often removed by people who don’t understand their importance to the people left grieving — and to advocates who refuse to allow the deadly impacts of car culture to be erased from the public realm.

Bostonian filmmaker Matt Ognibene made it his quest to restore two of his city’s lost “ghost bikes,” and help preserve the memory of two cyclists who were taken too soon. And he also included a handy how-to for anyone else who wants to call attention to the deadly roads where their neighbors were killed, and the slain riders whose stories deserve to be told.

Give it a watch, and check out our past coverage of the roadside memorial movement, including a 2022 interview with historian and author Peter Norton.