What’re peoples bodies relationships to cars? What about when people are on bikes? How does that change?
“When you’re inside a car, it is a completely different experience and power than when you are out in the open and standing next to a car. Again, this relationship is only further complicated by the speed of the car. If the car is still, there is less of a threat. If the car is going 20 mph, there is more of a threat, but it is not as scary as when a car is driving on a highway going 45 plus mph” (Field notes, March 29, 2017).
This is how I felt visiting the ghost bike for the second time. I was standing on the side of the curb. A huge FedEx car sped past, coming inches away from me and I felt almost powerless. It made me begin to think about how Tony Turner felt on the bike. Did he know the car was coming? Did he feel powerless? I began to contemplate the idea of a body vs. a car.
I feel a different sense of control when on a bike versus when in a car. This power relationship extends to the meaning that one has when owning a car. In Sarah Jain’s piece “Violent Submission Gendered Automibility,” she states that U.S. cities developed into an environment inhabitable through car ownership. This organizational hierarchy establishes where people can and cannot go. Not only does it define people’s traveled length but it also defines their ability to travel independently or not. What does this mean in terms of who is at fault when it comes to bike accidents? Is it the actor with more power e.g. the driver?
In cycling accidents, there is always a tension between the person on the bike and the person behind the wheel. Is the biker or the driver to blame? Both of them are culpable. With this ghost bike, it was a hit and run, so how do we know who was to blame? Was Tony Turner biking too close to the cars? Did the driver not see Tony Turner?
In order to think through these issues, it helps to think about who the road belongs to. Roads are no longer just for cars, but for bikes too. Hence, I believe that bikers and drivers need to follow the same rules on the road. This ghost bike symbolizes this tension of the body and the car. While the cars still live on, passing the ghost bike every day, the memory of Tony Turner also remains with the bike.