JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Painted bikes are showing up chained to road signs along South Highway 89. There is a white one near South Park Loop at Little Horsethief Canyon. Another is fixed to a state highway road sign at the traffic circle in Hoback Junction.
WYDOT is aware of the bikes and believes then to be an example of “ghost bikes”—somber memorials for bicyclists killed while riding along the road. They can also serve as reminders to motorists to be mindful of cyclists.
Those bikes, however, are traditionally painted all white. The colored bikes could also be part of a guerilla marketing campaign as was the case in upstate New York when orange bikes popping up everywhere turned out to be an ad campaign for a fitness gym opening in Poughkeepsie.
Rhyme and reason is still unknown. For now, WYDOT is contemplating what their reaction should be. Affixing these bikes or anything else to state highway signs is not legal.
