“We are vulnerable to car violence”: the bold protest of cyclists pedaling naked to highlight traffic accidents

A daring day to draw attention to traffic accidents, which cause so many deaths and injuries, was carried out by a group of cyclists in Sao Paulo.

With their bikes and helmets, they showed up in the early hours of Saturday, March 11, 2023, with the third and most important requirement: to be naked.

Without clothes, although some came with short garments (thongs) and others covered their skin with paint, about 30 cyclists took Paulista Avenue, the most iconic in Sao Paulo, the AFP agency reported.

The men and women took on the challenge of getting naked and braving the rain, to raise awareness among motorists of their “vulnerability” to traffic accidents.

cyclists with a conscience

The call was made by Peeled pedalthe Brazilian version of the global movement World naked bike.

“We are naked on one of the largest avenues in Latin America, we show that we are vulnerable to violence, to the violence of cars,” Allis Bezerra, a 41-year-old photographer, told AFPTV.

“This movement serves to show society how important we are. By using the bicycle as a means of transport, we remove a car that pollutes the environment from urban traffic,” he added.

Andresa Aguida, a 43-year-old artist, painted the message “durable stairsin the abdomen and left topless on Avenida Paulista, the agency described.

Motorists disrespect us when they honk at us and it seems they are telling us: go ahead or I’ll run you over, he denounced.

painful balances

One of the participants covered his body in green paint and carried a large flag to please his conscience.

The United Nations named traffic accidents in June 2022 “a silent and walking epidemic” report that these kill 1.3 million people a year and cause 50 million serious injuries each year.

A study by the Brazilian Association of Road Traffic Medicine (Abramet) published last June indicated that there were more than 16,000 accidents in Brazil in 2011 involving hospitalization of cyclists in serious condition, an average of 44 per day.