Last night I rode in the Ride of Silence. It’s an event held worldwide on the same night to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while riding on public roadways, and also to raise awareness of cyclists’ right to roads. I’m all about awareness, and recently all about cycling, so I wanted to be a part of this year’s ride.

I’m terrible at estimating these things, but I’d say there were several hundred cyclists involved. I was one of three handcyclists, along with two others I know from my adaptive cycling program. Everyone met at the Art Museum steps, where there was a memorial for the eight area cyclists killed since last year’s ride. A few words were said about each person and the circumstances of their deaths. Each story was so moving, but there was one in particular that stood out: that of Tykeem Law, a 14 year old who was biking down a South Philly street with friends when a driver honked, yelled at him to get out of the way, and then shot him.

I barely heard anything about this when it happened, and apparently that is typical of many cyclist deaths- they are often not widely reported. When they are written about, it is often in a way that puts the blame on the cyclist. Cyclists certainly have responsibilities when riding on public roads, such as following traffic rules, but cars must respect cyclists’ right to ride on these roads. Ultimately, cars are the much more powerful machines, so it only makes sense that drivers use extra care around cyclists. Unfortunately, as we see in Tykeem’s and so many other cases, this is not always so.

The ride went on an 8-mile loop through Center City and University City. I’m glad I rode, and not just for the sake of awareness. As I rode down the middle of Market Street, I thought, I’ll probably never get the chance to do this again. Handcycles are pretty low to the ground, so even with a flag, you’re barely visible to cars, making riding in traffic a dangerous proposition. With police blocking traffic so that we could ride freely, it was an exhilarating and unique experience.

During the ride my hands were never free to take pictures, but you can imagine that from my low viewpoint, surrounded by regular bikers, I saw a lot of butts. This is pretty much the norm, though, as I’m used to being at ass-height most of the time. Just imagine a bunch of butts on bicycles, and that’s basically what I saw, along with some great views of my ridiculously picturesque city.