UPDATE: A ghost bike was placed on the scene this afternoon. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association says that they did not place the bike there, but “supports the sentiment.”

Time moves quickly; sometimes, it moves too fast. Today marks two years since the death of Alice Swanson, who was killed while riding her bike in Dupont Circle in 2008. Swanson was 22.

Many are leaving messages of remembrance this morning where Swanson’s ghost bike once leaned against a pole at 20th and R Streets NW. Yours truly is on the record as stating that the ghost bike memorial was an important public notice that shouldn’t be trifled with. But the touching personalized memorials are much more affecting. The ghost bike is a reminder that a biker was killed two years ago today; these messages and homemade markers are a reminder that a person died that day, two summers ago.

The scene leads us to revisit the drama that bubbled over regarding the erection and removal of ghost bikes in the wake of Swanson’s death. If you’ll recall, the Swanson memorial ghost bike was put up the day after her death; but in late August 2009, the memorial had been removed, quite hastily, by the D.C. Department of Public Works. In response to the removal, activist Legba Carrefour placed 22 ghost bikes around the intersection; DPW later attempted to clarify that sidewalk memorials can stand for 30 days before the agency posts notice and then cleans them up, even though Swanson’s original memorial stood untouched for over a year. After devolving into “a mess,” Carrefour’s bikes were eventually removed in late September.

ALSO: We would be totally remiss if we didn’t remind everyone about Dave Stroup’s excellent investigative work into what actually happened with the original ghost bike and why it was removed. Additionally, bicyclist safety is still a big issue in the District: we recommend taking a look at struck in dc, which assigns a sobering number to each bicycle and pedestrian accident in D.C.