2021’s Bicycle Ride of Silence to remember Bengtson

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The annual Charles City Bicycle Ride of Silence is planned for Wednesday evening, May 19.

The ride this year is being held in memory of Ellen Bengtson, a young Charles City bicycling enthusiast who was killed when the bike she was riding was struck by a pickup last August while she was riding south of Charles City.

Last year the organized public ride in May was cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns, but a special Ride of Silence was held later that year after Bengtson was killed.

Bob Krueger, who helps organize the ride each year, said this year’s ride will begin at 7 p.m. in the area of the Pub, on the corner of Riverside Drive and North Jackson Street.

The ride is low-key, with no registration required, Krueger has said. “Just show up and participate.”

The only guidelines are to go no faster than 10-12 mph so everyone can keep up, to wear bike helmets and follow traffic rules, and to remain silent during the ride.

The Ride of Silence began in Dallas in 2003 to honor a bicyclist there who had been killed when hit by the mirror of a passing school bus. Since then the annual ride has grown to include thousands of riders in hundreds of cities around the world, riding to raise awareness among motorists of bicyclists’ presence on the road and their right to share it.

The ride is usually held on the third Wednesday of May, during National Bike Month.