Please check the comments section at the bottom of the page for information regarding Andrew’s memorial service.
Andrew Ross Morgan, 25, was struck and killed while bicycling to work on Wednesday, June 22. One week later, Andrew’s father and seven other members of Andrew’s family—joined by dozens of others in solidarity—will ride their bicycles with an NYPD bike escort in tribute from the Williamsburg Bridge to the West Village market where Andrew worked.
Andrew Ross Morgan, 25, passionate painter, photographer and traveler, was struck and killed by a furniture delivery truck while bicycling to work on Houston Street from his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Exactly one week after his death, in tribute to Andrew, a bicycling procession of family members, friends and co-workers will ride from the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge to the Blue Ribbon Market in the West Village, where Andrew was employed as a manager.
“Andy taught us all how important everyday is,” says Andrew’s father, Clayton Morgan. “Andy recently wrote in a letter to his family, ‘remember now is as good a time as ever because we are here on earth together. I know I will look back on these days with weak legs and a bittersweet gravity, pulling towards my heart and I have so much love for it all.'”
Andrew was the 205th cyclist to be killed on NYC streets since 1995, the 10th cyclist killed in 2005, and the fourth to die in the past two months. Of the recent four, two—Brandie Bailey and Andrew Ross Morgan—have perished from collisions with trucks on Houston Street, a “Recommended Route” for bicycling according to the 2005 NYC Cycling Map published by the City of New York. According to the map, Houston Street is one of the “best streets” to bicycle due to its “sufficient width and/or light traffic”.
“In reality, Houston is heavily trafficked, affords no safe space for bicyclists, and is not even signed or stenciled as a city bike route,” says Noah Budnick, Projects Director of Transportation Alternatives. “It is a heavily-cycled street and connects to four bike lanes and two off-street greenway paths. Especially in light of the increasing number of New Yorkers who bike, the Department of Transportation must make safety improvements on all popular cycling streets without delay. City-recommended bike routes, like Houston Street, should be inviting for New Yorkers of all ages to comfortably pedal down alone or with their families and friends,” Budnick added.
Ride Start: 11am, Wednesday, June 29 at Manhattan side of Williamsburg Bridge on the SW corner of Delancy St. and Suffolk St. Ride Route: South along Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, around Battery Park, north up the Hudson River Greenway to Clarkson St.; At Varick St. cross over onto Carmine St.; Right @ Bleeker; Right @ Downing St. Ride End: 12pm at Blue Ribbon Bakery 35 Downing Street (Downing and Bedford).
For more information contact Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives, 646-247-6734.
Many thanks for putting these up.
This was a sad day but moving event. Many thanks to NYvelo for covering it – he will be missed.
Thank you all, Andrew was a very special person, and now that I met his family I understand why. I see many guitarist come into the store and Andrew was one of the very special few that didn’t have a burning desire to be famous. He played music for the love of playing music and he was very good at it. I will miss that, and him, and his spark for life, to learn, and create, and live, and be human. I seems so simple when in fact people like Andrew are very rare. I hope there is a place somewhere,
where we can sit and play some tunes together. I’ll meet you there good buddy. Till then I’ll try to fill the hole in my chest where my heart used to be.
This is a very sad event and I am glad you covered it. I would think that since more than 20 people have died (on their bikes due to cars) per year since 1995 that it is important to keep the public and the government ( NYC and state) aware . I might suggest that NYvelocity keep a section on the improvements and problems with riding a bicycle in a city of 9 million people.
Today was Andy Morgan’s 26th birthday. He was taken from life a month ago by a Dockside Delivery truck/driver. NYC should change the way they treat cyclists, not even a ticket issued for a life.
Here is an announcement about a memorial to be held at PLU (Pacific Lutheran University) in Tacoma, WA. If you can make it from New York, let us know at andymorganmemorial@yahoo.com and I know someone can put you up. Any friend of Andy’s has friends in the Northwest:
As some of you know, thanks to the generous support of
the PLU Music Department and Alumni Office, we will be
having a memorial for Andy on Saturday, August 27, at
7:00pm, in the Mary Baker Russell Music Center
Amphitheater on PLU’s campus. In the event of rain, we
will move the memorial inside to Lagerquist Concert
Hall.
There will be a time during the memorial for people
who wish to share a memory of Andy to do so. If you
are unable to attend the memorial but have something
you would like to say, please send your reflection to
andymorganmemorial@yahoo.com, and it will be read
aloud by someone at the memorial. Or, you can send
your reflection to someone you know will be there for
them to read aloud on your behalf.
If you have pictures, words, or music of Andy you would like to share, please send copies to andymorganmemorial@yahoo.com. If you don’t have digital images, please contact the same address, and we’ll see if we can figure out a way to get them scanned.
Everyone is invited. Please be sure to pass along this
information to others you think would be interested.
I am so sorry that you lost someone close to you John. I am also sorry for Andrew’s family. I didn’t know him, would have loved to know him. Anybody that you can write about the way you did must have meant that he was a special person. We should contibute to Andrew in his memory like we did for Sam at the track last year.
It’s August, but for what its worth Andy was my friend, and even thought I haven’t seen him in awhile I will always remember him. Hello to all the people who had the great fortune in knowing him, or even meeting him. It’s hard riding bikes, but its the only way.
andy was a light in my life that will never dim.
thank you andy, for everything.