Well known 'ghost bike' memorial returns to downtown Chicago

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — One of Chicago’s best-known ghost bikes — a bicycle that had been painted white and served as a memorial to a cyclist who was killed — has been returned by the city after it was missing for nearly two months.

The bike was first installed at Balbo Drive and DuSable Lake Shore Drive in spring 2022 as a memorial for Gerardo Marciales, who was on a Divvy bike when he was hit by a car that ran a red light.

These bikes are treated with reverence by cyclists, and the location has been the scene of protests in which cyclists demanded safer streets.

City workers were seen removing the bike early last month.

The ghost bike installed at Balbo Drive and DuSable Lake Shore Drive was set up by the group Bike Lane Uprising. Christina Whitehouse, the organization’s founder, said “this is a city trying to get people to forget.”

Whitehouse said she thinks the removal had something to do with NASCAR weekend.

Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation said it was mistakenly removed.

The paint had faded and the plaque, which had distinguished it as a ghost bike, was gone.

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