Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Hundreds of bicyclists took off riding towards the Massachusetts State House Sunday, marking the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) with a protest on two wheels.
Among them was Alexa Gomberg, who organized the event called “Ride for Your Life.”
The group of cyclists started their ride started at Cambridge Commons and made their way to Beacon Hill.
Gomberg and the other cyclists are calling on local lawmakers to put up more red-light cameras and pass more safety restrictions for trucks.
“After a long day, the last thing you want is to be stuck in traffic,” Gomberg told WBZ NewsRadio. “I would actually say maybe get on your bike if you can. I find it incredibly freeing.”
However, that feeling sometimes comes at a cost due to what advocates call unsafe road measures in Boston.
Five months ago, Gomberg lost her lifelong friend and then roommate, Minh-Thi Nguyen, after being struck by a box truck turning a corner in Cambridge. Nguyen, 24, was an MIT graduate student who was riding her bike at the intersection of Hampshire and Portland streets when she was hit.
Gomberg said she recently had her own close call at the exact same intersection.
Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
“The community as a whole is grieving and, Cambridge, we lost three humans who happened to be cycling,” she added.
WDR commemorates victims and their families impacted by road accidents on the third Sunday of November each year.
According to MassDOT, around 1,400 accidents reported in 2023 were bicyclist related, including seven fatalities. Nearly 1,300 bicycle accidents have already been reported in 2024 with five fatalities.
“Today is heavy,” Eric Olson of Andover told WBZ NewsRadio. He rode his bike in the protest on Sunday for his five-year-old daughter Sidney, who was hit by a box truck and passed away over a year ago. “But it’s also hopeful [because] we have such a huge group here, and so I think our voice will be heard.”
Ian, another Cambridge bike safety organizer, didn’t understand the urgency of this issue until he got on a bike himself.
“I use to drive really close to cyclists all the time, and my wife was pissed about it,” he said. “I didn’t get why until I got on a bike and started biking around in traffic.”
WBZ’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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