Friends and family of bicyclist Tamar Monhait gathered Friday on the street corner where she died and called for safer roads.

Monhait, 41, of Portland crashed into the side of a garbage truck around 1:50 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Southeast Taylor Street and Water Avenue, Portland police said. Monhait was riding north along Water Avenue and hit the southbound truck as it was turning east onto Taylor, police said.

Family members described Monhait as a talented artist whose work had been featured at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland and other venues. Her work included photographs, paintings and music. A photo of her on social media shows her playing guitar.

Sue Monhait of Chicago said her stepdaughter was drawn to Portland for its art and cultural scene.

"When I think of Tamar, what I think of is (she's) such a gentle soul," Monhait said, wiping away tears as she spoke before about 30 people at the vigil. "So pure, so loving, so passionate in her music and her art and love of others."

Sue Monhait said her stepdaughter had an electrical engineering degree but never used it, choosing to pursue her art instead.

"She sacrificed a lot — the financial gain — for the love of her art," Monhait said. "She was a musician, an artist, a painter, designer. ... That's why she was in Portland."

Tamar Monheit worked for a bike delivery service when she lived in Chicago and always took safety precautions, her stepmother said.

"Coming here and seeing all these people, some who don't even know Tamar but came out for the cause so another family doesn't have to deal with this again, I hope people are listening," Sue Monhait said.

She hopes her stepdaughter's death will spur more attention by the city to bike safety to prevent other deaths. "Can this be the last one?" she said.

Emily Guise, a leader with bike safety advocacy group BikeLoud PDX, helped organize the vigil to call on the city to add bike-activated signals, widen bike lanes and mandate that trucks have side guards. The guards help prevent people from getting caught underneath trucks, she said.

"A lot of people are killed because of falling under a truck's wheels and we think if side guards were required we could save lives," Guise said.

The crash is the second in Portland resulting in the death of a bicycle rider this year and the 27th fatal traffic crash in the city, Portland police said. In February, Alan Izi Marsan died when he was hit by a box truck while riding his bicycle in the bike lane along North Interstate Avenue.

"Twenty-seven people have died on our streets this year in Portland," Guise said. "That's an unacceptable rate of death. ... So that's why I felt that I needed to organize this. To honor the memory of a person whose death could have been prevented."

--Olivia Dimmer

503-708-8630; @DimmerOlivia