Flesh pedaling to make a point in Mexico City

Hundreds of naked cyclists rode through the streets of Mexico’s capital Saturday to demand respect from drivers in a city choked with some 4 million vehicles.

More than 500 men and women, half of them nude, pedaled along Mexico City’s historic Reforma Avenue to the vast Zocalo square, chanting, “Save your planet, use a bicycle!”

Some had “emission-free vehicle” painted on their backs.

“We’re riding nude to see if this way they’ll see us, so they don’t run over any more of us,” said student Alejandro Hernandez, standing naked before the ride.

“Being naked means we aren’t invisible. The motorists don’t respect us, they see us as a nuisance,” he said.

To combat traffic congestion and chronic air pollution in the sprawling metropolis of about 20 million people, the city’s leftist government is promoting bicycle use and building a network of cycling lanes.

But the lanes are still few and far between, so the city’s growing number of cyclists must ride alongside old buses, trucks and stressed motorists.

Mexico City is one of the world’s most polluted capitals, along with Beijing, blighted by its thin, high-altitude air and a ring of mountains that trap exhaust fumes from buses and factories on the city outskirts.

Authorities have worked to remove the worst-polluting vehicles from the road. But as the city’s population grows, it gains up to 250,000 new cars each year.