At Memorial for John Corcoran, Cyclists Grieve and Demand Action

Nearly 100 cyclists and pedestrians gathered at the site of last Monday’s fatal bicycle crash to mourn the loss of John H. Corcoran ’84 — and express their frustration at the lack of road safety measures in the area.

Corcoran was killed by an oncoming SUV which struck him while biking on Memorial Drive, near Boston University’s DeWolfe boathouse. The area has been seen as dangerous for years preceding the crash by local activists and political officials alike.

Harvard students, local activists, and members of Corcoran’s family — including his wife, Barbara Bower, and his children, Christine D. Corcoran ’26 and Jack B. Corcoran ’25 — stood by, sometimes weeping, as MassBikes Executive Director Galen Mook dedicated a white “ghost bike” at the site of the crash to honor Corcoran’s memory.

The whir of traffic, which consistently drowned out the speakers, was a reminder of the fear which has struck bikers since Corcoran’s death, which followed the June deaths of two other bikers in Cambridge. Speaker after speaker stressed that with proper safety measures, his death could have been avoided.

“The lack of urgency in taking care of public safety is underscored with this site in particular, because there is a process and plans underway to make improvements to this corridor,” Mook said. “Those improvements have been talked about for years — for the better part of more than a decade — and we have seen very little action on the state agency to focus on road safety.”

In an interview after the service, he added that local cyclists have been united by a shared sense of fear.

“There is a sense of mortal danger out riding around Greater Boston, and that bonds us,” Mook said.

James Weldon – a reverend at the Parish of Good Shepherd — remembered Corcoran as a “Harvard guy” and said the University’s motto of “Veritas” compelled him to “speak a word of truth today: that his death was a tragedy.”

“That’s why we’re here, because his death was a tragedy,” he added. “Senseless, ridiculous, to be grieved for, never to be done again. This didn’t have to happen.”

Maya A. Bodnick ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor and friend of Christine Corcoran, agreed that the death was all the more tragic because it seemed to be preventable.

“Addie and I are both bikers, and we bike around Cambridge,” said Bodnick, referring to Adelaide E. Parker ’26, a Crimson Magazine editor who was also in attendance. “The loss of so many bikers, including John, is just absolutely devastating — it is so horrible for his family.”

“I think that the fact that this death was very preventable is really striking,” she added. “Especially the fact that there were plans in place to change this intersection that had already been approved, which could have prevented the death — but just weren’t being implemented fast enough.”

Following the Monday crash, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, which oversees Memorial Drive, said it had planned improvements for the area, including building a raised path for bikers and pedestrians and restriping crosswalks to accommodate bike crossings.

The agency also said it had longer term plans to redesign the intersection with the Boston University Bridge.

Cyclist Abbi Holt of Arlington said she believed the site of the crash “needs to be redesigned to allow for two way traffic.”

“Otherwise, people are just riding on sidewalks and on and off sidewalks,” she said, adding that cyclists need more substantial “protection” throughout the city.

“Paint doesn’t stop cars, right?” she said. “We need a barrier.”

Mook agreed that he would like to see action from local and state government officials to protect cyclists and pedestrians.

“The next steps are to get our partners to commit collectively — this is not just one responsibility of a single agency making sure this happens,” he said. “We are able to work as a society to do as fast and as thorough solutions as possible.”

During the memorial ceremony, Weldon recited a “litany of grief and gratitude” to call members to action.

“We look expectantly to our representative leadership as we wait for justice to come rolling down, we long for a day when death will be enough, mourning and crying and pain will be no more — but do not want to do this again,” he said. “So we say, again, transform this place,”

“From a place of death to a place of life,” responded the attendees.

—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards can be reached at sally.edwards@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sallyedwards04 or on Threads @sally_edwards06.