Charlotte’s ‘No Pants’ light rail ride detours to buses

The annual bare-legs exhibition called the No Pants Light Rail Ride-Charlotte took an unexpected detour this year.

Construction for expansion of the Lynx Blue Line closed light-rail stations on the approach to uptown on Saturday and Sunday.

Those who turned out on Sunday for the ride in boxers, briefs and variations instead rode a Charlotte Area Transit System bus to and from uptown’s EpiCentre.

[Moscow police looking into no-pants subway ride]

Only a handful of people showed up at the Blue Line’s Scaleybark Station for the fourth event – about eight people according to one of the riders – but that didn’t stop the fun or the commitment to giving.

Riders were encouraged to bring a backpack in which to carry their pants. At EpiCentre, trousers would be collected for donation to charity.

“Sometimes you need to do something a little different to draw attention to something more important,” said Charlotte resident Raegan Martin, 34, who made the ride with friends and wore striped hot pants.

With turnout lighter than expected, Martin said she planned to collect the donated pants herself and deliver them to Crisis Assistance Ministry.

“It’s good to get rid of things you don’t need anymore,” she said. “I have pants I don’t wear anymore and pants from friends.”

The No Pants event first came to Charlotte in January 2012, just to make the city a little more weird, according to organizers. Riders try to keep a straight face as they hop aboard with a nearly bare derrière.

A similar spectacle takes place in more than 50 cities around the world – among them this year Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Prague, San Francisco, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.

Internationally the event is called The No Pants Subway Ride and was started by Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002.

This story was originally published January 10, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Charlotte’s ‘No Pants’ light rail ride detours to buses."