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Karel Navarro / AP
Several hundred nude cyclists hit the streets of Lima, Peru, on Saturday to protest reckless driving.
At least 300 nude cyclists hit the streets of Lima, Peru, on Saturday, protesting the reckless driving they say has killed thousands in their country, Reuters reported.
"I have gone naked because it's the way to raise awareness of our rights for example the bicycle lanes that are never free," said cyclist Milagro Esquivel. "There are always taxis parked, police sleeping."
More than 3,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in Peru in 2009, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.
(By contrast, 33,808 people were killed in car accidents in the United States during the same year. Adjusting for total populations of both countries, that was about the same proportion of people killed on the road.)
The cyclists, many of whom painted slogans on their bodies, are agitating for dedicated bicycle lanes. This is the seventh annual nude cyclist event.
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real dumb.......distract car drivers so you can get killed rideing on a bike.....most there are just perverts..
Here in the US we don't even need external distractions. I see plenty of idiots looking at their phones instead of the road. Daily, I see people talking on their phone while driving with their kids in the car.
Really? Riding a bicycle makes one a pervert?
Mike, you're an idiot. The goal was to raise awareness for road safety, and the story reached the US, so they did a good job.
A normal dude wouldnt ride a bicycle butt naked to prove a friggin point!!! T
There are a million other ways one can do this unless you are just trying to make a proxy twisted statement; which defeats the first one....Seriously?
A curved well rounded seat on your ass in broad daylight? Whatever happened to decency...this political correctness is going too far...ridiculous does not begin to explain this....at least put underware on or something...
doc: Why do you feel such shame over being human? The body is natural. In fact, we all have one, at least if you are alive. I suggest you see a shrink to develop your self-esteem a bit. It really is in the sewer.
A normal dude who believes in a cause enough will die for the cause. Stripping down into the nude to get the attention of the media and the world doesn't seem as extreme as dying.
I gotta agree with Witchrunner. A naked body is just the way we were made. Go to tribal parts of this planet and you won't see women covering up their breasts. You aren't going to see a guy worried somebody is going to see his penis. Everybody's butt is hanging out. Are they all perverts? My opinion is no. They are just aren't concerned with covering everything up like myself and most other people are. But for the right cause, even I would get outside my comfort zone and go nude.
Go to Europe and tell all those people on the topless beaches they are all pervs. Let me know what they say. It seems that the USA is about the only place in the world worried about a dingy hanging out once in a while.
american males are made to be ashamed of their bodies at birth via circumcision, fact
Why may I ask?
You may not.
LL
:>)
I did not see any chicks in the photo, wtf, mabe saving energy for later, let the goodtimes roll.
say there boys, be carefull with those skinny bike seats one bad spot in the road and you could be goured ,strange, thay look so happy?
Riding nude to raise awareness of reckless driving? Riding nude causes reckless driving! DAH!
I hate bicycles on the street.
Can you go the speed limit, no, then you are impeding traffic and a menace.
Can I drive my car across the crosswalk at a red light, no, then a car and a bicycle are not the same.
Can I pull my car up through the middle of other cars parked at a red right, no, then why should they if they are "valid" road traffic.
One, the speed limit is just that, the MAXIMUM one can legally go, not a minimum so one does not have to be able to drive the MAXIMUM even in a car.
Two, a bicycle cannot legally invade a crosswalk either. Everyone else knows the two are not the same. Are you just waking up to that fact?
Three, a bicycle cannot legally drive between other two lanes of stopped traffic.
Sounds to me like you have a case of extreme jealousy.
LL
One, right, but in the real world it means "Go this speed", and you know it. You go with the flow of traffic, and all the rest of traffic is going that speed.
Two, do they teach that to bicycle riders before they get their license? Oh wait, they don't have one, so they could have any amount of training to include "none".
Third, see above. You're lying if you say that you have never seen them do it.
Jealous, no. Angry, yes. There is no reason that they couldn't just use the sidewalk. They can slow down quicker as they weight next to nothing and are going slower than a 3000lb pound car going 40mph. They can not go the same speed as the flow of traffic, pay no road maintenance taxes from registration, and do not need to have a license, so why should they get to drive on the road?
I have seen them impeding traffic during rush hour here in Germany, when there is a bike path five feet to the right, but no, they are in the middle of the "Tour de France" in their mind, and feel the need to delay the 30 cars behind them by riding in their stupid logo'ed racing gear on the main road, rather than ride on the bike path. There are complete bike roads in Germany, so many that you never need to touch a real road outside of the city.
Let me guess, MasterQ, you ride a $900 Yuba, and have one of those Amish beards and a knit cap. Or are you the yuppy, with the yellow leotard covered in fake sponsor logos riding your $5,000 carbon-fiber child's toy.
Bikes are great, when they are not on the road endangering themselves and pissing off others.
MACGYVER
you are a genuine idiot. read the laws first and post. i can't believe you actually past a drivers test.
you do know the maening of sideWALK?? OR DID YOU EVER GET THROUGH 3RD GRADE
I ride my bike to work every day, and I can tell you, there are very good reasons not to use the sidewalk. It can be cracked and broken. In the fall it will be covered with leaves, and in the winter, the sand and gravel that the government spreads to give motorists traction when it snows (and fails to clean up after the snow melts). t is often not wide enough to accommodate a pedestrian and a bicycle. Sometimes, it isn't there at all. At an intersection, drivers looking to turn onto your street cannot see you as well, and having to swerve to get to the indention puts you that much closer to them. In some places, it isn't even legal. Etc.
Having said all that, I do ride on the sidewalks whenever these conditions are not present. I can also sympathize with your frustration at cyclists who think they have an equal right to a lane. I never understood that mentality. In my state, the regulation states that cyclists must ride as close to the curb as they safely can. Most do, but there are obnoxious ones as well -- just like there are obnoxious drivers even though most are considerate.
None of this would be an issue, of course, if we designed all streets with designated bicycle lanes. My city is famously bicycle friendly but even so there are places I have to ride that have no sidewalk and only about six inches of shoulder. That doesn't mean ripping up every street and starting over, but when that has to happen anyway, do the right thing when repaving.
My solution to this problem has been to start my morning ride early enough that there is very little traffic on the streets. That doesn't help going home, though.
Um, of course I know what a sidewalk is. It's that empty concrete paved surface next to the road. Most of the time in cities without mass transit, they are empty. My question is more to the idea that due to the fact that bikes move slower, and that sidewalk traffic is less, that instead of traveling in the road where large fast moving cars are at, that they should be allowed and required to ride on the sidewalk. Here in Germany we have BIKE PATHS, and people still ride their bikes in the road ALONGSIDE the bike paths. I'm not talking NY city, traffic somewhere like that moves SLOWER than bikes, so it's not a big deal. Bike riders mostly ride like they have no laws, and therefore should not be allowed on roads.
@Whocares, really? Caps all in the wrong place, wrong words "past for passed" lack of possessive apostrophes, and misspelled words, and I'M the idiot? SideWALK? Ok smarty, do you PARK on the PARKway, do you DRIVE, on the DRIVEway? Just because words have other words in them, doesn't mean anything. Do they make wine from GRAPEfruit?
In my opinion, bikes suck, and are a danger to themselves and others when they are on the street.
and that is the reason you should be banned from driving anything except a bicycle your are still and idiot.
@Whocares, "you're" still making my point for me. You should quit while "you're" not ahead.
Weird, they want to be safer but not a single one of them is wearing a helmet or safety equipment of any kind...
Just like with Motorcycle vs Automobile collisions. (Which are usually caused by the automobile driver doing something dumb)
A helmet in most of those collisions (they are not "accidents"), does little except provide the family with the opportunity for an open casket funeral.
Ed...I saw a cyclist slide under a dump truck....looked like it was happening in slow motion and the guy could have walked away if he had a helmet...whacked his head like a mellon as he slid under the stopped truck
SYLVIA ,
you do not know that for a fact. bicyle helmets are not the sam as motorcycle helmets. they do not take the same impact.
Bike helmets aren't designed to withstand high speed impacts with autos, they are designed to withstand accidents where the rider ends up on the ground after either an equipment failure or collision with a stationary object, or at worst another cyclist.
Actually, bicycle helmets in some ways are more protective than many motorcycle helmets. Some of the motorcycle helmets are designed more with fashion in mind rather than safety; even some of the cheapest bicycle helmets pass rigorous impact tests.
In my city, there are good bicyclists. There are also many self centered, stupid bicyclists who run red lights, ride on sidewalks, treat pedestrians like obstacles, ride without lights at night, or ride while texting, cell phoning, and walking their leashed dogs. If they did this in the nude, they would still be stupid, as nudity imparts nothing. I'd rather have them reveal brains.
Sounds like my kind of protest. OWS take note.
OK Letusreason ....seconding your motion re OWS !
A good point about runners. Here we have stupid people who dress in ALL BLACK, including the shoes, and then run in the pre-dawn hours. They run through red lights, across entrance to buildings that have not yet lit up, or have little lighting. When I come to work, and turn into the parking lot, I really have to look to make sure one these nuts is not running across the driveway.
Putting some reflection tape in BIG LETTERS that say BEWARE I AM A RUNNER, front and back would be a sane idea. But of course people who do this are self centered, ignorant, and self important people who think the worlds job is to look at them, "See me I am so cool for running in the dark with an all black fashion statement."
Steven100...I like your post...
runners (& some cyclists) wear black to accentuate their "black panther-like" muscles in the dusk & dark
...just look like "dead cat walking" to me
I hope they burn those seats afterwards.....
Are they banana seats now?
why is in international news. who freaking cares. nobody here in the US cares!
Im sure theres a strong correlation between the word "naked" and high clicks on an article.
Let's hope they had plenty of Purel for the seats.
There were no naked chicks this year because there were to many "DWB' (Driving With Boners) arrests last year
I commute by bike 20 miles each day and I can atest to just how distracted drivers are. I've been hit once and have had to many close calls to count. One in particular was caused by a cop parked directly in the center of a marked bike lane while issusing a warning ticket for an expired plate. When I went to go around his car, a delivery truck came so close to me that as it went by I actualy was suck into the side of it. I was able to maintain control of the bike, but I thought I was having a heart attack. I yelled at the cop, and consuquently got ticketed for interfering with a officer while preforming his duties ($250.00). I went to court and the fine was dropped because the cop did not appear at the hearing, proably because he knew he was in the wrong. People please pay attention to many bicyclist are getting mamed and killed,and with the price of gas as high as it is there are going to be more and more of us on the roads!
Are there no naked women in Peru? That's what I would be protesting.
Jogging nude is healthier.
Dont see any wimmen there. That would be extremely risky in any Latino country....
I dare any red blooded male who likes women, put naked women on the street on bikes and see how many pay attention to driving their cars! One smile and a wink and I grantee you will hit a pole! This was a stupid way to make a statement about driving safety!
What do you expect from Sand???