Los Angeles bikes bare for World Naked Bike Ride Day

Nakedness made a statement this Saturday during Los Angeles’ participation in the World Naked Bike Ride, where over 300 participants joined in a fun and clothing free 15 mile ride which serves to promote alternative transportation and cleaner, safer and more body-positive world. The Los Angeles WNBR Facebook page states, “Put a stop to our indecent exposure to cars and the pollution they create! We ride to celebrate HUMAN POWER.” The ride also serves to demonstrate the vulnerability cyclists on the road.

A semi-annual event for LA, the WNBR is a global grassroots movement that has been organizing naked bike rides since 2004, exposing their opinions and skin often in Seattle, but also stretching as far as Germany, New Zealand, and Russia.

The legality of public nudity varies from city to city and country to country. But here in Los Angeles, “indecent exposure” is defined as “willfully exposing your genitals to someone else, motivated by a desire to sexually gratify yourself or offend the other person.” Thus, this ride is not breaking any laws, and was even joined by police escort.

Saturday’s route started and finished at Arroyo Seco Confluence, behind Dodger Stadium, and snaked through Elysian Park, Silverlake, Echo Park, and Downtown LA. They kept to main streets and hot spots such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in order to attract as much attention as possible. A goal which was assisted not only by the nudity, but also by body paint, choice articles of accent clothing, and the sounds of jubilant laughter.

“Getting people to laugh and smile is a great way to connect and share ideas in a non-threatening way,” says the WNBR website. “By tossing our clothes and rejecting our shame, we are protesting a way of life which needs to be abandoned.”