Brazil: Nudes on Bikes to Raise Awareness of Road Safety
Awairness Desk, Delhi Magazine: With or without a helmet, naked and on their bicycles, nearly 30 cyclists defied the rain this Sunday in São Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, to make drivers aware of their “vulnerability” to traffic accidents.
In the early evening, on Avenida Paulista, the most emblematic street in the economic capital of Brazil, many are naked, but some prefer to cycle in their underwear. One of them is naked as a worm, his body entirely smeared with green and a shapka on his head.
One of them has the body completely painted green. The group responded to a call from Pedalada Pelada, the Brazilian version of the worldwide World Naked Bike movement.
The fear of the accident is there
“We are naked in the middle of the biggest avenue in Latin America. This leaves our body vulnerable, our intimacy. And the idea with naturism, nudism, is precisely to show people how weak we are in the face of strength, of car violence,” Allis Bezerra, a 41-year-old photographer, told AFPTV.
“This movement aims to show society how important we are, because when we use the bicycle as a means of locomotion, as a means of transport, as a way of working, we are taking a car that pollutes the environment out of the city”, he added.
The artist Andresa Aguida, 43 years old, painted the message “sustainable pedaling” on her body before leaving topless along Avenida Paulista.
“People lack respect because we are on bicycles and people in cars are very impatient, they honk, something like ‘go or I’ll run over you'”.
A study by the Brazilian Association of Traffic Medicine (Abramet) published in June last year shows that in 2021 the country recorded more than 16,000 accidents with hospitalizations of cyclists in serious condition, which represents an average of 44 per day.
Earlier a nude bike rally also held in South Wales
