Emma Burke Newman (in memoriam)

Artist Ruby Harrop, Emma’s roommate in Glasgow, has been exploring the theme of grief this year as a master’s student at Glasgow School of Art. Her work was on exhibit at GSA through Sept. 10 but can also still be seen online here: https://gsapostgradshowcase.net/ruby-harrop/ .  The paintings and prints, which explore informal networks of care and love, will likely resonate for those who knew Emma or have known grief. For that reason, Ruby was happy to share them on Emma’s website.  I asked Ruby if Emma is truly a subject in many of the works, or whether I was just seeing her there. Ruby’s response:  “You are indeed right that Emma is in a lot of the works, I used many personal photographs from my own albums,” for instance, “so they're all steeped in memories I suppose.” “On the note of that Lino print of the hills, it was actually inspired by the photos I have of Arran on the day we found out … and so I was imagining Emma there, after all.” Ruby also produced a lovely A5...

Emma's crash happened at a bridge intersection--a known traffic hotspot.  How can we make intersections safer to navigate for everyone?  In the memory of Emma, the architecture firm where she worked in Glasgow launched a project called " Waiting to Happen ." It includes the junction where Emma's fatal crash took place, hoping to shed light on the dangers. Thank you New Practice as we grieve together. Please read about the project and participate in the survey! The idiom is "accident waiting to happen." But in the world of road fatalities and injuries, there are no accidents . The word accident brushes off an event without explanation. In this milieu, experts prefer talking about incidents, crashes, and collisions. We hope you will adopt this change in language too. The clever name of the initiative, Waiting to Happen, also plays on the fact that people have to live with what seem to be dangerous intersections and roads while "waiting" for infrastru...

Know the song “500 Miles” by The Proclaimers? That came to mind hearing of Cal’s 500+ mile cycle end-June in the memory of my daughter, Emma Burke Newman, to benefit the charity Brake.  Cal reached out a few days ago to tell us about his 900km (559 mile) ride from Glasgow to Paris. We are profoundly touched by Cal's initiative and proud to support it! Coincidentally, the U.K. charity he chose, Brake , is helping us personally navigate through this rough time. Brake offers informational and emotional support to all road victims and their families free of charge. Could you too help Cal reach his goal to raise 1,000 GBP for Brake? Find out more here: bit.ly/3WQ9AYo (June 24 update: Cal increased his goal to 2,000 GBP, reached that, and then to 2,500 GBP. Thank you all for your generosity toward a good cause! And The Glasgow Times ran this article about the ride:  https://bit.ly/431BCBw .) (June 7 update: Just one day after posting this, Cal has reached his goal! Should he up th...

  We put our mettle to the pedal -- Pedal on Parliament -- last month. We tried and made our voices heard, expressing our anger at the death of Emma and with the aim of preventing another fatal crash of a cyclist on Scotland’s roads. John and I extend our heartfelt thanks to all friends of Emma for their participation and presence. It’s not easy when you’ve just lost a friend to be protesting for her. And no parent intends for their son or daughter to be a poster child. ( Photo credit: Beqi on Flicker;  https://www.flickr.com/ photos/beqi/ ) Speaking recently with the organizers of this year’s PoP, John and I learned that UK media picked up our message far and wide (see the list below). They told us:  More than 1,000 attended, about the same as in previous years despite the damp and cold. Our friend Shellie’s speech on the green in front of Parliament in Edinburgh was rousing and eloquent. A feeder ride of friends and activists from Glasgow was dedicated to Emma. Afterwar...

  On the spur of the moment, we organized a “Ride of Silence” yesterday , May 17, dedicated to Emma Burke Newman, but with the aim of honoring the memory of all fallen cyclists. (VF en bas) The event is ‘’To HONOR those who have been injured or killed, to RAISE AWARENESS that we are here, to ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD,’’ according to the official website . It began in the U.S. in 2003 and now takes place in more than 350 cities in the world—usually at the same time, on the third Wednesday in May at 7 p.m. local time. We couldn’t find a ride in France, so went ahead with a small, informal event among friends. One reason is that a public event would have required a lot of French red tape! So, Rose reached out to her WhatsApp cycling group for what seems to be the first inaugural ride in France. They invited others, including two members of French cycling associations Paris en Selle and MdB (Mieux déplacer en velo ). At 7 p.m., we met at the Emma ghost bike at Pont d’Issy, ...

Emma's ghost bike is suddenly blooming all sorts of colors, thanks to fresh donations of flowers. Today, Laura F., a former colleague of Rose’s who lives in Glasgow, brought some bluebells from her garden, set them off with euphorbia, and gave the pavement a sweep. However, she reports that someone else had been there already to decorate and add plants. Let us know who you are, we’d like to recognize you too!  What’s more, someone added Emma’s ghost bike to the international Ghost Bike registry at https://mapcomplete.osm.be/ghostbikes.html . Thank you for that as well! To that map, we added a photo and Emma’s name.  It was a couple of years ago that Emma saw a ghost bike near our home in the greater Paris area. She felt it was a poignant memorial to a fallen cyclist—one reason we wanted to install one for her in Glasgow. A few weeks ago while passing this Paris ghost bike, it took my breath away when I read the recently added plaque: Emma, 1996-2021.  There are over 630 ...

~ Save the date ~ An Emma-celebration in London on the evening of June 15th 2023!  Dear Emma’s loved ones, We hope that this message finds you as well as you can be this spring. We’re writing to let you know that we will be celebrating Emma on her birthday — June 15th — in London, and that we would love it if you could join us.  Emma loved festivities and her birthday was no exception. Despite the pain of her loss, we hope that this day can be a moment of joy in celebration of everything that she gave us. We understand that for many it will be their first time in a large gathering of Emma’s loved ones.  During the evening there will be the option to take part in Ceilidh dancing. There are no prerequisites for this: a facilitator will guide us through some simple dance-figures together. Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee ) is a traditional Scottish and Irish social dance; it is a way of gathering and being together. As you may already know, Emma went to ceilidhs a lot over the pa...