Philly Naked Bike Ride announces 2024 start location and route

The Philly Naked Bike Ride takes to the streets for its 15th time Saturday, with cyclists in various states of undress hitting the road for a 12-mile trek across the city.

The ride is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. at Glendinning Rock Garden in East Fairmount Park. Riders will make their way down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and hit a path south that includes stretches of Walnut, Pine, and Broad Streets before heading back north via Passyunk Avenue to Seventh Street. For the last leg, participants will travel up 13th Street to Race Street, go east to the Fifth Street tunnel, and head back west on Spring Garden Street.

The clothing-optional ride will wrap up at Drexel Park at 3100 Powelton Ave.

As is tradition, pre-ride festivities — including a body painting session — will start at 2 p.m. Public restrooms and snacks will be available at Lloyd Hall, about 1.2 miles from Glendinning Rock Garden, organizers said.

A Philadelphia tradition of more than a decade, the annual ride promotes body positivity, cycling advocacy, and economic sustainability. This year’s ride comes amid an increase in activism in the city’s cycling community, prompted largely by the death of Barbara Friedes, 30, who was killed by an allegedly drunk driver as she rode her bicycle near Rittenhouse Square last month. The driver, Michael Vahey, 68, was charged with homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and related crimes.

With Friedes’ death in mind, this year’s event will also focus on safe cycling infrastructure, and serve as a protest of what organizers called inaction from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration on concrete barriers to protect bike lanes in the city. This week, bicycle safety advocates said they were snubbed by Parker’s office when delivering a 6,000-signature petition calling for concrete-protected bike lanes earlier this month.

“Every life lost or maimed in an incident of roadway crashes matters to Mayor Parker. We’ll examine every possible solution and action to make Philadelphia safer,” the Managing Director’s Office said in a statement, The Inquirer previously reported.

The naked bike ride arrived in Philadelphia in 2009 with a four-mile course that drew roughly 400 riders. Typically, it attracts several thousand participants.

The ride’s start location and route typically change annually. Last year’s event, as well as the 2022 edition, kicked off at Lemon Hill.

Organizers note online that the event is clothing-optional, but nudity is not required to participate. A code of conduct available online notes that physical and sexual harassment are strictly prohibited.

“Ultimately, one of the goals of the Philly Naked Bike Ride is to desexualize nudity and to encourage everyone to embrace nudity as a normal, enjoyable way of life,” the code of conduct reads. “Following this policy will help further this goal and teach all of us how to be better people in general.”

As always, ride is free to attend and does not require registration. Organizers, however, do accept online donations.