'Ghost Bike' Memorial Planned for Lexington Man Killed in Cambridge Crash

CAMBRIDGE, MA — In memory of a Lexington man who was struck and killed by an 18-wheeler while biking in Porter Square last week; friends, family and the cycling community will hold a "ghost bike" ceremony to honor his memory.

The ceremony will include the erecting of a "ghost bike" in Porter Square, coming one week after Bernard "Joe" Lavins, 60, of Lexington was hit while biking down Mass. Avenue in Porter Square last week. The ceremony is set for 7:30 Tuesday at the Porter Square T Station in Cambridge.

Read More: Victim Identified in Fatal Porter Square Bicycle Crash

Ghost bikes are the white-painted bicycles installed to commemorate a rider's death, and to raise awareness.

According to Lavins' obituary on the Douglass Funeral Home website, visiting hours will be held at the Douglass Funeral Home located at 51 Worthen Rd. from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. His funeral will be held from the funeral home Wednesday at 9 a.m.

As the event organizers wrote on Facebook:

"We gather so we do not grieve alone. ... We gather to dedicate a ghost bike, a visible sign of an invisible reality- that we are fragile humans, only here for a little while. We gather to make visible sign of a dawning awareness- that we must peacefully coexist on these shared roads for all of us to stay alive. We gather honor Joe's life, to pray for all who grieve his death, torededicate ourselves to the day when there are zero fatalities on our city’s roads, a peaceable city, not paved with gold but with protected cycletracks."

The T station is a temporary gathering place, the event page notes, saying there's work underway to secure a location closer to the site of the crash, on Mass. Ave.

Photo courtesy Peter Cheung. Alison Bauter, Patch Staff contributed to this report.