Cyclists decry ghost bike in cartoon

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An outraged biking community says a cartoon in a campus newspaper went too far when it used a ghost bike, a memorial for cyclists killed on the streets, as a lesson for cyclists to obey the rules of the road.

The cartoon titled “Bicycle Safety Guide” listing rules for cyclists popped up Monday in the Daily Lobo at the University of New Mexico. It informs bike riders to stay off of sidewalks, obey stop signs and to ride on the right side of the road with the flow of traffic.

Jennifer Buntz of the Duke City Wheelmen, the group that puts up ghost bikes, said by Wednesday she had received a flood of texts and e-mails from people appalled by the cartoon.

Buntz said she didn't have a problem with the beginning of the message.

“Their attitude may have been in the right place,” Buntz said. “Everybody needs to obey the rules of the road, everybody.”

However, then the cartoon takes a dark turn. The illustration shows after the cyclist is hit by the car, an image of a white bike with flowers and a rest in peace sign appears on the side of a road.

Buntz said it's clearly a ghost bike.

“Nobody has questioned that,” Buntz said.

Buntz said she was shocked and could not believe someone would use what many consider a sacred symbol, in such a way.

“A memorial is a memorial, and it has more of a sacred aspect than a political or editorial aspect, and it should be respected for that,” Buntz said.

Buntz maybe does not want to believe the cartoonist wanted to be disrespectful. She said after all on the side of the cartoon is a message saying the author is a cyclist who's been riding on Albuquerque streets for 20 years.

While the cartoon suggests that cyclists are contributing to their own demise, Buntz said out of 18 ghost bikes they've put up,12 were for deaths where a driver was at fault, three were the cyclists fault and three were undetermined.

As of Wednesday evening KRQE had not had their calls or email returned from The Daily Lobo staff.