We commemorated the lives lost to Traffic Violence with the International Ride of Silence yesterday. Starting at the shop, Louis our Board Member kicked it off with the reading of names and the poem. He wrote a nice little limerick to sum up our eclectic group and our route.
We rode up Chester past the Garces Circle onto 34th Street past the new hospitals, then up the hill onto Bernard as it goes to the neighborhoods of the East Side. The stark difference in the pavement was evident on either side of Union from our route. We hit Tulare and Grace Street past the triangle lot to jet downhill on Baker to Old Town Kern. We did not catch the train, so we headed back to Downtown for our weekly bite to eat at Jerry’s.
While our ride was peaceful, we rode to remember those riders who were taking a ride and did not make it home safely. Our group named the people we rode for, some with names and some unnamed still, who passed many years ago or recently. Traffic violence is a serious threat to riders and walkers in Bakersfield, and we rode for these victims.
Arnulfo Lopez-Rodriguez was killed while biking on January 4, 2022
Raven Mora was the victim of a hit-and-run while biking on March 13, 2022
Many more pedestrians are killed on public roadways in Bakersfield. Some end up being named in news updates, some go nameless.