Save the Planet
Ride Your Bike Naked
By Daniel Muniz

An organization called World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) intends to save the planet from oil dependency. In order to promote public awareness to their cause, they organize and coordinate simultaneous bike rides at various cities around the world on an annual basis. And as the name of this group implies, these events are clothing-optional with most of the participants riding their bikes naked and the rest of them wearing hardly anything at all.

Of course the obvious question is how does getting naked have anything to do with saving the planet or reducing our insatiable thirst for oil?

Below is their answer in the Frequently Asked Questions page of their web site:

But here is the first question I have. How does seeing a bunch of naked people riding their bicycles riding through town influence someone to all of a sudden sell all of their cars and then ride a bike to get to and from work every day as well as using it for ordinary errands?

And is taking off all of your clothes in public to support such an effort, regardless of how noble it is, really that effective in persuading people to change their point of view and adopt a new lifestyle? Or are people just going think that these protesters are nothing more than a bunch of idiots?

Although getting naked does garner a lot of media attention, which is why some organizations do it, does it really help convince the community that your cause is worthwhile so that they will take it seriously even when such a crusade has numerous flaws in it?

For instance, just for me to reach the nearest supermarket on a bicycle I would have to use a heavily trafficked two lane road and then cross a busy freeway. There is another supermarket before that freeway but it doesn’t have all the stuff that I usually buy so I seldom go to it. And everywhere else I usually go to would be too far away to ride to. As a result, instead of shopping at all the places where I can get the lowest prices at the best quality, I would be severely limited because I could only go to a couple of the nearest stores for my needs instead of where I want to go to.

I also get paid every other week so I usually buy two weeks worth of groceries at a time although my wife now does the grocery shopping. So how would all of that foodstuff be carried back on a single bike trip?

And to get to work I will also have to cross two freeways and don’t forget about the trip back.

In addition, I live in South Texas where the humid balmy summers reach over 100 degrees a day for the entire month of August and most of the summer the temperature is usually in the upper nineties. The fresh air may be great but air conditioning is a lot better especially since it would be a long bike trip carrying groceries back home.

I am sure that people up North have a similar dilemma during their harsh winters.

Below is one particular comment I saw about this annual event:

In Texas where I live as well as in most of the country, everything is spread out over great distances as the commentator mentioned. I could understand if you lived in a densely populated and tightly compacted urban area like New York City because everything is nearby but that isn’t the case for rest of us.

As for everybody else, it just isn’t feasible to solely rely on a bicycle which makes me wonder whether or not these bike enthusiasts really believe in what they preach about saving the planet and reducing oil dependency. Or do they already own a car that they use to go to and from work as well as for everything else but that they just enjoy the thrill of getting naked in public for a trendy crusade, especially one that shames people for owning an automobile?

Even if most of them are only thrill seekers, I imagine that there must actually be a handful of protesters who are really serious about this movement instead of just getting their kicks out of publicly taking their clothes off. If that is the case, then I can understand that much of their inspiration must come from Europe because bicycles over there are viewed as a serious mode of transportation instead of a toy which is how many Americans think of them.

But most of the urban areas in Europe are already densely populated and tightly compacted so riding a bike over there is a snap because everything is so close together. In addition, most Western European countries already have a massive public transportation network that is already in widespread use which is not the case for most of America.

Although much of the Third World also relies on bicycles, they do so because they don’t have a choice.

But my greatest fear is also about what was said of the danger of being on the road while riding a bike. I have seen quite a bit of carnage between cars but the ugliest accidents have been the ones that involved automobiles and bicyclists, especially at night. I just feel a lot safer being inside my car.

The same guy also made this startling observation:

That’s gross! I never thought about it that way. The next bicycle I buy has to be brand-new or a used one from someone that actually wears clothes because I will not buy one from a naked bike rider unless he replaces the seat with a new one that he never sat on.

But something else I have always wondered about regarding getting naked as part of a protest.

Taking off all of your clothes in downtown will attract a lot of media attention but the biggest drawback is that oftentimes such protesters are not exactly the kind of people the public would ever want to see naked. Many of these events seem to have plenty of overweight men with beer bellies and women who usually do not shave their legs or their underarms. Just the sight of this sort of crowd supporting any cause would tend to defeat the purpose of attracting attention to it in the first place. Unattractive people, especially if they are naked, simply do not have the same marketing appeal or impact.

It would be different if Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and Paris Hilton took off all of their clothes together at a street corner. That would definitely get my attention and I would personally like to “see” what they had to say although I would probably not listen to very much of it. But if they rode around town in a bike naked, then perhaps I would have to give their message a little bit of credence although I don’t think all three of them would ever be able to convince me to sell my car and ride a bicycle to work (but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t try).

But I would like to hear from our readers. Check out their web site:

www.WorldNakedBikeRide.org

And please tell us whether or not you think that these people are a bunch of ding-dongs or if you feel that they really have a serious issue worthy of discussion and debate.

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