6/14/2005: Naked Madrid bike ride

[LCanal]

[quote]riding naked to protest the dependence on cars.

I wonder where they put their clothes and how they all got to Madrid? The cynic in me always gets a buzz out of "cyclist" especially the smell the roses, ride in the wilderness types as they always use cars, nay SUV's to get to the wilderness. I would be more impressed if they all sold their cars and relied entirely on bikes. But what the ..... I guess as long as they feel happy. As my mother would have said " Think about all the people in the world who can't afford a bike let alone a car"
Yada, yada, yada...

[Griff]

[quote=LCanal]

I would be more impressed if they all sold their cars and relied entirely on bikes.

Of course to make that possible would require a shift in public policy so that cycling wouldn't be suicidal, hence the protest. We had some Spaniards here. I wonder if the car culture around Madrid is really that bad. I had a car swerve at me during my long ride home the other night, ought to start packing. Anyway their protest might be more toward not becoming a insular car culture like ares more than actually addressing local problems.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Griff

I wonder if the car culture around Madrid is really that bad.

Picture an ants nest...make it an ants nest of angry ants. OK, now put wheels on the ants. Get the picture.

[barefoot serpent]

pix from the WNBR 2005 in London:
http://there.is/photos/WNBR2005/

[johningerslev]

my parents sold their car and now ride everywhere on their bikes. it's a great condversation starter at swanky dinner parties when no-one believes they don't own a car.

[capnhowdy]

I spun out on turn three......
I forgot the odds already.

[wolf]

This goes along with that whole freak show thing I have against pride parades in general.

The point of the protest is the usefulness of bikes for transportation in a congested city as well as for reducing fossil fuel use. The point of the protest is not waggling your johnson or hooters around.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by wolf

The point of the protest is the usefulness of bikes for transportation in a congested city as well as for reducing fossil fuel use. The point of the protest is not waggling your johnson or hooters around.

That's just to ensure the all important Cellar mention... I guess they were successful.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Oh No! I feel so used.

[jaguar]

Saw the recent London Critical Mass naked ride, was quite amusing.
I visited Amsterdam last week, 6 out of 7 people have bikes, private cars are quite rare, public transport is excellent. It works. So, so well it's not funny. I didn't see one overweight person while I was there, traffic flows even in the heart of the city. The air is so much cleaner, it's amazing.

Wouldn't the fact we're talking about it mean it's a success in raising awareness?

jtm - noodle has the IQ of a small, dried potato and is about as open minded as a vice, don't waste your time.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Jag, don't forget Amsterdam has a population of something like 1.1 million in only 125 square miles.
We're spread out more, not as flat and travel longer distances to scattered locations for everything thing we do over and above daily commuting.
A person might cover a hundred miles in a days shopping.

[wolf]

Vices typically require that one be quite open minded, but sometimes narrowly focused.

I think you mean vise.

[BigV]

Jag's experience on this board is sufficient in my estimation that he would know better than to attribute to mrnoodle any vice(s). More likely it was the continental spelling.

But you knew that.

[jaguar]

continental? English (though it is the same in french). As opposed to American. Which is not English. It involves more letters and less zs.

Bruce - arguably that's the problem. Same thing to a degree applies in inner London, where I live it'd be mad to get a car, it's far faster and cheaper to take the bus or undergraound anywhere than a car. Because of the concentration of shops etc there's nowhere I'd want to go that isn't easily accessiable by either bus or underground and I don't just mean the 'square mile' of London either.

[mrnoodle]

Yeah, got to love that fresh, clean air.

Here in the New World, we have this substance called "land" that separates our cities. Unless you want to make a week out of it, you gotta drive. There are still horse rental places, but only in the tourist towns.

People are going to take the easiest mode of transportation that their budgets and schedules will allow, unless they're exercising. This is a nearly universal law, and one that will never change as the result of morons getting naked and riding their bikes around.

And my I.Q. is 165. so thpthpthtphtpphp

or it was before college. I might've drank some points away.