The importance of conspicuity

SHOPPERS in Darlington were mystified by the appearance of a semi-naked woman riding a bike through the town centre.

The modern-day Lady Godiva was spotted at lunchtime today freewheeling down Priestgate.

The woman was wearing only a T-shirt and was naked from the waist down. She was standing up on her pedals and was heard to be shouting I'm invisible as she rode past.

All cyclists are by definition invisible, especially in today’s busy modern world where so many drivers have important text messages to send or read. Even the most skilled multi-tasking motorist cannot occasionally avoid colliding with a cyclist, especially with those criminally irresponsible cyclists who foolishly and dangerously wear dark clothing.

This is why cyclists should make every effort to make themselves conspicuous at all times. This London cyclist (below) demonstrates a key aspect of Cyclecraft which is all too commonly neglected by conventional cycling campaigners – the importance of wearing high viz gear and no knickers.

‘Invisible cyclists’ menace driver

“I’m fed up with almost being hit by invisible cyclists who seem to think they are above the law.”

(Below) A typical invisible cyclist moves freely among oblivious London pedestrians

(Below) An undercover policeman cleverly blends in with invisible cyclists during an outbreak of cycling anarchy.

Cycling on the footway: Walthamstow, York, and Waterloo Bridge

The above photo shows a typical pavement assassin. This father and son are dressed for battle and plainly determined to terrify pedestrians by plunging down alleyways like Beulah Path E17.

There is no excuse for this kind of behaviour in a borough which has over forty miles of family-friendly cycling infrastructure, ranging from 'quiet routes' to prize-winning cycle lanes like this.




























And now a scene from York. A teenager cycling on the pavement speeds past some cars before rejoining the road at the ASL. (Micklegate at the junction with Nunnery Lane.)




























Why did the teenager ride on the footway? Because he wanted to get to the other side. That’s to say the traffic waiting at the lights backed-up through this archway under the city wall (i.e. Micklegate Bar), preventing him from accessing the cycle lane leading to the cycling reservoir (ASL).

York city council could of course make it unlawful for queuing vehicles to wait under the archway but that would be War on the Motorist. There must be Balance and Consideration for All Road Users within the primary framework of Smoothing Traffc Flow. A cycle lane must always be subordinate to the greater interest of drivers, even in a 'cycling city'.





























This driver (below) has thoughtfully tried to leave a little extra space for cyclists under the arch by moving forwards.





























Cycling on the footway is not something to be taken lightly. Each years billions of British people report how they were 'amost killed' by a cyclist riding past them on the pavement. And it's true.

Here is a rare action shot of two women who were confronted by a cyclist mounting the pavement on Waterloo Bridge and who almost died. Of laughter.

Shocking pictures of naked cyclists

Cycling blogger Buffalo Bill, who speaks out on behalf of that strange tribe known as ‘bicycle messengers’, has taken all his clothes off. Mercifully, we are spared a close-up.

Sadly nowadays there are far too many cyclists prepared to strip off and display their unfit bodies in public. The only thing that can be said for this kind of spectacle is that it shows the importance of making yourself visible to drivers, resulting in ‘safety in numbers’.

And now here is a photograph of a very well maintained Advanced Stop Line on London Bridge.

Manchester cops flout parking regulations

'All GMP members of staff are reminded of their responsibilities when they are parking police vehicles. It not acceptable for any member of staff to park on double yellow lines unless it is an officer responding to an emergency.

Ah, yes. Greater Manchester Police. Manchester, the city of the petrolhead’s copper where some officers display a bullying and repressive attitude to the Manchester naked bike ride

And they don’t do customer relations either.

When she pleaded that Hanvey was hurting her, the custody sergeant retorted: 'If you misbehave you will be hurt. It is the technique we are trained to do - hurt.'

It later emerged Hanvey had a history of violence and narrowly escaped being dismissed after punching a prisoner in the face in 1998.

Bosses at Greater Manchester Police took the unusual step of giving him a chance despite his criminal conviction.

Unusual? In the words of Tom Jones, it’s not unusual.

It’s the Beijing naked bike ride!

[Photo: Ji Bin]

Inspired by the World Naked Bike Ride Day, usually held in June worldwide since 2004, nearly 30 bicycle riders gathered at Club Tango in Dongcheng district Saturday morning. They then set off "naked" from Yonghegong Lama Temple to Chaoyang Park. The cyclists claimed to be using their naked bodies to protest the car drivers' carelessness when coming into contact with cyclists.

"Cyclists are the disadvantaged group on the road, but cars are always used to show off wealth in China. The car drivers seldom take care of cyclists," the organizer Zhou Lei told the Global Times.

Zhou hopes to promote the campaign to other cities around the country. "Chinese people are not too shy to ride naked, but they were not sure about the government's attitude."

Only 19.7 percent of Beijing residents ride bicycles as of 2009, reduced from 40 percent in 2000, 57 percent in 1990 and 60 percent in 1986.

There were 4 million bicycles in the city in 1989, according to the Beijing Times. The city government once enacted a proposal that was intended to promote bicycle transport with the aim of getting 23 percent of Beijing residents back riding bikes by 2015, but it's unclear how this goal is progressing.

Bournemouth nude cyclist charged with ‘disorderly behaviour’

Richard Collins, 53, known as ‘The Cambridge Nude Cyclist’, took advantage of the warm weather on Wednesday, riding au naturel from a friend’s house in Moordown to Bournemouth Pier, and along the prom to Sandbanks – where he dressed to wait for the ferry. It was there that the police caught up with him.

He was charged under Section Five of the Public Order act 1986 for “disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment alarm or distress thereby.”

Disgusting nude cycling: exclusive pictures!

From the Comments box on Sky news online last week.

‘anthonylee’

I was in London on Saturday and happened to see the Naked Bike Ride. Call me a prude but I thought it was an absolute disgrace and a blatent excuse for a few hundred exhibisionists to show off their mainly out of shape unsightly bodies for the day. There were families out with small children, why should they have been exposed to this? And, why is this not classed as indecent exposure?

Judging by people I spoke to on Saturday I wasnt the only one that felt disgusted with having to see that on Saturday. Its all well and good saying that there was nothing sexual with what they are doing. But why should we have to be subjected to that? And yes I do talk about "the children", because I happen to believe that there are certain things that young children should not have to see whilst out with family in central London.

How true! How dare these road tax dodging pavement assassins expose their bloated and unwholesome bodies in front of ordinary decent people? Just look at the disgust and revulsion on the faces of ordinary Londoners and tourists, many of them families with young children.
























































































And look at this poor unfortunate little girl in the pink cycling helmet (below). She has a depraved mother who shamelessly flaunts her unsightly body all over London on a Saturday afternoon and exposes her impressionable child to the hideous spectacle of nude cyclists. But, far worse, this child is being brought up to think that travelling around on a bicycle is somehow normal. How are children ever going to learn to develop car dependency with parents like these? Fortunately a man in a stylish hat and shorts has run into the middle of Fleet Street to get close-up evidence which he will surely be forwarding to the child protection department of social services. God bless you, sir!

In Vancouver it is illegal to cycle like this

Engineering staff figure, on a very rough estimate, that the overall allocation of city transportation infrastructure in Vancouver is about two per cent for cyclists, 20 per cent for pedestrians and 78 per cent for cars.

Interesting statistics.

Oh, and

Cyclists can ride naked, if they insist, but they must wear a helmet.

Not like London, then!

Naked on Cycling Superhighway number nine

Jesse Schust, Sipson rider and planning coordinator, said: "The ride was a protest against airport expansion, car culture, and oil dependency."

Sipson was recently given a reprieve from being bulldozed to make way for Heathrow Airport's third runway.

The Sipson riders travelled along the A4 until Kew Bridge. This route is expected to become Cycling Superhighway number nine by 2012.

Nude cyclist horror shock sensation

A CYCLIST who rode naked through a peaceful Suffolk village might have been making a protest about speed checks, it emerged last night.

Yeah, right...

(Below) An artist’s impression of the kind of person Suffolk Police are anxious to trace.

Seattle naked bike ride cyclist charged

A letter from the city that took Daniel Johnson by surprise.

“The charge is for indecent exposure,” he said.

If convicted, he could be sentenced up to 365 days and fined up to $5,000.

What is wrong with this cycle training?

I spotted a cycle trainer with a novice cyclist yesterday, approaching the junction with Selborne Road E17 on Willow Walk. As you can see from the first photograph, this is a very friendly street environment for the new cyclist.

Members of the road safety community will be shocked to see that the trainer was NOT WEARING A HELMET.

The twenty-something woman cyclist had a shiny new helmet to match her shiny new bike. But, shockingly, she is dressed entirely in black. This renders her more or less invisible to drivers, and if she gets run down the only real issue worth discussing will be the percentage of her contributory negligence.

The trainer was teaching her to cycle well away from the kerb. I’m afraid this is a wilfully provocative thing to do in Waltham Forest, and cyclists who do this can expect to hooted at, sworn at, have headlights flashed at them, or, in some cases, have a driver deliberately swerve at them in a playful attempt to knock them off. The cyclist’s only acceptable position is in the gutter with the broken glass, half an inch from the kerb, and it is foolish to pretend otherwise.

Perversely, the trainer is not encouraging her to use the magnificent cycle lane at this junction, with its matching accessory, the ‘death trap black railings’. Why not?

The matching hand signals are magnificent, however. No cyclist approaching this T-junction would ever bother to signal a left turn, and no cyclist ever does. What would be the point? No, this woman is quite rightly being taught the importance of choreographed body movements, which, once mastered, will permit her to join London’s most important annual mass bike ride.

Nude lawyer genital exposure cycling news

Scrimshire said, "The charges are ridiculous, and the facts will come out in court."

The image of cycling

Explaining why he wouldn’t be joining the naked bike ride, Rob Ainsley wrote I do worry that the WNBR propagates the idea that cycling is for naive weirdos

Of course, it might be thought that anyone who cycles in London, even fully-clothed, by definition suffers from a mild personality disorder, and is a thrill-seeking risk taker with underlying sado-masochistic tendencies.

Anyway, relax Rob. This short clip taken by Wellington Arch at the end of the ride will surely dispel your anxieties.

more about Manchester NBR

As we came through St. Ann's square a policeman flagged down some of the riders at the rear of the group. It seems that he was uninformed about the ride and so we had to explain again. He told us that it was illegal to be nude, and that people were complaining (we'd seen a lot of people cheering, clapping, shouting and wolf-whistling and several teenagers had tagged along with us since market street but we hadn't had any complaints).

More naked bike ride news

The world's youngest 2009 NBR participant. London.


Some more reports of naked biked rides:

Manchester

Rider and organiser Sean Fitton, 43, from Radcliffe, said: "When we got to Portland Street officers stopped us, causing a major back-up of traffic. The officers instructed the riders to put on clothing, stating at first that there had been a complaint that there were children present, then that a previous agreement had been made for the riders to cover up. There had never been any agreement that we would cover up. That wouldn't be a naked bike ride then would it?

"The officers finally backed down when they realised several riders had no clothing with them, so they let us go telling those without clothes to ride in the middle of the others where no-one would be able to see them."


Sheffield

They rode up and down Ecclesall Road from Endcliffe Park to the city centre and back with their bodies clad with slogans and one even wearing a flower in her hair.


Montpelier

No fewer than 42 men and women (and two appropriately clothed children) spun a well-watched path down Main Street early Saturday afternoon en route to the Statehouse.


Toronto

The majority of Toronto’s birthday suit riders were men, but a few women showed up as well. One cyclist named Anna said she got involved because she felt it was a good cause. “I did wear a bikini because last year when I did it (nude), my boss recognized me from the back,” she said.

World Naked Bike Ride 2009

(Above) Auckland
(Below) London






































(Below) This awesome Transport for London poster advising cyclists how to behave on the roads is really getting its message across.





















































Vancouver

"You've got people here with no protective clothing and no helmets so of course we are concerned about their safety," said Vancouver police Sgt. Brian Green.


Boulder, Colorado

After threatening naked riders with arrest and registration as sex offenders, the Boulder Police Department issued the following statement.

Boulder police officers issued no tickets at today's World Naked Bike Ride. About 35 riders participated in the event, but all of them heeded officers' requests to cover up in compliance with Colorado's indecent exposure laws. The group was very cooperative.

The communications center received no calls or complaints about the ride this year, and the department was able to monitor the event with existing resources. No overtime was necessary.


Manhattan

"A cop said, 'Put your clothes back on or you're going to jail,' " said Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Nathan Hill, 26, who was completely naked except for some body paint until the warning. He reluctantly put his boxer briefs back on.

"These guys are idiots - clowning around, holding up traffic," said Tom O'Connor, 27, of Astoria. But that didn't bother Melissa Paxton, 26, who watched the chaos unfold at the Chelsea Waterside Park around 7 p.m. "I'm waiting for naked men," said the boy-crazy Upper East Sider. "I'm single."


London





Chicago

Brighton solidarity…

with protesters in the southern hemisphere

So it's hot in Peru at this time of year, then

The 11-kilometer nude bicycle-athon is to begin on the first block of Bajada Balta Avenue in the Limean district of Miraflores at 10 a.m.