The Chainlink

Planning for a Friday Morning Memorial for Neill Townsend to Raise Awareness about Dooring and Sharing the Road

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IMPORTANT NOTE

The date for the memorial has been changed to FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH.
We will meet from 8-8:30 am at the northwest corner of Wells and Oak Streets.

Here is the link to the event page.

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This is a new discussion based off of one of the threads of conversations in the discussion "Bicyclist killed at Oak & Wells Friday AM". Some folks were on board with the idea of holding a memorial on the morning of Friday, October 19th around the time the accident occurred, which would create the opportunity for it to serve as a chance to raise awareness about dooring and sharing the road at a high traffic time. Several people made good suggestions there. They are copied and pasted in a reply below.

If you have any suggestions or you're willing to help out, please comment here.

Once details have been worked out, I'll post it as an event. 

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Replies to This Discussion

Thanks for putting together a quick and simple tentative schedule from the conversation. I'd been busy with homework for a while, and just got caught up on the thread. So, I'll go ahead and add an event with the times you suggested (start at 8, finish by 8:30) and the ride of silence to the Loop after.

Also, thank you for pointing out that Neill's name was misspelled in the title- it was a typo, and is fixed now.



Thunder Snow said:

OK, assuming most folks want to get to work by nine, this memorial should ideally wrap up by 8:30.  So, start at 8:00, dedicate a ghost bike, maybe add a prayer from Neill's pastor/priest/rabbi if they're willing to attend, say some nice words about the fellow and then disperse?  Continue in a ride of silence to the Loop?

(Also: maybe we should spell Neill's name correctly at the top of this thread in case his relatives come across it?)

Ok. So, I'm going to go ahead and add an event for the memorial Friday. Below is a list of the things that don't seem to have been worked out yet.

Who's working on the ghost bike and can it be ready by Friday?

Is anyone able to contact someone from Neill's family or friends to notify them about the memorial and to see if they would like, or if they know someone they would like, to offer a brief eulogy at the service?

Has a consensus been reached about a flyer? As this requires a quick turnaround, I suggest something simple that can be done at a FedEx Office type of place. If this is something we want to do, it would seem that we need people to volunteer for the following:

design

paying for printing costs (we could all pitch in, but someone's going to have to cover it up front)

printing

I checked the FedEx Office website, and you can upload a document on-line to have printed at a store. They have whole, half, and quarter page flyers, but I can't get an estimate without a design.

I can try to put something together for a design. Not promising anything super slick but I can put something together. Does anyone have any good stats they'd like to see on there? I'm thinking some kind of graphic and then 3-4 bullet points.


Cameron Puetz said:

If someone can put together a design, I'll front the printing costs of the flier.

What are we thinking for a location? We may have to coordinate with school staff if we're going to be gathering on Peyton Prep's grounds.



Melissa M said:

Ok. So, I'm going to go ahead and add an event for the memorial Friday. Below is a list of the things that don't seem to have been worked out yet.

Who's working on the ghost bike and can it be ready by Friday?

Is anyone able to contact someone from Neill's family or friends to notify them about the memorial and to see if they would like, or if they know someone they would like, to offer a brief eulogy at the service?

Has a consensus been reached about a flyer? As this requires a quick turnaround, I suggest something simple that can be done at a FedEx Office type of place. If this is something we want to do, it would seem that we need people to volunteer for the following:

design

paying for printing costs (we could all pitch in, but someone's going to have to cover it up front)

printing

I checked the FedEx Office website, and you can upload a document on-line to have printed at a store. They have whole, half, and quarter page flyers, but I can't get an estimate without a design.

The message should be clear and succinct.  Something like "opening a car door, without first looking, KILLS" perhaps with "it could kill a cyclist" or "it could kill YOU if a truck takes your door off along with you." 

That wording isn't right, but the disagreement I have with the new New York cab stickers is that they're vague as to the reason we're looking for cyclists.  Are we looking for them to wave hello?  To admire their tricked out bikes?  What??  We need to emphasize dooring as a matter of life and death.

In the interest of trying to keep this discussion focused on the details that have not yet been hammered out let's take any discussion about ghost bike preparation over here (where it's already in progress):

http://www.thechainlink.org/group/chicagoghostbikes/forum/topics/ne...

Here is an archive of anti-dooring.org from 2008:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080922124813/http://www.anti-dooring.o...

There are a variety of resources there including this:

(I included the borders of the screenshot in the hope that anyone wanting to use it will go right to the .pdf on the site.)

H' the wording and graphic on that sticker are perfect! If we can use that and delete the dead link to the defunct anti-dooring.org, we've got a winner. Is there another organization that has taken up the dooring cause that we can link to? Add an anti-dooring page to The Chainlink for the public? Send the public to the Active Trans Web site?

Cameron, agreed that emphasizing that motorists will be fined for dooring will help this stick in their minds. Is dooring something that will raise their insurance rates? If so, that would be useful to note. Plus the mention that they themselves might die if their door gets hit by a truck or bus, might be what gets their attention.

k  downloaded the pdf and got the dead link off. I'll work on putting some bullet points in.

I took a jab at a quarter size flyer.  I didn't realize you guys were already on it.  Here are a few if anyone is interested.  If not, it was still a decent way to spend a couple of hours ;)  http://i.imgur.com/S19lU.jpg

I love the first one, Bliss!

Okay, here is a first draft. Let me know what you guys think. Also I found this post from 2008 by those who first designed the sticker we are modifying: http://www.hipsternascar.com/2008/06/chicago-cyclist-killed-after-b...

I've sent the blogger a message regarding our plans and asked for permission to use the image and invited them to get involved.

I was also thinking that we might want to reach out to the individual who caused this accident by opening his door and include him in this memorial and effort to raise awareness. Goodness knows he did not intend for this to happen and from what I have read in various reports he seemed shaken by the accident. I think it would make our message much stronger, might garner media attention, and would offer support to this fellow who is also a victim of the poor infrastructure of our streets. Thoughts?

Impressive!  Thanks. 


Bliss BT said:

I took a jab at a quarter size flyer.  I didn't realize you guys were already on it.  Here are a few if anyone is interested.  If not, it was still a decent way to spend a couple of hours ;)  http://i.imgur.com/S19lU.jpg

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