Marjorie Corcoran, a professor, was biking to work. Sudipta Roy, studying to be a nurse, had ridden to campus to see her husband. Both were struck and killed, in 2017 and 2018, in the intersection in front of Rice University where Main, Sunset and Fannin streets meet light rail tracks.
Three years later, this July, the City of Houston held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the improvements it made, all within view of the ghost bike that leans against the trunk of a live oak as a memorial. The city had worked with neighbors, students, and leadership at Rice, METRO, the region’s transit authority, and Hermann Park on the improvements, but they were a long time coming. Carol Haddock, the city’s director of public works, admitted she learned how bad the intersection was in 1987, when she enrolled at Rice as a student. Even then, she said, “it was challenging and intimidating.”
Through a mask, Mayor Sylvester Turner congratulated and thanked everyone and said, “I am happy to fulfill a promise that this intersection would be safer.”
