London's Naked Bike Ride
Picture is from a couple of years back, when I was able to ride it. Unfortunately, yesterday apart from a brief 60km early in the morning I was car-bound and unable to join in. Not just car bound but continually stuck in traffic, as is so common in London these days. Looking at the mile after mile of near stationary traffic (it was the same the other side of the road) and the glum faces in the cars, it struck me that this one simple message - we CAN change this, one car ride at a time, we need to stop being dependent on oil - is one to take away from the ride. Not every journey is possible by bike - I was in a car, after all - but so many are.
posted by Ham at 08:13 --
Comments here: 4
Comments on "London's Naked Bike Ride"
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Anonymous said ... (09:44) :
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CornishCockney said ... (10:50) :
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imajoebob said ... (20:18) :
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Helen said ... (11:32) :
post a comment"I should have caught the train", is surely something many Londoners say at times.
We managed to get around for decades by foot/bike/public transport before the car took over so why the reluctance to now?
Last year we inherited a car that couldn't fit us all in, and as it was the only one we had I usually went by bus while my husband drove the kids. On journeys of 10-15 mins we usually arrived at the same time anyway!!
There are many places in the modern world you simply cannot survive without a car, but London is not one of them. It's really just the opposite. I lived in Southwark for a year, and then South Kensington a few months, and I never once needed a car. London's mass transit is probably the best in the world, and if they ever figure out people actually live south of the Thames, and upgrade the problematic signal system, it'll be near perfect.
I saw the nude riders in Gower Street. I have to say that they held up the traffic something shocking wherever they went and that included buses.