DENVER — On Wednesday morning, the family of 52-year-old Steve Perkins held a ghost bike ceremony for the cyclist, who died after a driver ran a red light and hit him at the intersection of E. 13th Avenue and Syracuse Street on Aug. 10.
“Steve contributed to Bicycle Colorado. He knew about the safety crisis and invested his resources in our work, which says a lot about who he was,” said Peter Piccolo, Bicycle Colorado executive director.
Piccolo said he’s lost count of the number of ghost bikes he’s placed by major roadways in the Denver metro area.
A ghost bike is a bike that is painted white and placed at the site of a traffic fatality involving a cyclist.
“You’ll find data published by CDOT, starting in 2002 through 2021. When you look at that data, you'll see that 243 bicyclists have been killed,” Piccolo said. “The data is alarming. And to me, it just screams public health crisis.”
Piccolo said many of the bicyclists’ deaths were preventable.
“There are multiple things that need to happen. I would start with the physical infrastructure: how we construct our roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks," he said. "There are ways to build our public right of away that prioritize the safety of people who bike and walk over moving cars as quickly as possible. Much of our infrastructure today are relics of the mid-20th century, 1980s. The second thing that I would focus on is laws and enforcement that prioritize people who bike and walk. We have a number of laws on the book that, frankly, need to be enforced.”
Piccolo said education for drivers and cyclists is also needed.
“I would just underscore that it doesn't have to be this way. We shouldn't be here right now, having this ghost bike ceremony. We know the solutions. We just need to get it done,” Piccolo said.
Perkins's brother, Dan Perkins, said his brother’s ghost bike ceremony was the first one he’s ever attended.
“It’s really hitting me close to home,” Dan said. “He was a really good guy. I mean, he was a give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back kind of guy. He would give it to you if you needed it. He did everything for his family, a great husband and father…. My best friend for 52 years.”
He said he hopes his brother’s death will eventually lead to road safety improvements.
“I'm not naive enough to think that my own brother's death is going to change everything. But I hope that it's a starting point. Because he was so well-connected in the cycling community, and so well-loved in his own community,” Dan said.
Dan said it will take effort from the entire community to make Denver’s roads safer.