Do It for Dan Memorial Ride
Do It for Dan Memorial Ride
This past Sunday was a day for celebration. With sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70s, it was a perfect spring day. Maybe you headed to a local pub to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Perhaps you had a picnic lunch out on the patio. Maybe -like me- you had a more serious tone to your celebration.
On Sunday at about 4 p.m., over 500 cyclists gathered at Island Lake State Recreation Area for an event called “Do It for Dan Memorial Ride.” You see, on April 25 Dan Horal was someone with the bad fortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dan was struck by a car piloted by an inattentive driver, and he died two days after the crash.
The Bicycle Community Mourns
While we mourn the needless loss of anyone, this one is especially hard to take. From the testimony of family and friends speaking at the event, we know Dan was a safe cyclist. His wife and two of his brothers each spoke before the ride began. Dan wore bright clothing and a proper helmet, and had front and rear safety lights running. He had planned his ride ahead of time. These are each important factors in riding safely. Even though I’d never met Dan, we have a lot in common. Similar age, two children. His home is about 10 miles from the crash site, as is mine. I’ve ridden past that spot at least a dozen times in the past year. Five hundred others felt this same sense of community loss.
Why this is difficult
Yet here’s the kicker: Dan was riding in a safe place. Island Lake State Recreation Area is a popular destination for many outdoor recreationalists. Bicyclists, fishermen & women, hikers, hunters, kayakers, runners, and others gather regularly there to be outdoors. The park has only one entrance & exit to outside roads. In other words, there is no connection by road to anywhere else. No subdivisions, no shopping or commercial areas, nothing but recreation and low traffic count. The speed limit is only 25 MPH, and the roads inside the park are not designed for any higher speed. Island Lake is a perfect place for bicyclists to practice riding on paved roads with motor traffic.
Why we need to act
We can’t know what the driver saw, or why he failed to see Dan. The driver who caused this death is not our focus. It’s more important that we take this discussion to a higher level, and talk about traffic safety. We need to focus on better driver education. We need to understand and focus on infrastructure design to make safe roads and highways. And by ‘we’ I believe the discussion needs to include all roadway users, not just bicyclists.
There is a practical way to keep the momentum from this Memorial Ride moving ahead. The League of Michigan Bicyclists has an event coming up soon, the Bicycle and Trail Advocacy Day at the capitol in Lansing. If you feel passionately about this issue, please register and join this event. The focus this year is on distracted driving, and how we can take action to make our roads and highways safer for all users.
Post Script
If you see a bike painted white and sitting on the side of the road, you’ll recognized that someone on a bicycle died there in a collision. There will soon be a new Ghost Bike in place near Kent Lake Beach in Island Lake State Recreation Area. Let’s turn our efforts to advocate for safer roads for all, and some day make Ghost Bikes a thing of the past.
PSS
Thank you to Shaun and Dawn Bhajan of Hometown Bicycles in Brighton for your efforts in supporting this event, and thank you to Travis Plotner of Wheels in Motion in Ann Arbor for your photographs. Both of these bicycle shops are doing a great job of building the bicycling community.
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