Environmentalists shed clothes and ride their bikes through British coastal city

Scores of people shed their clothes and rode through this seaside resort on their bicycles Saturday to promote cycling as an environmentally friendly mode of transport.

Photo: Environmentalists shed clothes and ride their bikes through British coastal city

"It is time more motorists stripped off their armor plating and moved around more gently on this earth," said Duncan Blinkhorn, 45, one of the event's organizers.

More than 200 cyclists in various stages of undress took part in the World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton and Hove, sister cities on the southern coast of England, to promote cycling.

Organizers of the seven-mile (11-kilometer) ride had been warned by police last month that participants could face prosecution if officers received complaints about the nudity.

But following advice from the civil liberties group Liberty, cyclists met with police chiefs to seek their advice about avoiding problems.

"This is a fun, if outrageous, way to make the serious point that we should not have to tolerate roads, cities and a planet dominated by the brutishness of cars that routinely foul the air we all breathe, destroy lives and impoverish the environment," Blinkhorn said.

"Bikes and naked bodies harm nobody. Car fumes and accidents kill tens of thousands every year in the UK alone and are driving us all to climate chaos."

Similar events took place Friday in the cities of Manchester, York and Southhampton, and were expected in other countries, too.