By now it’s likely that you’ve passed at least one of the white bicycles set up around town to mark the sites of cyclist-motorist accidents. While it isn’t surprising to learn that biking in Seattle isn’t especially safe (e.g., “Mean Streets” [stranger]), the physical presence of these haunting monuments on streetcorners is an effective reminder of the perils faced by those who navigate the city by bicycle.

For more about the project, check out Ghostcycle.org. They have a catalog of all of the installations, a google map (of course), and a link to submit your own report of automotive (or infrastructural) injustice.

Unfortunately, no amount of public awareness or safety improvements can fix the reason that my bike sits neglected in my laundry room — for that the city will either need to get less hilly or I’ll need to get over my laziness.

related: Although I was amazed by the prevalence of biking when I was in the Netherlands this summer — a convergence of geography and urban planning — Hans Monderman thinks that streets would be even safer if they seemed more dangerous [wired].

noticed: a ghost bike in Manhattan [flickr], by Eliot from slower.net.