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He had a vast appetite for every moment of every day.

That may explain how James Quinn went to law school, a few minutes after getting a master's degree, a few months after getting married, while all the time loving the natural world around him.

"I've never met anyone with as much passion for life," said Quinn's wife and widow, Ashley. "In every picture he has this huge grin on his face. He was just so full of life."

Each word and memory must be stiletto-sharp - and painful - to Ashley Quinn. Her husband of 15 months, just 28, died Sept. 15 after he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on old Route 66 near Tijeras.

The Albuquerque bicycling community and James' friends held a memorial ride in his honor this morning - a 15-mile route that took them from the University of New Mexico Law School to the stretch of road in the East Mountains where Quinn died.

Their purpose was not merely to honor a friend, a colleague, a man of purpose and passion, a good human being. It was to remind all of us that people who ride bikes too often become victim to the car-clogged roads they share.

The concern is real because the loss is so great. It has been a bad year for cyclists in and around Albuquerque, and Quinn's death was just one more cymbal-clash announcing that "a 2,000-pound car going 40 mph against a 200-pound man going 8 mph is not a fair fight," as Roland Pentilla of BikeABQ puts it.

The crash that killed Quinn remains under investigation, according to Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erin Kinnard Thompson, though deputies expect to forward the case to the District Attorney's Office for review by Monday.

No matter what comes of the inquiry, the simple fact remains that many of us in cars aren't aware of - or aren't that empathetic to - the bicyclists on the road.

They're too slow. They're in the way. They're in my lane, but not in the lane. They're . . . trouble.

I think if most of us put sodium pentothal to our thought process, we'd admit those thoughts have erupted from time to time.

Problem is, Pentilla said, bicyclists have just as much right to be on the road as anyone else. And while he does not claim that everyone riding a bike follows traffic laws as they should, he notes that many safety-conscious riders are often treated like afterthoughts.

That's not acceptable, particularly when lives are concerned.

And lives are concerned. Not to mention lost.

According to state Transportation Department figures, injuries in bicycle-related crashes jetted from 205 in 2003 to 308 in 2005. And in just the first nine months of 2007, at least six bicyclists have been killed on state roadways.

BikeABQ, an advocacy group, wants to push lawmakers and the public to do more for bicyclists on a variety of fronts - particularly road shoulders, which often aren't repaired like the adjoining roadway because of budget concerns.

"They look nice and wide at 50 mph," said Pentilla, "but get down to the speed that bikes travel at, and they're fraught with all sorts of obstacles."

Ironic. Hiccups, hurdles and hindrances were things that didn't bother James Quinn much. After all, he was the guy who lived life to the fullest - a committed environmentalist who planned to put his master's in environmental science and a law degree to good use.

"I would describe Jimmy as being a man filled with passion," said his mother, Maureen.

A man whose last acts on Earth put him close to it.

It's been difficult, but Ashley Quinn, 25, has just returned to riding her bike in the month since James' death. She took a 60-mile trip last week, her first since the accident.

"It's important," she said, "for me to ride."

Still, the tougher task might be the 15-mile trip she planned to make today, along with James' sister Kate and a veritable relay team of friends and admirers he made through the years.

Maybe you could call it the Tour de Quinn. Or maybe you could think about the man - and the loss - the next time you encounter a bicyclist on the road.