To the editor:

BiKE! (Bike Initiative Keweenaw), the Hancock Bicycle & Pedestrian Recreation Subcommittee, and I extend sincere and heartfelt thank yous to the law enforcement departments and their officers who provided approximately 80 cyclists with police escort services during the Ride of Silence bicycle ride on Wednesday, August 24.

The round-trip ride from Hancock to Chassell and back was a silent memorial to the cyclists injured and killed in vehicle/bicycle collisions in Michigan during the past year.

Our Ride of Silence would not have been achievable without the support, cooperation and efforts of the city of Hancock Police Department, city of Houghton Police Department, Houghton County Sheriff’s Department, and the Department of Public Safety and Police Services at Michigan Technological University (MTU). I personally wish to thank Chief Butler (Hancock), Chief Donnelly (Houghton), Sheriff McLean (Houghton County) and Lt. Beels (MTU) for their enthusiastic and unflinching support of the Ride of Silence and for ensuring sufficient resources to keep our group safe for over two hours on area roadways.

In most communities, the Ride of Silence is an annual May event. But here in the Copper Country, weather can get in the way, and our focus is on Ride to Work Day/Week/Month, so we had not had a Ride of Silence since 2007. The slaughter of five cyclists by an allegedly intoxicated motorist in Kalamazoo this past June prompted me to organize last week’s event.

I am grateful and thankful to live in an area that has involved, energized and collaborative cycling groups and law enforcement officials who recognize the value, importance and merit of healthy alternative transportation and the pastime of recreational bicycling.

Also, we thank Aleah Hordges (TV6); Rick Allen (TV10/Keweenaw Report); and Mitch Lake, Jim Young and The Dirkside (Mix93 and WMPL) for their interviews and air time they provided to promote this important community event.

As a new school year begins in Upper Michigan, we ask all motorists to please slow down, look around, share the road with cyclists and pedestrians, drive safely and respectfully, and stop texting and driving. That illegal practice now has surpassed impaired driving as the number one cause of vehicle-related deaths in the United States. No message, game or video is so important that it justifies the injury or death of another human being.

Ride and drive safe, and we’ll see you at next year’s Ride of Silence!

Steven Lasco

Baraga