The Ride to Remember: Infrastructure, Ghost Bikes, and Preventable Deaths

This morning New Orleans bicycle advocates met at Lake Lawn Cemetery for the Ride to Remember. We gathered to honor those who have lost their lives simply trying to ride a bicycle in the city they call home. These are people who were commuting, visiting friends, going to work, or just trying to live with freedom and joy. And they are no longer with us—not because of chance or fate, but because of failure. Failure of design, failure of policy, and failure of political will.

Ghost Bike at the Ride to Remember highlighting recent traffic deaths.

Ghost bikes mark these failures. You’ve seen them—painted white, chained to poles, silent and unmoving. They are not just memorials. They are protest art. They state to us that this didn’t have to happen—and that it will keep happening unless things change.

And yet, even now—especially now—we are fighting just to keep the little we’ve been given.

Recently, the Federal Department of Transportation and DOGE have shown more interest in removing bike infrastructure than building more of it. They are prioritizing car traffic over human lives. They’re scratching out bike infrastructure from the transportation budget because its seen as “woke” transportation models. They’re ignoring data, public input, and common sense. They are moving backward—and people will die because of it.

Let’s be very clear: traffic cameras are not enough. Painted lines are not enough. We need protected, separated bike infrastructure. We need a transportation policy that centers on people, not just cars. Until that happens, we will keep losing friends, family, and neighbors.

But we are not powerless.

Critical Mass is a movement that seeks to champion change. When we ride together, we send a message: we are here, we are watching, and we will not be silent. Every last Friday of the month, we ride. Not just for fun, not just for protest—but to reclaim space, to honor the fallen, and to demand a better future.

Follow us on Instagram at @CriticalMassNola. Come ride with us. Bring your friends. Bring your rage. Bring your love.

Let’s turn our grief into action. Let’s turn these ghost bikes into a turning point.

In Solidarity,

—Eric Gabourel