Ride of Silence: On May 20th, We Ride for Sylvia
My wife and I lost our only child, Sylvia Bingham, on September 15, 2009. She was killed when a 25,000 lb. truck turned into her path and rolled over her when she was biking to work in Cleveland. She was 22, having just graduated from college four months earlier. She was biking to her new job as a VISTA Volunteer.
Some people say that it gets easier over time to live with such a loss. It doesn’t. The sharpness of that grief softens but the loss never does. My wife and I have had to learn to live in a world that keeps moving on, even when our lives have been permanently shattered. We’ve learned to carry the spirit of Sylvia with us every day, in everything we do.
Sylvia believed deeply in social justice and environmental sustainability, having moved to Cleveland to work with Hard Hatted Women, helping lift women out of poverty and into skilled trades. She wasn’t waiting for the world to change. She was already changing it.
She wasn’t just a political activist. She made people feel special. She made spaces feel warm, turning her apartment into a home filled with laughter and dinner parties. She was often in the kitchen, baking something beautiful to share, such as madeleines for a friend’s birthday. Caring and thoughtful. “She was the light of life itself,” one of her college deans said.
That’s what stays with us. Not just the tragedy of who we lost but the fullness of who she was.
What sits heavy on our hearts is knowing that her death was not inevitable. It was not an ‘accident.’ It was the result of a road system that too often fails to protect people, especially vulnerable road users like bicyclists and pedestrians.
That’s why my wife and I ride every year in the annual Ride of Silence. This year, on May 20th We Ride for Sylvia.
For her spirit. For her brilliance. For her kindness. We ride because no family should have to live with this kind of loss. We ride because our streets can and must be made safer. And I ride because remembrance is not enough on its own. It must move us to action.
This May, I invite you to participate in a Ride of Silence in your area. More rides will be added as we approach May 20th, so be sure to check back often. If you don’t see a ride near you, consider contacting your local bike club. If there isn't one in your community, you can ask the bike club to help you organize a ride. Organizer suggestions are available under the "Resources" section on the homepage of the website.
The preferred date and time for the rides is the third Wednesday of May at 7 p.m. local time, but you can schedule your ride for any nearby date and at a time that works best for you.
Your ride can consist of just a few friends or include many cyclists and even pedestrians. What matters most is the ride itself—coming together with cyclists and sometimes pedestrians from all over the world to honor the memory of those who have been killed or severely injured while biking.
We ride to remind the world that these lives mattered and continue to matter. If you are able, I hope you will join a ride near you or assist in bringing one to your community.
Stay safe,
Stephen Bingham
For Sylvia, always
