The first ghost bike appeared in the United States in October 2003, in St Louis, Missouri. After witnessing an accident where a motorist hit a cyclist in a cycle lane, Patrick Van Der Tuin placed a white-painted bike at the crash site, with a handwritten sign saying “Cyclist Struck Here”. Noticing the effect that this had on motorists in the area, Van Der Tuin then enlisted the help of friends to place 15 more ghost bikes at prominent accident spots around St. Louis. Similar projects began in other US cities in subsequent years, including Pittsburgh, New York, and Chicago. The first ghost bikes in the UK appeared in London in 2005.