The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia invites the Philadelphia region’s cycling community to join us for the 7 mile Ride of Silence this year on Wednesday, May 18th. This is a slow paced group ride, for all experienced level cyclists. We will gather at the North Apron of City Hall starting at 6:30pm, and end at the bottom of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps at 8pm.
The purpose of this event is to honor and memorialize cyclists whose lives have been taken due to the lack of investment in road infrastructure, and to call for greater investment to ensure the safety of all cyclists across the nation.
The Ride of Silence has taken place over the past 18 years and continues to due to the lack of investment in bicycle infrastructure and overall road safety for all users — pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, folks using other types of mobility devices, etc. This year the ride will begin at a new location, the North Apron of City Hall, so please do not show up at the Art Museum steps.
When you arrive at City Hall, you must fill out a ride waiver in order to participate in the group ride. Please arrive at least 15-30 minutes before the event begins at 6:45pm, the ride itself will begin promptly at 7pm.
While you are waiting, you can check out the Families For Safe Streets of Greater Philadelphia table and see how they have been advocating for safer streets in Philadelphia and across the nation. There will be a police escort and volunteer bicycle marshals from the Philadelphia Bike Messenger Association (PBMA) helping guide and close intersections.
We recommend you bring:
- a helmet
- front and rear bike lights
- water
The Ride of Silence will be occurring across 38 states and 8 countries on Wednesday. The mission of the worldwide Ride of Silence is to honor bicyclists killed by motorists, promote sharing the road, provide awareness of bicycling safety, and ultimately not let the lives lost to traffic violence be in vain.
For more information about the Ride of Silence, check out rideofsilence.org. If you have any questions please contact Ray Scheinfeld, erayben@bellatlantic.net and John Siemiarowski, tandemdad@gmail.com. As a reminder, this will be a slow paced ride that will take riders through downtown Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and end at the Art Museum. You can view the mapped route of the ride here.
See you there and stay safe.