Hello everyone and welcome to the Within Range coaching podcast. I'm Ranger, a certified
holistic success coach. And in this podcast, I break down the journey entrepreneurs face
as they start their organizations, overcome roadblocks in their way, and create an impact
that lasts. We talk with entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and purpose driven community members
just like you. Together, we learn how to grow our impact and develop ourselves as the people
behind the mission. My intention is to help more people, help more people. And remember,
if you're curious about expanding your impact, growing a community, or defining your mission,
vision, or values, we can chat off the record. You can find my info in the show notes or at my
website withinrangecoaching.com. We're also looking to build our sponsor community with
organizations and individuals who align with our values of fearless innovation, social responsibility,
and courageous candor. If you're interested in helping us highlight individuals doing great work
in the world and share these values, reach out to me directly at ranger at withinrangecoaching.com.
I know you're just as eager to get started as I am. So let's jump right in. Good morning,
good afternoon and good evening, everybody. And welcome to today's episode of the Within
Range Coaching podcast. We're continuing on with my Walk Across America series. And in today's
episode, we are speaking with David Matthews of Bike Friendly ATL. Our discussion today dives in
on David's background of being a high performing tennis player, a life changing accident, and,
of course, why he decided to place white bikes all over the southeast. So sit back, relax,
and let's dive into today's discussion. All right, everybody. And we are joined now by David
Matthews of Bike Friendly ATL. David, thank you so much for joining us today. You're welcome. Enjoy.
Yeah, I appreciate it. And the reason I wanted you on the podcast is because, again, this is part of
my Walk Across America series where I'm interviewing nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, community
members that I've met along the way or in some way have influenced my walk. And to be completely
honest, this is the first time that we've talked, you know, with audio or video or met at all. And
that's kind of unique to most of the other guests that I've had on the episode. You know, usually
I've had a conversation or met with them in person. But really, the reason that I reached out to you
and Bike Friendly ATL is because your mission and what you do, I guess, I don't know the right word
to say, I guess impacted, I don't know, spooked me a little bit, I guess might be kind of a good way
or. I don't know, it's just a really poignant message that you guys have with your ghost bikes.
And I would really love to just kind of share the your mission, what you guys do with your I don't
know if you would call them art installations or memorials or what you would do. But I just think
that it's a very unique project that you guys have going on. So thank you for taking the time to hang
out with me today.
Absolutely. My pleasure. Anything I can do to spread awareness, create a safer, total and total
safer environment for everybody to grow up and live life with is definitely what we're after.
Perfect. Yeah. And then just to kind of jump it off, David, if you could just explain a little bit
about your background kind of leading up to Bike Friendly ATL, and then we can really get into your
mission with the ghost bikes and what they represent.
Sure, I guess. I guess, you know, being a former athlete, I don't want to say world class tennis
player because people think world class is like on TV. You know, there's no sub sub categories,
which there are there are two or three other subcategories to being on the TV. But I played a lot
of high level tennis around the around the United States around in Europe, represented the country a
couple of times for all national teams. So, you know, I was a pretty good tennis player, whether
that's good or bad or ugly. That's just the way it was. Started training a lot of my training early
on for tennis mostly, but I was originally a basketball nut. I love basketball growing up. And
I learned at about the age of 20, used to do a lot of long distance running, you know, for training
and stamina work and things like that. And I have one of my when I walked on my fifth year of
eligibility in college, I was going to walk on for the basketball team. I finally got in a growth
spurt late later than most. My growth spurt came from about 19 to 20 years old. I grew seven inches
in 18 months. And people were like, wait a minute, and I was still in the community that I grew up in.
So all my friends were like, what are you eating? You know, what are you? What drug you on or
something? And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I have nothing. But all of a sudden, I went from about 510
out of high school to about 65 in about 18 months. And all of a sudden, basketball became actually I
could actually maybe play a forward position or something. Whereas normally, 510, you ain't gonna
play nothing. And so I was in my coach, assistant coach, then in college, the team that I walked on
and made it my division two school. He came in one day to the dorm and he said, Hey, let's go down
to the clinic. I got a friend, you know, in the clinic, let's go visit him and you know, kind of,
you know, raise his spirits a little bit just had knee surgery. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, yeah, you
know, and I'm thinking what kind of clinic is this? You know, is this inpatient? Or is this
inpatient outpatient? Is it for other other things? I don't know. And we get down there. And when we
walked in his room, I looked to my left at the in the doorway, and I looked to my left and his
crutches were as tall about head top of my head height. And I'm going Wait a minute. This is not a
normal guy. This is a big guy. It well it was tree Rollins who played for the Atlanta Hawks. He was
he was in Columbus, having knee surgery and at the Houston Clinic back then was very world renowned
for all these athletes flying in for knee surgery. And I mean, like seconds after I was in the
doorway, all of a sudden, this is this assistant came in, and she was followed by another assistant
rolling an exercise bike. And Dr. Houston followed them all in and I just kind of scooted over either
the way what they kind of scooted me out of the way. And Dr. Houston says, you know, look at tree
Rollins and he says, Well, time for you to get to work. And he goes, Well, Doc, I just had surgery
yesterday at four o'clock. What are you talking about? I need some pain meds. He goes, get your
butt up and get on the bike. And let's get that knee ready to go. You need to get back in uniform
soon. And I'm like, hmm, if you have knee surgery, and the first thing the doctor wants to do like 12
14 hours later gets you on a exercise bike. My cogs in my head, my gears in my head started
turning. And as soon as Dr. Houston got through a tree and got him on the bike, and it was kind of a
painful experience, you know, Dr. Houston got over by me and I said, I gotta ask you one question,
Dr. What if I had gotten on the bike before having knee surgery? What? Tell me about that when he
goes, one of the best ways to build your knees is a bicycle. It has no pounding on it. It has, you
know, total range of motion, you're building the quadriceps, which supports the knee more than
anything. He goes, a lot of knee surgeries will not be will not be happening. If people get on
bikes instead of running. And sure enough, through the years, I've watched some of my I've had one
of my 10 students, he qualified for the Boston Marathon one year, loved running. But after about
two or three years of really training and go to the Boston marathon, he, you know, basically got on
a bike too, because your knees just take a brutal pounding by running. And it's not a bad thing. Some
people can do it. But some people, a lot of people can't. That's why orthopedic surgeons are in big
demand. And so since since college, I started cycling a lot. And then at the age of 52, still
playing really high level tennis here in the Atlanta area. Got hit head on by a automobile on
a training ride one day in Tucker, Georgia, and gentleman 86 year old came across the road hit me
literally head on my face went right into his windshield. The bridge of mine, I had like, what
you call cycling goggles, cycling glasses on, they were clear, it was middle of the day, 1.30 in
the afternoon. And the bridge of the cycling goggles were embedded in my nose. They could they
couldn't get them off. And so, five hours of surgery later, I lost three front teeth, split my
upper lip, split my chin, you know, whatever else happened, basically, you went through a long, you
know, long process. Now I'm single, lost everything that I had. Is it due to that? I'll tell you. I
have put out now well, and so basically, a year later, after I got hit a gentleman indicator, I
went down to repaint his ghost bike. I don't know if you saw one of my feeds yesterday, I was
painting one on the west side of Atlanta. But I went down Friday morning to repaint this gentleman,
Paul Taylor's, he was killed in 2012, about a mile and a half from my house, their indicator. And
one of my group said, we need to get this guy ghost bike. Well, the frame that I was hit on was on my
garage wall. I pulled it down, painted it white, put him a little placard on it, what happened. And
it has been there ever since 2012 until I showed up Friday, and it's not there. Well, guess where
I'll be going very soon to replace that bike because my, you know, I've learned that politicians
don't really like me coming around because I do paint a picture of possibly your city is not safe
for everybody to use the roads conjunctly, or together. I started doing that in 2012, about a
little over a year after I got hit head on. I didn't know how it would affect me, or what it
would affect me. I just thought the first thing was being a person that my mother was a driver's
ed teacher, taught me how to drive and use the roads in my car, taught me probably better than
most driver's ed courses. And I wish that we as society could get back to some of that mentality
of how to drive, because we've lost a lot of it. And I saw a couple of your feeds talking about
close passes and things and people don't understand the impact that maiming or killing
someone does to that person. You know, I used to ride a bike. Was I careless? Absolutely not. I
know when I go down, no matter if it's my fault or not, I'm going to be in serious trouble. And
it's not okay for somebody else to do it and think that it's just an accident. And we can, you
should just live your life and go on and they have no penalty for driving irresponsibly. You know,
one of my t-shirts says, it's got a gun in a car and it says, why does one of these used improperly
get jail time and the other doesn't? And I understand why people think, but driving is a
privilege. It's not a right, a God given right. So if you don't want to do it correctly, don't get
behind the wheel because the risk you put everybody else involved is not worth it. You know,
it's not you. It's not you. It's everybody else on the road. And there are a lot of people on the
road, not only just in cars, but bicycles, pedestrians, everybody. So I started doing,
I did the first one and I think if any of your readers or followers go to my website, they'll
see the first picture that Atlanta Journal of Constitution came out while I was building that
ghost bike. And my next door neighbor, even he's a documentary filmmaker, he came over and it just
coincidentally, I mean, I didn't know I was doing it. He came out of his house and he came over and
asked me what I was doing. He thought I was working on my bike, my real bike. And as I know,
I'm working on a ghost bike for a fallen friend right up the road here. He goes, hold on one
second. He goes, I got to go get my camera. And I'm like, your camera, why would you go get your
camera for this? And he came back. And later he told me that through his endeavors through
documentary filmmaking, he can see passion in people when they start talking, he sees it. And
he went and videoed the whole thing. I've got a little 11 minute video about that day. And my
banner on my website is me from that picture of the AJC working on Paul Taylor's first ghost bike.
Everything that I've done since then has a link. It links either me to something that has taken me
on this journey. Like, I don't know if you've noticed, people ask me where I get the logo on
my hat. You can't really see it. But anyway, the logo on my hat, it's now it's a bike that I ride
on my trainer in the garage on, you know, whatever days I want to get on the road and ride. It's a
silhouette of that bike called the bike of angels. It's a, it's got two wheels on it. If you notice
the wheels on my logo, there are five spokes, which is not like a normal bicycle wheel, but no
bicycle wheels have 18 to 32 spokes. Well, this one has five, they're all carbon fiber, they're
really thick, like two inches. And that bike is all white, just like my ghost bikes. And on every
spoke on those two wheels are names of fallen riders, you know, from the past years, I don't
have all 129 on there. But I have a lot probably like 60 or 70 and big black bold letters. And
that those two wheels actually live through my crash. So that they they're the company is out of
Indiana and they, they tout or they promote their bicycle wheels as being bombproof. And I'm living
testament that they live through a crash, a head on crash, and they still roll. And they're still
rolling on my trainer. So I started doing the first one for Paul Taylor. And I initially thought
about doing you know, mainly just like the nine or 10 counties around Atlanta, this is in this and
then I set up a Google search. And I get my Google search engine, it searches, you know, in the
evening, and I get it about 11pm every night. And I'm sitting in my office here. And literally, if
I'm in bed, and I get that search engine, and it comes in with real reports, if I see an article
of a surrounding seven state area of somebody getting hit and killed on a bicycle, automatically
go to the top of the article hit print, and it prints right here in my office. And so when I come
in the next day, I start mapping, I start mapping, when can I get over there and put out like, I just
got through with one trip, I went to Savannah, one day, I got down, I left here at 4am, went down to
Savannah, placed four ghost bikes around Savannah, and then drove up into South Carolina, near
Gaston and Anderson. And I put three more out over there and got back here at 2am the next morning.
So I basically drive all day, putting out ghost bikes. And I get most of the time, I get, you
know, emails from a loved one, a family member of somebody of how it means so much to them that
somebody they don't even know cares. And to me, you know, if there's nothing else I do for people
in this life, it's to a, maybe we can all create a following, you know, with, you know, some of
your followers and, and other people trying to do good things. Maybe we can turn this thing around
because the cesspool is spinning. And it has a lot of tentacles out there, you know, you're talking
money, you're talking, you know, I have people all the time to say, well, I got some investors, not
investors, but like people that want to help nonprofits, this, this and this. I love that idea
of people helping nonprofits. My problem with that is people that want to give you money, but yet
tell you what you can't say. Because what I say goes against, that's not against. I mean, like I
said, my mother was a driver's ed teacher. She did it because of the goodness of her heart. She was a
special ed teacher. Most of her kids couldn't drive, so they couldn't really get a job. But the jobs
that were offered around them in that age were jobs that a special needs kid could take. Something
that they don't get tired of, a special, a special needs kid never gets tired of doing the same job.
Me and you, after about three weeks of the same job, we're looking, okay, what else can I do?
They weren't, they wouldn't, they would keep doing the same job perfectly every day. And the jobs
that were there, they just couldn't get to because they couldn't drive. Well, she was normally a
special ed teacher where she went back to Auburn, got her driver's education certificate, so that
she could teach her kids how to pass the driver's test. When she first went into the driver, the DMV's
office, the guy there says, well, you know, well, who are you bringing in? All my special needs kids.
Oh, they can't drive. And she goes, why don't understand? Why can't they, if they pass the test
and can drive with you in the car, can't they drive? Well, yeah, of course, but they can't pass
the test, he said. She goes, I'll tell you what, how many people take the driver's test verbally?
And he goes, oh, like maybe 5%. She goes, I'll tell you what, when you're giving somebody a verbal
driver's ed test, if they don't answer the question that you ask them, can you, will you go back to it?
He goes, yeah, we'll go back to it at the end of the test, you know, give them a second chance.
She says, I'll tell you what, I will have my students come and take the test verbally.
If they pass on a test, on a question that you, that they can't answer at the time, count it wrong.
Don't go back to it. Count it wrong. And if they don't make, and she said, is the quota right
now 80% you got to make to pass the test? He goes, yeah, it's 80%. She said, if they don't make 90 or higher,
they fail. And he goes, oh, you'll never have anybody pass. She never had anybody score less
than 98 on the test. And those kids went and got driver's license, could now go to the job in the
mill that they would do every day to help support their family because they can't live out on their
own. They're special needs kids, but they can help support the family that they belong to.
And I was like, wow, that is heart on heart. You know, not only are you a special needs teacher,
but now you see these kids can help their families, but you're going to go back to school
to help them be able to drive to a job to help their family. Yeah, no, that's fantastic. And
it sounds like your mother and her passion, just like you were seeing that with your friend,
he can see passion and he can hear when somebody talks about it. Even just now hearing you talk
about your mother's passion, that sounds like it really bleeds through. And again, like I kind of
mentioned off air at the very beginning, the entire premise, the thing that I would love to
get out with this podcast is that there is opportunity, that there are good people out there,
that we can make a difference for others. And it sounds like your mother taking that extra step of
saying, hey, there's this issue. These special needs kids are having problems getting their
driver's license. And even the DMV people saying it's impossible, it's not going to happen. And
her saying, let's try it though. So it sounds like that really bleeds into and carries on into what
you're doing with your ghost bikes. And if we can just kind of go back for just a quick second,
with the ghost bikes in particular, because you said you started in 2012, correct? Right. So what
gave you the initial idea of the ghost bike in particular? Did you see that somewhere else? Or
did you just kind of go? It's kind of like what you, I'm sure you've seen a ton of people ask me
all the time, what keeps you going? And I go, there are things that I see that maybe one day I'll sit
down and write in my memoirs or whatever, but they are nothing less than God sent signs to keep your
butt going. And I had seen a documentary, I think it was on CNN. I mean, literally, this was like
in the late 2000s, like 2007, eight, nine, somewhere in there. I just happened to see CNN
one night, they were talking about this ghost bike thing. And I'm a cyclist, you know, I've been
cycling quite a long time and I'm like, okay, got it. And I watched it, it's only like a minute and
a half, two minutes. But originally ghost bikes started, what I heard from that was in St. Louis.
And it really got big in New York, because that's where there's tons of couriers in New York. They
not only deliver executive documents and things like that, they have to be signed and returned
immediately for lawyers and all that kind of stuff. But you know, in New York, people don't
drive because it costs so much to A, have a car, B, to park it. And so couriers, that's how they
get things done in New York. The emails are great, but if it's got to be physically signed, the
courier is a dude and he's on a bike and he gets down there back. And so that's where it really
took off now is that, you know, these, these couriers and cyclists in New York are getting
hit and killed. And what are we doing? Why, why do we feel you're going to get anywhere faster in a
car, especially in a major metropolitan area when bicycles going to be within about five or 10
minutes, even in a 10 or 12 mile commute. I got one of my friends I cycle with in Decatur when I
lived there, we would ride from six to seven AM every morning, a group of whole big group, like
15 people, about 15 mile ride, get back to the house about seven, seven 15, get your shower and
the eight o'clock people can get to work with no problem. It was a great group. He worked for CNN
downtown seven and a half mile commute. He would leave, he would leave our group, get home about
seven 15, get on his commuter bike. He had a big backpack with extra clothes that he was going to
change into when he got to work and they had a shower there. He would leave at seven, like seven
27 30. He'd be downtown in a half hour. No problem. Buy a bike, buy a bike. And a lot of guys that he
worked with bike with motor ride a car from there to CNN, same track. And they would get there like
five till and he's looking at them going, and I don't have to go to the gym to work out now I'm
done. And people were amazed. I mean, yeah, of course, you know, not everybody's going to be fast
to start out with, but you get in better shape by doing it. But the mere fact that humanity in itself
has manifested itself in such a way now that when the, when the word on the street is, if you want
to commit a murder and get away with it, hit somebody in on a bicycle and with a car is tragic.
It is absolutely appalling and tragic to me because what people don't understand is that
you're devastating a family, not a person, a family for life a whole lifetime. Anytime somebody, and
you know, I'm glad we're talking on zoom because I don't, and then you wouldn't say it, but anytime
somebody comes up to me and says, oh, it's sad that they got hit and killed this is, but time will
heal it. They need to step away from me because I'm about to hit you so hard that your next lifetime
will come up fast because this one has, it has eluded you. It doesn't go away. It doesn't.
That's something that I've kind of noticed whether it is a natural tragedy, a manmade issue,
terrorism, all these things. It's, you know, this many killed, this many injured. And I feel like
that has gotten to the point that any loss just kind of feels, I don't want to say normalized,
but maybe that is the right, yeah. Like you're just kind of numb to it. So when you hear, you
know, a biker, I was just going to say like, you know, a pedestrian hit, a biker hit, like it,
it has like a level of separation. And that's like kind of what you were saying with, if you want to
get away with it, cause I'm in very remote areas. I mean, I'm pushing my little buggy, my stroller,
I have my backpack and I mean, I knock on all of the wood, but that's something that I've thought
about. Like if I were to be hurt or injured, what would happen? Like these people could just leave.
There's no cameras out here. There's no nothing. And that's the joke I've made before, you know,
kind of tongue in cheap dark humor, but like, I don't want to piss anybody off while I'm on this
walk. Cause I'm such an easy target. And I mean, that's kind of going to with what you're saying
is that even in these populated areas, and I mean, I see even just in New Mexico, I've seen so many
crosses on the side of the road. I mean, I've seen those in every single state, but it's just always
such that strong reminder. And I think what's so unique about the ghost bike is one you have,
I mean, just even on the one behind you in your zoom, every single one of them, from what I've
seen has the name, RIP, location, your hashtag and a number. And I think it's, it's so unique in that
fact that you're, you're not just putting a white bike out there to signify something that happened
here. It's like something bad happened to in this case, Tom, like this was their name. Like I Googled
somebody that was on one of the ghost bikes and I found them. And that's what's so unique in it from
my perspective of what you do. It gives a name. And like you were saying earlier, gives that,
like shows that family that somebody cares outside of their immediate circle.
Absolutely. I had a, I had a one of my shirts, not this one. You know, the unique thing about
and I laugh now, but you should have asked me to sponsor you on your walk, because this is the
color shirt that I wear ever since I got hit head on. I teach tennis for a living and my kids,
I have people will text me on a Facebook or Instagram some nights and then, Hey, I saw you
today and I'm aware. And they go, Oh, I drove by the tennis courts. I could tell you were out there
because you're wearing your optic yellow and your hat. Everybody I've done, when I play now,
in my senior, in my senior group, not group, but a league we have here, they all know when I'm
coming to play, the guy in yellow is coming and they, they laugh about it, but they're starting
to learn now that there's a reason and a cause behind what I wear is because I got missed one
time in 52 years and I don't ever want that to happen again. I don't want it to happen to
anybody. And I was going to say, you need to be wearing optic yellow out there. So that if they
come over that hill and they don't see you just on the other side of it, maybe that optic yellow,
they pick up a little better. Yeah. Visibility. I mean, I, I hang a safety vest from one of my
old jobs off the back of my backpack. I have the optic yellow flag, like when the clips on the,
on my backpack, I wear the vest, I have the flag. So like, I, I mean, if you want to send me a hat,
let me know. I mean, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. You won't. Yes.
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Okay, so it sounds like the ghost bike movement was already an established thing and you just
kind of said, oh, I could do that down here. Yeah, I didn't really know where it had,
I didn't ever know. I knew where it started, basically what they said, and then I didn't know
how big it was in New York. I know there are a lot of couriers in New York and I had heard of some
around. I'm trying to think. I really have never seen one, you know, per se. And then when I started
getting my news feeds from Google, my Google searches, it got to be, I was like, oh my God,
this is not just happening. You know, Atlanta is a big, obviously a major metropolitan area
with like seven to nine million in whatever eight or nine counties, but it's happening everywhere.
I mean, it's crazy. And then, you know, then about, I had put out about maybe 10 or 15 and I've got,
I've got an Excel spreadsheet over here that has all of my ghost bikes listed where they were,
what numbers on the ghost bikes. But if I go back out, I could put that same number and information
on there. I tell people all the time, I have a messenger group with about out of 129 ghost bikes.
I have about, I think it's 74 or five members on this messenger list. And I am the only one on there
that has not lost a family member to a bicycle crash. They all are fallen friends, immediate
family members. And whenever I have something to ask them, like this shirt, you can't really see it,
I heart BFA, which is one of that BFA is bike friendly, Atlanta. This idea was given to me.
I asked one of my girls that I coach, she's only like 12. I said, what can I do? She was going to
donate a scooter because I actually have not only ghost bikes, I have ghost scooters. I have a ghost
wheelchair and I have a ghost chair. So I have literally the only thing I haven't gotten into,
which I think that's what all the little crosses are for, or people that are killed in automobiles.
And, you know, I raised a question the other day on my Instagram account.
What would people say if all of a sudden, and I would not be able to do it, but what if I started
putting like a pair of white shoes out every time somebody got killed in a car? I mean, it would,
my news feed every night would just be obliterated. It would be probably 50 people a day
from around the Southeast getting killed by car versus car crashes. And we think those are accidents.
No, drunk driving, distracted driving, drug driving, and speeding are the four leading factors to
crashes in cars. You take those four factors out and I guarantee you the roads and fatalities will
go straight to the bottom. Yeah, no, the saying that I have for myself is don't attribute to
malice what can be attributed to incompetence. And that's just so that I don't get, you know,
when people, like I've had a few close calls very recently with, you know, whatever. And it's always
kind of like, was that on purpose? Are you trying to be a jerk? Like, I've definitely had people
where I kind of question, like, are you just trying to hit the homeless guy? Are you trying to scare
the pedestrian because you're mad and upset? Like, there's no one coming from the other way. Why are
you doing this? And to that, I've seen so many people swerve randomly and, you know, it kind of
makes you question, are you sober? Right. See people, you know, with the phone in their face,
like kind of have a little thing. And it's like, and I'll admit, like, I've, I've texted and driven
before. It's, it's a bad habit. I've done it. And now with this experience, it's like, that is
probably the stupidest thing because there's been times where, like you said, I'm coming up over a
hill and I'm thinking to myself, oh, okay, like I'm going to go to the other side because that's not
much time if they're screwing around, if they're distracted. Right. And I go, oh my God, how many
times have I even just changing the radio been distracted? Have I been thinking about something
else and been distracted and kind of swerve a little bit? So it's, I mean, this whole experience
for me changed how I drive for sure. But I mean, what coming into New Mexico, there's so many signs
of rapport, intoxicated driving. And I think I've seen more in New Mexico than I have in other states,
or maybe it's just the areas I'm going through. But I don't know, I just, if I was just oblivious
to it before, but how big a problem drunk and inebriated driving is when it comes to fatalities.
Absolutely. And to me, to me, for us as a massive technology led, you know, led society,
we have so many options to stop it. So many. I mean, I'm sitting there the other day, I just
transferred over, I found me a better insurance rate and the insurance company, and I won't mention
them, I think every one of them do it. They offer you to send you a little pod that will plug into
your car. You know, there's a little plug up on it. I think from every, I think even I had one in
my old car, which was a 2015, that's nine years old. If you've got a car around 2015 or so, or newer,
they can give you a little pod that will plug in and it will see how you drive and your insurance
rates will be adjusted for that. And I think that should be mandatory. People go, well, that's my
privacy. No, it's our safe roads in the store. And I have a 2005 Honda and I had a 2006 Nissan,
which was totaled in a car accident where the lady was distracted and hit me. But whatever,
everybody was fine. I was just annoyed because it happened a month before I started the walk and I
had to buy a new car. But with that, even with the older cars, I had a phone app that tracked my
driving. And every once in a while I would say, hey, you're going a little faster. Oh, hey, you,
I don't know, you've had some hard stops, you know? And I'm like, oh my God. And things like that,
you kind of become blind to. So even just that accountability for yourself saying, oh, I didn't
realize I was going so fast. I didn't realize I had so many hard stops. Like that's helped me correct
my driving and get to be better and safer on the road. Cause like you said, driving isn't a right,
it's a privilege. Now I will add that the infrastructure and the way that the cities are,
are 100% designed for cars. I have been in cities where sidewalks randomly go off like a small cliff.
They are not connected well. The sensors don't work or the button, the crosswalks,
crosswalks don't work. So it's impossible. And I'm thinking to myself, what if I was a single mom
pushing around the stroller with a kid in it? Like I have camping gear in this thing. If it gets hit,
I'm going to be pissed for a few hours. I'll probably have to buy a new one. People will help
out whatever. But if there's a living creature in here, like, oh, I don't want to say a kid as a
creature, but you understand what I mean. It's just, that's a whole other issue that I feel like has
kind of, we're built for these two ton vehicles, not the 200 pound dude walking to his job.
Here's my last, not last, I'm going to sign it off, but here any discussion I have about this topic,
about, you know, infrastructure is not built for it. I get it. I do. Like take Atlanta, which I,
I know the back of downtown Atlanta, like the back of my hand, I've cycled every road in that place.
So yes, infrastructure, we are what we call land scrapped. We couldn't put a bike lane from one
side of the city to the other, if your life depended on it, because there ain't enough room
anymore. You have literally had houses, town homes, condos, whatever, up to the edge of the road.
You know, there's your fence, there's the back of your condo. There's nowhere to put a bike lane.
I get it. So I'm going down, let's say me and you are going down a bike path, eight foot wide
bike path. That's what I was on yesterday out in from Smyrna to Anniston, Alabama, 104 miles.
They converted an old railroad track, filled it in with concrete. It's eight feet wide and it's a
bike path. It goes 104 miles. Okay. So let's say me and you're biking on this bike path and we're
going, it's got a yellow line dotted line down the middle, four and four, four feet and four feet.
Me and you're going down this bike path on two bikes and we can easily fit in four feet. That's
pretty comfortable. We're paying attention, talking, having a good time and we're coming up on three
people walking side by side by side. They're taking up five feet. So basically the left person is
over the yellow line and they're enjoying themselves. They're not going to move. I understand
it. I don't like it, but guess what? It's my job as the faster vehicle that can cause more damage
to avoid the situation at all costs. I get on the left, me and you go, we make sure nobody's coming
at us in the other bike lane. If we're on a hill, we're on a curve, we're going to be on a hill.
We're going to wait, we'll slow down and go behind the walkers at four miles an hour, whatever.
And when it's clear for us to go, we're going to say on your left. And even when we say on your left,
I know that left person may be like a squirrel and jump to the left. And if they do,
I have to avoid that person. And so then we get around them, we go around and we carry on
and everybody gets home safer. Why do drivers not held to the same accountability?
There's a, what is it? There's a saying, I'm trying to develop it still. And it's a silly
kind of tongue in cheek rule that I have for myself, which is P every chance you get, right?
And it's, it's, it's just do the basics, do the thing that takes the extra 10, 20, 30 seconds.
Otherwise you're going to, you're going to be in for a world of hurt later. And that was because
I didn't use the bathroom when I had a chance to, and then I couldn't for two hours and that hurt.
And that's one of those cases where it's like, sure, I'm trying to go faster. I'm in a hurry.
I'm trying to do these things. But if you just take the extra 30 seconds and you wait,
you give that warning in this case and you say, Hey, on your left, you know, there's a chance that
they could be silly and jump to the left. Because I, the first time that happened to me, I thought
that meant go to whatever you panic and you don't think, and you say left, left, you know? So you're
right. Like, and I think that's another thing too, is I feel like a lot of people don't have that
accountability for themselves of like, what is it? Another example, I was with someone when like,
I don't know, a couple of years ago, and we're coming up on a roundabout in a car. And I,
they were driving and I saw to our right that somebody else was coming pretty fast.
And I was like, Hey, slow down a little bit. And they're like, why we're in, we're going to be in
the, we're going to be in the roundabout first. We have the right away. Yeah. Slow down. They slow
down. They race through it. And I'm like, they're like, well, we would have had the right away. If
they hit us, it would have been their fault. I'm like, I don't, I hear you. You're correct.
But you're on the right side of the car. You're going to get hit. I would have been the one that
got hit. And it's like, would you rather be right? Or would you rather be dead?
Like all that paperwork and all that paper, even if they like when the lady told my car,
which she hit the back door of my car, my car was a hunk of junk. Like if she had waited an extra
10 seconds, I would have gone to work. I wouldn't have had to go to the emergency room. I wasn't at
fault for it. But then I had months of headache. And it's like, if people would just take that
extra few seconds, all of that could be avoided. And that's, you know, do the thing that takes an
extra 30 seconds. That's it. That's all it's going to take. Well, but one of my teachers says,
you may come up behind a cyclist, but what, what is 15 to 30 seconds when we can all get home safer
and kill somebody? It's not worth it. Your job is not worth killing somebody. And yep, I'm
starting to see accountability. I'm starting, you know, it's sad that I, you have to see it.
And I don't believe in incarcerating everybody, but yet when people are so callous, they can hit
and run somebody, a human being on the side of the road to die. I'm sorry. You need about 10 years
in a cell by yourself to figure it out because you missed the boat somewhere. Yeah. And it's,
and again, it's just that level of, I don't want to get in trouble. And again, kind of that
normalization of tragedy in that way that says, if I leave, there's no consequences for me. And I
just feel like there's, it's, it's insane, but it's interesting. And I think, I think there's a
couple more things I want to touch on before we hop off here. And with what you said about, so
NFOFF, that means never forget our fallen friends. Right. And how many bikes are currently out there
and how many do you have in the works? Me? Yeah. Can't see it probably. It's yellow. Back on my
hat, I always put a number on it. And a lot of the hats that I wear, I'll put the number upside
down. So people go, Hey, your number's upside down. And then I get to go into a conversation about
why I have 129 around the Southeast, anywhere from about an hour South of Orlando to about
an hour North of Orlando. My one farthest North is Asheville, North Carolina. Then you can go to
Chattanooga. Then you can go probably just Northwest of Birmingham down to Pensacola and all across
the Panhandle. Oh, I'm sorry. I do have one in Santa Ana, California. A young man came up to me
Josh was about number 10 or 15. And his, his one of the guys, Josh Alper was his name,
Molly Dawson Morton used to ride with me on that 6 a.m. ride came up to me and he goes,
I need your services. Well, I thought he wanted a tennis lesson. And I said, okay, so when you want
to do your lesson, he goes, no, I need a ghost bike. My college roommate just got killed on the
Santa Ana freeway. I want you to send him a ghost bike. I'm like, oh my, and it was a landmark
case in California. The driver of a brand new Tesla was going South on the Santa Ana. Josh was
riding his bike on the shoulder of the northbound lane, which has a median in between them. The
driver went off the West side of the Santa Ana freeway up on the bank, got weed, tumbleweeds in
his car, came back across those two lanes, went across the median and then went over the road.
And onto the other median on the right side of where Josh was, and then came up and killed Josh.
You know what he pleaded in court? You ready with this? I'm glad you're sitting down. He pleaded that
the new car smell of the Tesla put him to sleep. And I'm going, it would have woke me up when I
went off the first shoulder. That's insane. And that's just the excuse. Like I've, I've recently,
some of the podcasts I've been listening to, like sometimes they go over crazy court cases
and the things that people say to get out of it. We allow it in court. We allow it. The judge is
listening, wasting time on this. Oh my God. So that's insane. Okay. So around 129, pretty much
all over the country at this point, but center mostly in, in your area. Yeah. And when it comes
to placing the bikes, do you just go exactly where it happened or nearby or how do you decide where
the bikes actually go? They, you know, I take into account, you know, I'm a little more thoughtful
than most of the people that listen to you or me. I mean, honestly, I know where the crash occurred.
I usually read three or four or five articles on it, you know, from the, from the newspapers and
stuff. If I can, if I need to, I might reach out to a reporter that did the article or something to
kind of get a little more insight as to where it happened. But normally I will put it as close to
the crash site as possible. I also take into account number one, utility, phone pole workers,
grass cutters, homeowners. I take all of them into account and put it as close as I can without
affecting any of that. And so I know the DOT in every state, they will pick them up very quickly,
unless I get them enough off the highway to where they don't think they're on the highway.
I don't put them on the highway. I might put them off the shoulder a little bit, things like that.
I mean, you know, the one I just, one of them I just put in Savannah, I found as close to it,
intersections as I could. And it was a state highway, not like a divided highway, but you know,
four lanes going each way, 45 mile an hour speed limit. But I actually went over and found a pine
tree and put two of my bike locks together and wrapped it, a pretty thick pine tree. And I put
it around the pine tree and kind of cut some of the shrubs. Oh, I go out with a full utility,
a truck utility. I've got a machete. I got, you know, things that I can cut stuff down with and
try to make it aware of maintenance of it is nothing that hard, you know. But yeah, 129 and
I'm getting ready to plan a trip to North Carolina. I got a lady up there who her daughter was,
she gave me one of the, this isn't it, one of the sayings is, I mean, I've got it on t-shirt,
what am I? You can't see it. I'm going to turn this around so you can kind of, oh, there we go.
You might, no, you are not be able to see it. I should have did a regular background. I'm in
my BFA office. And the thing that bike friendly that I thought would be very unique would be that
anything you or anybody gets from bike friendly Atlanta that could be done would be done with
the same hands that build the ghost bikes. So you feel like you are actually a part, not a
subsidized out. I don't make any money from what I do. People go, oh, you're a nonprofit. How much
do you pay yourself? And I go, I don't, I don't make a dime. I use every bit of any money coming
in to buy gas for my vehicle. My vehicle, I don't write off it. I use it for these ghost bike trips.
I've been lucky to be sponsored by a bike rack company called Sea Sucker out of Delray Beach,
Florida. Great guy. I emailed him and he said, whatever you want, you're doing exactly what we
need to have done. And that is make our roads safer. And I was like, okay. And literally he sent me a
$600 and $700 bike rack that goes on my car. Really nice, free of charge, just the nicest guy. And
he goes, you ever coming down? I said, Florida is one of the most crashed bicycle states, obviously
cause it's warmer like California. And he goes, I know we have people getting killed down here all
the time. And I've been an hour south of Orlando and one day I'm going to make a trip to the Miami
area, maybe even Naples and go across that end of the peninsula. And I'm going to wake some people
up because a lot of people in that area go to work by bicycle. And it's just not right that they may
never come home. And that's what I do it for. But 129 so far, getting ready for a trip to North
Carolina, probably with about six or seven on my car ready to go. And you know, that'll knock it up
to 135. Don't know how many is out there, but sadly I'm adding. Yeah.
Hey everyone, just a quick message. You know that my mission with this podcast is to share stories
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to me and could inspire someone else to make a difference. Thank you so much and now back to the
show. Another question. So I mean, 129 and that's the lowest the number will ever be moving forward
until I feel like we, and again, that's what I think is so unique about this is that it's such an
easy, you see that and I think for me, you know, it reminds me to pay attention and hopefully it
inspires drivers to see that and go again, that level of accountability, like, okay, I need that
reminder. So when it comes to placing the bikes, it sounds like you take a lot into consideration
with the placement, you know, making sure it's on the right area, the rights away, making sure it's
not going to affect mowing or private property, et cetera. And you mentioned at the very beginning
that you've had some issues with, I don't want to get too political, I guess, about it, but like
with local politicians or local things like that, how have you, I don't know, like, like worked with
it to make it to where they don't just remove them immediately or that the message still stands? Like,
how do you kind of navigate that? Because I'm sure we could be aggressive and, you know, fist fight
them in the McDonald's parking lot, but we can't really do that anymore. This isn't the 1800s.
So like, how do you work amicable, amicable, whatever the word is, I'm just going to leave
that in there for my own humbleness. But how do you kind of work with local decision makers,
I guess, or how, how does that work? Good luck. Good luck. Okay. Honestly, one of my, one of my,
I would say this person is a very good, we don't know each other necessarily personally,
like we don't go hang out together and have some drinks together. We're not personal like that,
but business wise, we know each other. One of the sponsors of the Ride of Silence that I put on here
in Decatur every year, which is in May, it's, it's an annual ride. It's a universal annual ride
around the world on the third Wednesday of May every year at seven o'clock local time that honors
all the following friends of the past year. And I've put it on in Decatur. I did it for about
four years prior to the pandemic. And then when the pandemic hit, obviously we didn't do it for
a year or two. And then this person who's a lawyer represents a lot of bike, you know, crash victims,
but he's also a regular lawyer too, called me and said, I can't imagine doing this Ride of Silence
in Decatur, because in Decatur, Georgia is the only silver city where they ranked it by, you know,
how many feet of bike paths you got, how bike friendly it is, things like that. It is, I think
it's by Bicycle Magazine does it. Decatur is the only silver city in the state of Georgia
on their gold, silver or bronze status. There are four other cities that are bronze. Decatur was
bronze. They started putting in a lot of protected bike lanes and stuff, but there are a lot of
cyclists even in the city that, and you can all, you know, they ride the Stone Mountain, they ride
out the east side of Atlanta a lot. It's a very unique little city, but it, you know, he said,
I want to do the Ride of Silence because it does do a good thing for our community. It raises
awareness for safer streets and things like that. He goes, but I can't imagine doing it without you
leading it because this is who you are. And I said, yeah, I know, sadly, that's what I've become.
I'm the ghost bike guy that wears yellow when he plays tennis and it's okay. I'm okay with that.
But he, you know, we have a good relationship, but I totally understand kind of back to your question.
You know, he's a lawyer. I get it. I'm the time bomb that you want to keep at arm's length,
because when I speak, what I say is not going to be filtered. It's not going to be politically
correct. And you look at some of my Instagram and Facebook and it says, you know, I'm a world
class tennis player, cyclist that is not politically correct. So be ready when you ask me, not you,
but anybody ask me something, I'm coming. I'm coming full force and I will, you know, I've been
to Savannah. Let me think how many bikes I've got in, let's say Savannah, within about 20 miles of
downtown Savannah. I'll probably got, I bet I got 15 ghost bikes in 15 years. It might be more than
Atlanta's got a lot around, like you take the nine counties, but nine counties around Atlanta is a
big area. It's huge. You got seven, eight, nine million people. You ain't got nine million people
in Savannah. So, you know, I went down to Savannah, I don't know, three, four years ago, they had this
big ride in December, no, not December, it's in June or July, it's called Bragg Bike Race Across
Georgia. It's not really a race, it's just a ride. And they ride a pretty good ways, you know, from
like Atlanta to Savannah. And they take like three or four days. And there's a lot of people that
are going out there with their friends, just doing, well, they get down there the last day
and they're all coming into downtown Savannah. I mean, literally the, what do they call it? Not
the boardwalk, but it's like Main Street right by the Dagum Ocean. I mean, it's the Main Street
where old historic Savannah is and a lady, you know, Judy probably had to be 50, 45, 50 years old,
riding right down as a concrete road, got, you know, joints in the concrete. She gets around
she gets her wheels caught in the concrete, flips her over on the left and what's coming down the
left lane is didn't want to hear about it. And I put one down, I went down there to put a bike out
and you know, here I go again, I'm thinking about how do I not disrupt number one,
commercialization, you know, people walking, having dinners and everything, there's not much
room on that sidewalk to put a bike. So I'm thinking that's out, that's out, that's,
that's off limits. That's just not, not gonna happen. So then there's a park across the street
and over there, unbeknownst to me, was they actually have bicycle tourists that will carry
a couple of people around in a three-wheel bicycle, you know, and they're meeting right here. Well,
right there is a concrete bench and I'm thinking perfect. Number one, she was on a bike. Number
two, it's in a park, it's not near a street, it's not near a walkway, it's out of every, but I'll
even move it up forward enough to where the handlebars are not even behind up the bench.
So if somebody sits down, you know, the handlebar won't hit them in the back. I'll move that up so
that it's out of everybody's way. That thing got picked up within about a week because
they don't want to see their tourism downplayed because somebody got killed on their street.
Yeah. So it sounds like even with taking in all those considerations that sometimes
placement or, I don't know, the, yeah, it would affect it. Again, it affects the bottom line of
somebody else. Sure it does, but in the long run, it's gonna kill you, not you. It's going to kill
your infrastructure, your commercialization because it ain't gonna get, you can't hide it.
It's there. And so here we go again, you know, she was a long time ago and I've had 13, 14 since then.
What's the problem? You ain't fixed it yet. Yeah. So, you know, I understand. And here we go again,
you know, back to the original thing, you know, the owner of the car has got to be accountable.
Right now you can put in all the asphalt, all the protected bike lanes, all the walk lanes you want,
but we're going to cross the street somewhere and until you can hold the driver accountable
on all efforts, nothing's going to happen. Yeah. Exactly. And that's my mom, the driver's
ed teacher. You know, she told me that if you can't drive a car safe enough, don't drive it.
If you're going to impede traffic flow, impede it by driving improperly. You know, one of the
biggest things I see now is you got a left turn lane and it's turning onto a road that has two
lanes, you know, going the same direction. And that car will turn and go into the far lane every time.
And I go, what you've done is impede the right turning lane from the other way, from getting on
that same road and getting traffic out of the fricking way. But it's my road. So I guess I need
to drive a tank to prove my point so that when I run you over, I'm sorry, it was my road first.
Yeah. It's just like, it's like those extremely, you have to be had those hyperbolic examples of
like, okay, well, what if it was this? And it's like, well, that's impossible. It's like, great.
You're right. Now let's pull this down to the current situation. Yeah. Okay. But, and then
I, one more, one, one last question, because I think that this, I have a theory on your guys'
setup, but how much roughly does it cost to place one ghost bike from sourcing the bike, painting it,
getting it where it needs to go? Like how much does that cost? If you don't mind my asking.
Oh, I don't mind. You know, sourcing the bike. I mean, I get bikes donated all the time. I just,
when I was down in Decatur Friday, one of the guys they used to ride with, he had an old 1980 bike
that, you know, like cars, once they get probably 15 bikes, bikes for sure, once they're more than
about 15 years old, 20 years old, finding replacement parts gets harder and harder.
They're vintage and they're fun to ride and they look unique when you ride them, but if they
break down, you're fried. So, so, you know, normally like on my bike, when I ride, I've got a
couple of spare tubes, maybe a spare tire, things like that. But anyway, so I'm getting them donated
and my lawyer guy, they collect them all the time. He has a basement full of bikes that some of them
can't be serviced. They're just old. And he goes, anytime you want five or six, come and get them.
And I'm like, you're not going to have enough bikes. And the good, you know, there's not a good
part to that. The bad part is that there's more people dying on bikes than we can get on bikes.
And number, but number three, you're going to have a lot of business because you're an attorney for
these people. And it's a good, bad situation all the way around, but is that the circle of life?
Oh my God, is that a scary song? Yeah. I mean, having a constant supply of people
injured for your attorney to represent is sad, but I do still think that, again, I'm very much
a bright side cup half full. There's a silver lining somewhere. And it's like, there are people
like you that bring awareness to the issue. There's people like him that represent those people so
that they can get justice, that they can get, I guess, I don't want to even say the right,
the wrong righted, because when you're injured like that, or if you're, something happens,
like you never go back to being the same, right? But again, it's good that there are people that
are in, when the worst happens, there's that spark of light. But it sounds like the bikes get donated,
but then paint can't cost that much or driving around doesn't. You ready for this? Here we go
with inflation. So two years ago, a can, this is the scary part, two years ago, a can of spray
paint, it normally takes me about one and a half cans of spray paint to do one bike. Okay. A can
of spray paint was $3 and 24 cents. It is now almost $7 a can. So when I know that's double,
double, I bought six cans the other day, it was almost 60 bucks. I was like, damn. Yeah.
So it's scary. So then I also buy, you know, the little bike log that you can buy with one little
key on it. And that's usually what I chain them up with. And I got to buy, you know, I got to paint,
you know, I don't charge anybody for warehousing bikes or whatever. You'd hate to see my garage,
it ain't nothing but bikes, but it's okay. It's okay. That's, that's what I give to hopefully know
that one day my mom is going to welcome me home and go, you did good. You know, you did what nobody
else would think about doing. And you challenged every political specter to get a place safer for
everybody, not the rich, not the poor, not the well-off, not the those without, not the homeless,
everybody. And so, so basically, you know, I, I try to narrow it down with how many, obviously the
biggest cost is me transporting it to wherever, you know, I've been to Pensacola, I've been to
South of Orlando, six and a half, seven hours one way. And with gasoline now, and I've got a good,
a very economy car, like almost 30, 38 miles to the gallon. So I'm getting pretty good gas.
But when I go out, it's six or seven ghost bikes and it's efficient. I don't waste money. And I
tell people a hundred percent of your donation goes to the calls and none of it coming to me.
I mean, you can't see it, but I'll take some pictures and put them on Instagram and you can
share them if you want to. But with the money people have donated, I bought a t-shirt printing
machine, which is right here on the other side of my tablet. It has four stations. I have silk
screens. I do all of the screens myself. I make them all. I do, I do mugs. I do, oh my God, hats.
You know, everything that I can is made with the same hands that make the ghost bikes. So you feel
like you are getting a a hundred percent original piece of the ghost bike. Back to your question,
probably I would say if you wanted to add in gasoline for like one bike to go to, let's say,
let's say Pensacola, that's about six hour drive, six and a half hour drive. You're probably talking
cost of the material is probably only about say gas and paint. You're probably talking $75 maybe.
If you're talking time into painting the bike, that could probably take, that's probably about,
I think one time I estimated it being about from the time of picking up a bike to getting it here,
to dismantling it so that there's not extra stuff to paint, all that, taking off the chain,
the cables, all that. It's probably about 10 to 15 hours a bike. So, you know, if I'm taking six
bikes out, you're putting, I'm putting in probably a hundred, 120 hours per bike and cost of maybe,
it'll only cost me about, well, you figure what I say, 60 bucks for six cans of paint, maybe,
maybe, so you're talking about a hundred hours, maybe about a hundred dollars in paint total.
I do have stickers that I put on the head tube, which is the bike friendly logo. I buy these,
oh, you can't see it. I buy these little pla, oh, you can see it kind of, see it's white on the
bike. Oh, I'm trying to flash this, you can see it in the thing, but anyway, there it is. That's
got a line, but then I paint it black on the back. That's the sign you see on that bike right behind
me. Then I have a Cree Cup machine that I print out all the letters on high adhesive vinyl that
goes on there. Hopefully it'll stay for a year or two and that would be a, that would be nice.
Probably, you know, I would think around maybe a couple hundred dollars a bike. That's, that's a
rough estimate, you know, but here we go again. I, I don't care. I care about where we're going
and what we're doing, you know, and if people, if people want to read in, I've had some of my
former students that are big internet sensations and things like that, when I'm dying on TikTok
and all this, you know, they all tell me that if I could find a way to make more money, that I could
help more people with more money. And I look at them and I go, I'm not going to compare myself
to anybody because I don't, I don't. I live my life being me, I'm not going to compare myself
to anybody. And that's when I'm the happiest and the most stress free that I can be. And I get more
done doing that. And how many, how many people did Jesus have endorsing His product?
And people look at me and go, well, you know, and I'm not, I'm not comparing, not at all.
Yeah.
But what I'm doing is along the same lines, I don't want money because money
is what kind of the problem. If you want to really want to look at the whole system,
it's not doing what's right. It's doing what you can get away with. And when you get caught,
how do we get out of that being caught? Well, you shouldn't have done wrong in the first place.
And I think that's what I really want to get across is that, you know, it costs, you know,
200 bucks to put out this bike, right? Which sounds like a lot,
a lot. But with the impact that it makes, I think even just having one person slow down,
having them be a little bit more perceptive, having them be more like that's, that's worth
the world. And, you know, with 200, almost 150 bikes, almost like that's such a small price to
pay to save somebody else. And I think that that's what I want to kind of get across is
you don't need to make a million dollars to make an impact. You can do it with a $200 bike that you
place somewhere in remembrance of someone else to hopefully save one, two, however many people.
Just think that if one bike makes somebody think that their loved ones, their father,
their mother, their grandpa could be the next person to not come home, not only on a bike,
but walking in and out of a Walmart or being in a car. And you could have done something to just
slow people down and make our roads safer. You know, this began as a bicycle mission,
but it's not anymore. It's a safer road for everyone to use. And when people, one of my
shirts says, if you don't think bicycles, pedestrians and cars can get along on our roads,
you are the problem. And it's as simple as that, you know, if anybody says, yeah, but
then you need to stop them right there and tell them you're trying to find a reason for a,
whatever, a car to be the only thing on the road. And even if you do, one of my other shirts says,
I got a bunch of shirts. One of my other shirts says, what do you have if you take every
pedestrian and bicyclist off the road in America? In Georgia alone, you'll still have 1500 deaths by
car alone. So what's the problem? Yeah, exactly. It's, it's insane, but I'm glad that there are
people that are again, bringing awareness to it that are so passionate about it, that are
willing to, you know, put up with the BS with the, the, I don't know, the red tape that's needed in
order to make this happen. So as, as a guy that's walked across what at this point, 2000 miles of
road in a year, thank you for what you do. And if people want to support you or learn more about
your mission, David, how would be, what would be the best way for them to find you online?
Well, they can go to, I've got Instagram and Facebook, which is bike friendly ATL.
On either one that I've got quite a pretty good following on Instagram. I think I've got about
seven or so thousand on Facebook. I do events on there all the time. Bike friendly atl.org is the
website. I update, you know, as much as I can, but usually Facebook and Instagram are faster
updates for me, cause I can do like live feeds from there. My website's a little bit, you know,
my website's a little bit hung up on the live feed kind of stuff. So I do most of that through
Instagram where more of my followers are. I've just started getting into a tick tock. I'm same,
same name there, bike friendly atl. And I'm going to start doing some tick tock videos on safer
driving. You know, how do you landscape or how do you maneuver around cyclists and pedestrians
when you're using our roads in a safe manner? So then hopefully people will just listen and go,
maybe this guy's not so wacko. Maybe we all can be safer in cars too, you know?
Awesome. No, that's fantastic. I mean, that information is definitely what is needed. So
again, David, I'll link all that down in the show notes, your Facebook, Instagram, tick tock website,
as well as a direct donation link for you. And if anybody has any questions or would be interested
in starting this or doing something similar where they are, would they be able to contact you to
kind of ask for advice or some, some assistance with that? Yeah, they can always email me at
bike friendly atl at gmail.com. Perfect. All right, David, thank you again. And I'll be sure to chat
with you later. You betcha. Be safe out there. Thank you. Thank you for listening to today's
episode. I hope that you're able to take a nugget or two from our conversation today and apply it to
your business, nonprofit or life in general. All of David's social media accounts are linked in the
show notes below. If you'd like to support bike friendly atl or start something similar in your
area, please reach out to David directly to see how you two can collaborate. And y'all, we've got
plenty of more episodes on the horizon. And I'm so excited to share some magic with all of you. If
you'd like to share some of that magic with your community, please write us a review and share this
episode with a friend. Just like David said during our interview, if we can share messages with our
community, we can really turn this whole thing around. I'll see you all next week. And as always,
have fun, stay safe and be yourself.