Arlington Heights 'Ride of Silence" remembers bike victims

Sixty-eight riders joined Wednesday's annual Ride of Silence organized by the Arlington Heights Bike Club.

The ride in remembrance of people killed or injured while riding bikes, started at Recreation Park and traveled slowly 10 miles through the village.

“The idea is that everybody around the world is doing it at the same time,” said Gary Gilbert, who organized the Arlington Heights ride.

The 10 rides in Illinois included one in Bartlett. Three hundred rides were organized worldwide.

Arlington Heights, which hosted a Midwest planning meeting for this year's rides in February, held its first ride in 2005, two years after the first Ride of Silence was held in Dallas.

Officer Bob Hess of the Arlington Heights Police Department's bicycle patrol participated, as did Joseph Farwell, a member of the Arlington Heights Village Board, and his daughter, Molly.