The Miami Herald:Â Two rides to honor cyclist killed by motorist on Rickenbacker Causeway
Two events will honor the bicyclist killed on the Rickenbacker Causeway and raise awareness of the need for improved safety measures.
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
AVIGLUCCI@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Miami cyclists have organized two memorial rides Sunday to honor Christophe Lecanne, the cyclist killed by an allegedly drunk driver on the Rickenbacker Causeway.
The rides will also call attention to what organizers say is the need for improved safety measures for cyclists along the popular Rickenbacker and Crandon Boulevard routes into Key Biscayne.
“We’re trying to honor Mr. Lacanne and at the same time we want to bring attention to the safety issue,’’ said Dr. Allan Levi, chief of neurosurgery at the University of Miami Hospital, an organizer of one of the rides.
Among measures Levi said need to be considered: Lower speed limits on the causeway, as well as some sort of barrier or physical separation between motorists and bicycle lanes.
Levi said he expects several hundred riders. That ride will start at 8 a.m. at Alice Wainwright Park, 2835 Brickell Avenue, which runs a block east of and parallel to South Miami Avenue, between the entrance to the Rickenbacker and Vizcaya. It will proceed to the entrance to Key Biscayne before returning.
The second ride, organized by a coalition of cycling activist groups, will depart at 9 a.m. from the beach road directly across the causeway from MAST Academy. The adjacent Miami Seaquarium will provide free parking. The ride will stop at Bear Cut Bridge, where Lecanne was struck last Sunday morning.
Cyclists, skaters and people on foot are welcome to join, organizers said.
Cyclists are also asking for a solution to a gap in fire-rescue coverage for a large swath of Key Biscayne and Virginia Key.
Witnesses said it took more than 15 minutes for fire-rescue to arrive after Lacanne was struck, a delay blamed in part on the reduction in operating hours of a nearby Miami-Dade firehouse. Emergency operators also apparently failed to call closer Key Biscayne and City of Miami firehouses.
