The day before yesterday I took part in the Ride of Silence in San Antonio and must say it was not what I had expected. On the one hand, as far as I was informed, the person to lead the ride and having the maps of the route never showed up, and, on the other hand, when someone else took over leading it, the ride can only have looked as a leisurely group ride through downtown San Antonio. I really think the public should have been made aware of what it was about. And since, even with way too few riders [to my estimate not more than 70] taking part, it still proved difficult to stay together, I really think this ride should have had a polilce escort. What about police on bicycles? San Antonio does have them and once I saw one offcer om his bike watching us. Why not have them ride, too?
I really wish for next year’s ride to have a far larger number of participants in a police-escorted ride with some way of making the public aware of the goals. And why not try and get into the news? I really think, if invited, the local newspapers and tv-stations would have been there to report.
And why not – to suggest something different but very eye-catching – put up “ghost bikes” wherever a bicyclist has been killed in a road accident?
But let me not finish without thanking those guys who took over leading the ride just on the spot: they did a wonderful job.
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