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Over 400 cyclists whizzed naked through Brighton yesterday in protest at cycle safety on British roads and oil dependency. The ride was the fourth in as many years and is part of the larger World Naked Bike Ride, which took place in 70 cities worldwide. As a Brighton-born lad and cyclist who commutes daily in London -- usually with clothes -- I got to thinking, post-event: does naked cycling really help cycling's cause?
I love the fun and carefree attitude of the Naked Bike Ride. Local cycle police posed for photos with women and men clad in stockings and suspenders, and it served as a welcome left-field antidote to the increasingly corporate and generic side of Brighton.
But I can't help feeling that riding nude down the Old Steine isn't going to make cycling safer in the UK, let alone encourage motorists to use less oil by hopping on their bikes. To make cycling mainstream in the UK, we need to make cycling normal. And for the motorists who we need to convert to the cause, that won't involve stripping off for a spin on a Brompton.
To be fair, cycling does need to be safer in the UK. Safety's the number one reason I hear for not cycling. Fortunately, there's safety in numbers, as London demonstrates. 'Slight injuries' for cyclists in 2006 are fractionally down on 2004's numbers, despite the sharp increase in the number of cyclists (83 per cent higher in 2008 than in 2000). So get more cyclists on the road and you get safer roads.
What people wear on their bikes is a key part of making cycling normal, if you ask me. Debate regularly rages in the London Cyclist Magazine on the issue of lycra vs. normal clothes.
In London, I usually see more lycra-clad geezers than people wearing suits and dresses. Go to Denmark, however, and cyclists wearing their everyday clothes -- high heels included -- far out-number the lycra bods. Surprise, surprise: the percentage of journeys by cycle in Denmark is far higher than in the UK. Of course, clothes aren't the only reasons the Danes cycle more than us, but they show how far behind the UK is on making cycling mainstream.
If non-cyclists see cyclists wearing 'normal' clothes, I'd argue they'd be more likely to consider two wheels as a form of transport. Lycra suggests cycling's some sort of specialist sport rather than a green way of getting from A to B. And cyclists wearing birthday suits says to me that cycling's for exhibitionists.
Ultimately, Brighton's Naked Bike Ride is great fun, but if its organisers are serious about getting people out of oil-powered cars and onto safer roads, I don't think bare bicycling's the future. Why not look to mass participation events, like London's Hovis Freewheel? Thirty-eight thousand people rocked up, fully dressed -- and the press still covered the story.
What do you think? Do naked bike rides make our roads safer? What would make UK roads safer? Should I just lighten up and see it as the fun event it's designed to be? Let us know in the comments below, and take our Green Poll on the issue, too.
Photo: Erin O'Connor
09 June 2008 03:28pm
Cycling in London *is* a specialist sport, akin to running the bulls at Pamplona.
09 June 2008 03:53pm
Interesting point on the whole lycra versus civvies debate. I tend to favour the lycra but then I am a mail in his early thirties and very much the demographic. Some of it is definitely about dressing up and pretending you're a superhero - behold its Cycle Man - but some of its also practical - I tend to cycle pretty fast (when it's safe to do so of course Boris) so I get sweaty and don't really want to wear the same clothes all day at work. Maybe the Danes shun the lycra because they are just more level-headed and practical and cycling is seen as a more mainstream mode of transport - or maybe they just smell? ;-)
Seriously though - just got back from a weekend in Berlin and bike culture is very ingrained over there - they even have a bike park at the airport - I kid you not - some Germans cycle to the airport it seems - not sure if that is green or not? But on the whole I was struck by the fact that German bikes - at least the ones I saw are on the whole a lot crapper than the ones you see in London. That probably has less to do with the state of the German economy of late and more to do with the observation that a bike is just a thing to get you from A to B - rather than a bit of sports kit as it's seen over here. Germans are very into their cars - the home of BMW after all - but they don't appear to have the style-conscious approach to bikes. There are a lot of the sit-up-and-beg steel-framed monstrosities which weigh about the same as a BMW 5 Series ? and very few of the mountain bikes and hybrids favoured by Londoners.
09 June 2008 03:54pm
The event gets cycling in the news, but I can't see that it relates to actual cycling--where your main focus is getting from A to B in one piece, regardless of what you're wearing...
09 June 2008 04:13pm
I'm all for public, spontaneous acts of organised mischief, this seems an admirable way to co-opt the mainstream media's obsession with sex to gain publicity for a worthy cause. However, also agree it's only a step along the road. Today I saw a guy cycling to work in a suit, plus high visibility jacket and safety helmet, and I couldn't help noticing how odd it was to see the bike gear over a tie. In an ideal world someone wearing a suit and tie on a bike rather than in their BMW wouldn't look out of place at all...
09 June 2008 05:32pm
@ adonoghue -- funnily enough I once tried to cycle to Heathrow from my home in south-east London. In true ungreen British style, you can't physically cycle into the airport -- bikes are banned from the north tunnel which gets you into the airport. I ended up having to cycle to Hatton Cross, lock up and jump on the tube there to Heathrow.
09 June 2008 06:31pm
So, this is semi-naked not full Monty, eh?
this wouldn't go over well here in the US, even though we're in the more liberal southern California.
09 June 2008 10:59pm
as cyclists we are all naked before the car and I think cycling naked underlines this point very well.
15 July 2008 09:03am
I think you've got a very valid point, the naked bike ride looks like great fun and i will try to be there next year, but, many people will be put off by the fact that everyone is naked or as good as anyway. A much larger number of cyclists with the banners and bells, but dressed would make a better impression on other locals to join in. It could still finish on or near the nudist beach for those who want to strip off and have a dip!
05 August 2008 08:37pm
Adam, I found you through the comment you left for my sustainablog.com post today, and had to check out your perspective on the subject. You make some excellent points.
Riding naked then, in a sense, is the opposite of what needs to happen to make cycling what we want it to be. I don't discourage those who participate in -- and have fun doing -- the naked bike rides. I just want these activist statements to be impactful.
I also agree with your lycra vs. regular clothes idea. It does make what should be a daily act of cycling seem like an elite athlete's activity. Unfortunate. As a bike commuter myself, I suppose I straddle the line. I wear regular shorts, T-shirt and tennis shoes while biking to work, then change into my slacks and shirt and dressier shoes.
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