The Albany Bicycle Coalition held the Ride of Silence on Wednesday, May 17. Twenty-six riders plus an Albany Police Department escort visited four ghost bike sites in the City of Albany and Colonie – Jose Perez, Diva De Loayza, Nicholas Ricicihi, and Paul Merges. We started from the Boat Launch area, Albany Corning Preserve and W. Capitol Park on Washington Ave. At each site, we placed fresh flowers.
At Diva De Loayza’s ghost bike site (corner of Western Ave., Homestead we read the names of those who have been killed since 2000 while riding their bicycles. We were honored to hear from family members of three of the fallen riders.
Ride of Silence – 10 Years – The national Ride of Silence organization has authorized 
ABC’s using the 10-Year Anniversary logo since we are on record as having conducted the Albany ROS each year for that period. Going back those 10 years from this year’s ride date (5/17), we have lost John J. Cummings (1/27/16), Robert Agne, Stephen Nolan, Brian Bailey, Matthew Ratelle, and Paul J. Merges (11/24/12). That’s 1 every 20 months. Four of the six died by virtue of bad behavior by people in cars. See for complete annotated list and photos at – https://albanybicyclecoalition.com/2017/05/01/ride-of-silence/
This year, thanks to Alert Rider Anthony, we had tags to give to those who saw our ride. Each tag had the ROS logo and a few words on the rationale for the ride.
Albany Bicycle Coalition 
Thank you for this beautiful post! It was a beautiful evening for a ride. And it was a very wonderful tribute to the cyclists who have been injured or killed while riding their bicycles.
Thank you for being part of a giant swath across your state, the U.S., and the world. It is my belief we ARE making a difference. Thank you!
Chris Phelan
Chris.Phelan@RideOfSilence.org
Founder, Exec. Dir.