This image is a “ghost bike“. Ghost bikes are memorials to cyclists killed on our highways. A bike is painted white and chained to something solid close to where the cyclist was killed. This image is from flickr user Kamaru and is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution license.

Last night, at the intersection of Apalachee Parkway and Magnolia, Jarryd Brown was killed in an accident with a car. Jarryd was my neighbor and my friend and leaves behind a community who have lost too many young people to the highways.

Jarryd went to SAIL and was currently enrolled at TCC. As the father of one bicycle commuter, the brother of another and an occasional bike commuter myself, this hits me even harder.

I was unable to reach anyone at TPD this morning regarding the current status of the investigation. I don’t know if the traffic cameras at the intersection caught a license number or of there is a description of the vehicle or the driver. As soon as a description is available, I’ll be posting it here. Look for updates in the comments. It’s important that this, and every traffic incident where a cyclist is injured or killed is treated seriously by law enforcement.

There are a couple of memorials planned for Jarryd. The local bike community is holding a ride of silence in honor of Jarryd. It starts at 7PM in front of Krank It Up in Railroad Square. There is a post-ride bonfire planned in Jarryd’s community.

There is a brief article about the accident on TDO. It didn’t make the front page - look for it under “more local news” . Local bike blog, “TallyCat.org” has a very active discussion thread on the accident.

The best memorial to Jarryd is for each of us to raise our voice to our local bureaucrats and politicians. It’s time that bicycle transportation is taken seriously in our community, and that our traffic and transportation plans treat bikes and pedestrians as equals to automobiles.

The planning department is currently considering the development of a new “multimodal” transportation district in downtown Tallahassee. We’re not talking Madison (Wisconsin), or Davis (California) here but it’s a start. You can download the proposal here. The planning department’s point person for this initiative is:

Cherie Bryant, AICP
Special Projects Manager
Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department
(850) 891-6400

Read the plan and let Cherie know what you think about it. For me, the big issues are intersections, on-street parking, secure bike parking, and fair enforcement of bicycle/automobile issues.

Keep Jarryd’s dad, Scott, in your hearts and please, share the road. Cyclists belong.
Updated to correct earlier inaccuracy.