By Justin HAGER

Dozens of cyclists, neighbors, community members and civic leaders gathered in Sunland on Saturday to remember the life of Jeff Knopp as part of the first Yellow Bike Project Memorial installation. It was more than five years ago when Knopp, a husband, father and Marine Corps veteran, was riding his bicycle as part of his daily fitness routine when he was hit from behind and killed on a narrow stretch of Foothill Boulevard near his home that didn’t have a bike lane.

Fighting back tears, Knopp’s widow Jennifer said she was honored that her husband was the first person to be remembered with a Yellow Bike Project Memorial but that the memorial was about more than just her husband or her family.

“This is about everyone who has lost a loved one to street violence,” she said.

Jeff was one of more than 300 pedestrians and cyclists killed on the streets of LA County in 2016, according to the California Integrated Traffic Records System. He was also one of three killed in recent years on that specific stretch of Foothill Boulevard. In the years since, bicycle and pedestrian injuries and deaths have continued to climb in Los Angeles County, with even pandemic-dominated 2020 seeing no statistically significant decline in deaths despite significantly fewer cars being on the road.

For her part, Jennifer has become a fierce advocate, using her painful story of tragedy and loss to create notable change. Shortly after her husband’s death, she teamed up with street safety advocates like Damian Kevitt of Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) and local elected officials like LA City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds to make safety improvements along the stretch of Foothill Boulevard where Jeff was hit. Bike lanes were installed on the 0.7-mile stretch of Foothill in 2017 and this past Saturday the large, visible, permanent memorial was installed at the location where Jeff was killed.

The memorial, a full-scale yellow-colored steel bicycle sculpture mounted atop a 16’ pole, was created by experimental artist Scott Froschauer in collaboration with SAFE. Beneath the bicycle sculpture, which is the official yellow color of remembrance for those lost to traffic collisions, is a sign with Knopp’s name, the date of the collision that killed him, and the hashtag #SafetyMatters.

According to Kevitt, who lost his leg in a horrific collision in which he was dragged more than a quarter-mile down the I 5 Freeway by a hit-and-run driver in 2013, Knopp’s Yellow Bike memorial was inspired by the Ghost Bike Movement, in which a bicycle is painted white and chained to a location near where a bicycle fatality has occurred. But, he explained, unlike Ghost Bikes, which are often removed shortly after their installation because they lack government approval, Froschuaer and SAFE’s Yellow Bike Project seeks to create permanent memorials that remind vehicles to slow down and be more aware of their surroundings.

“It feels like nothing changes until after someone dies,” said Jennifer as she gazed up at her husband’s memorial. “It shouldn’t be that way. People shouldn’t have to die in order to take basic steps towards creating safer streets.”