OHIO RIVER TRAIL COUNCIL

Ghost Bike Memorials

Ghost Bike Memorials

Ghost Bikes Honor Bicyclists Struck by Motor Vehicles

Ghost bikes are bright white bicycles serving as simple memorials dedicated to victims of motor vehicle collisions. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the second city after St. Louis to construct ghost bike memorials, starting in May 2004. 

Ghost Bike installation reminds everyone that Pittsburgh can improve by becoming a city where cyclists and motorists can coexist. The American Lung Association ranks Pittsburgh as one of the worst American cities for airborne solids due to fossil fuel emissions. The Pittsburgh metropolitan region can benefit from expanding cycling as a viable and sustainable form of transportation that can reduce roadway congestion, air pollution, noise, parking needs, energy use, and above all, to provide more daily physical exercise for everyone.

Ghost Bike Memorials along the Ohio River Trail Corridor

EMILY ROSE JANCART

Age 17, of Moon Township, embracing life with exuberance as a recent graduate of Our Lady of Sacred Heart High School and accepted at Carlow University as a nursing major, was lifted up in the arms of God from a tragic bicycle accident on Route 51 southbound near the Moon Township-Sewickley Bridge (Bike PA Route A) around 5:30 p.m.on Sunday, July 21, 2013 in Moon Township.

Emily Jancart had fairly recently taken up riding a bicycle as part of her efforts to stay healthy while she prepared to begin nursing school next month. Saturday, she rode her bike across the Sewickley Bridge and collided with a car heading south on University Boulevard, Moon police said. Mr. and Ms. Jancart said they still are not sure why Emily was crossing through that intersection Saturday night, but they think she might have been visiting friends in Coraopolis earlier in the day and been in route to her part-time job as a dishwasher at the Edgeworth Country Club.

Born in Pittsburgh on September 7, 1995, beloved and cherished daughter of Rosemary (Mihalo) and Deacon Robert A. Jancart, M.D.; loving sister of Grace, Karl, Stephen and the late Benjamin George Jancart; granddaughter of the late Louise and Anthony Jancart and George and Rose (Benick) Mihalo. Quiet, gentle, kind, and friendly, she was loved by all and will be greatly missed by family and friends. Her legacy was love and touching others’ lives with beautiful memories. Unselfishly she gives others life through CORE. 

TAYLOR LEE BANKS

Age 23, of Braddock, was tragically struck by a vehicle just after 7:00 p.m. on October 31, 2014 near the West Aliquippa Bridge while bicycling home on Route 51 North from his job at the Subway in Aliquippa to his mother’s house in Rochester. Taylor was an experienced cyclist who once pedaled from Beaver all the way to Westmoreland County.

Mr. Banks is the beloved son of Gary and Beth Ann Banks; brother of Jared Warren Banks (fiancée Nicole Renfro); grandson of the late Warren Leslie and Judith Eileen (Shuker) Banks and William and Helen (Bowser) Lee. 

ARTHUR A. BELL JR.