(folha)
Lets face it. People drive like maniacs here. Recently there have been a few bike accidents and one in particular on Paulista Ave where a young biologist was run over and killed by a bus. It has caused an uproar among the cyclist community causing demonstrations with people laying down across major intersections around the city. The Pedalada Pelada, a group promoting alternative modes of transportation also organized a Saturday night naked cycle on Paulista Ave. Lucky for us we had just picked up my brother (his first time to South America) from the airport Saturday night and we were driving towards home and saw a bunch of the nude riders. I wasn't quick enough to snag a photo but lucky for you, Folha was. Click here I would love for Sao Paulo to become more biker friendly, but with buses that act like tonka trucks that wish they were high speed Chinese rail and cars that think they are buses well I just hope they find a way to remedy this mess of a situation. 
8 comments:
Reminds me of SFO in the 70's. I like the protests against the crazies! It's a seriously pointed revolt. These actions and new legislature will hopefully triumph.
I hope Sao Paulo becomes more bike friendly too but I hope it doesn't happen at the expense of other forms of public transport. For example, here in London cycles and buses usually share the same lane and it's all too common to see a single cyclist holding back a bus full of passengers at rush hour. That really isn't efficient or fair to the majority of road users. I'm not sure what the solution is but I think it requires some very careful thought and planning.
naked bikers, well it's surely been hot enough. Did you catch the video of the crazy jerk who ran over like 150 bikers in sao paulo city? The guy didn't stop, he just kept driving over more and more people, it's quite shocking. After that, I stopped ridding a bike in Brazil.
Naked people! Yay!
@ Anon, I certainly hope so!!
@ Andrew, I agree and usually that is what happens to solve this issue because they never build an extra lane just for bikes its at the expense of the buses usually. Its very complicated and I think they are spending time and energy more on figuring out how to expand the metro which is also very important.
@Nina, omg no I didn't hear about that? Are you serious? Was he on drugs or something or just angry?
@Alex - YAY!
The cyclists Nina talked about were run over on February 2011 in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. Link in Portuguese: http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/transito/noticias/0,,OI4966745-EI998,00-RS+tive+que+fazer+isso+diz+motorista+que+atropelou+ciclistas.html. I think he was diagnosed later with some kind of bipolar disorder. He was terrified, neither on drugs, nor angry.
wow, at least no one was killed. He does seem very sad about it but what a strange incident, thanks for sharing.
WE almost got run off the road by two buses last night. They're seriously crazy. Love that was your brother's intro to Brazil!
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