Road Cycling - Why is drinking and bicycling illegal in many states?

You know, I've been thinking..."Why is bicycling while intoxicated illegal in many states? I mean, hey, if you are going to be drinking and you need to transport yourself around - like to the next bar or even home eventually - isn't it WISE to bicycle (as opposed to driving a car)?

I read over and over again about drunk drivers hitting and killing innocent people. So, I decided to try it just to experiment with the burning question that gnawed at me "Why, why, why, do we have so many stupid laws about bicycling?�h

It started out as a controlled test with my friend being the non-drinking control group and myself being the guinea-pig test group. Sadly, as the test continued, we lost our test group because my friend started drinking too and I went from being a guinea pig to just being a pig.

The initial part of the test went without incident.

I drank, we rode, I/We drank, and we rode. You know, there was a bunch of other stuff that happened in-between, but that doesn't have anything to do with the experiment. On an interesting note though, we discovered that ladies are amused and even charmed at the bicycling clubman, but they are rarely willing to ride on the handle bars or rear carrier.

Eventually, as we started to mix with traffic and other party-goers who were driving the automobiles that surrounded us, the answer as to "why bicycling while intoxicated is illegal" started to occur to me with the thought "Hmmm, this seems dangerous".

Sadly, the realization now strikes me that I reached this conclusion in an intoxicated state which really puts my conclusion to questions. For the sake of accuracy and science, I/We may have to do the experiment all over again with a sober and non-participating observer.

Tell me your thoughts or experiences. "Why is riding a bicycle while intoxicated illegal?" or better yet, "Should bicycling while intoxicated be illegal?" or you can just tell us about some story of bicycling while intoxicated. Please, though let us keep this bicycle related...

Because a swerving, erratic cyclist might cause an accident between two "real" vehicles. Or the driver of a "real" vehicle might run over the swerving, erratic cyclist, causing the motorist the hassle of filing an insurance claim. Besides, it places the blame for getting run over squarely on the cyclist, where it belongs anyway for being, well, a cyclist, right? You don't think anyone cares about danger to the cyclist, do you?
Yours with a big (non-alcohol-induced) grin,
Raymond

I agree with Joe on this one. I hate to be the devil's advocate here, but if we cyclists expect the same rights as cars on the road (and expect to have those rights respected) we have to abide by the same laws.

I also can't help thinking of a possible legal loophole here. Just imagine if a driver was to run down a cyclists in a fit of road rage, they would always turn around and argue that it was the cyclists fault because the cyclist was drunk.

Personally (this is the start of the rant), I am fed up to the back teeth with people who go out and drink being unable to accept plain and simple responsibility for their actions. We had a court case a couple of years ago in my part of the world where some imbecile had too much to drink, threw himself in front of the car, then sued the place he was drinking at for $277,000 because they continued to serve him alcohol.

The fact is, they don't tie you to a chair and pour alcohol down your throat. If someone wants to go out and drink, fine, but they should make their own arrangements and if they can't, that is their problem, not society's. Rant over.

Chris

Im with Mike on this one. Id rather have the drunk drivers on a bike then in there cars... they could do so much less dammage on a bike then when there on a car, go read thoes stats in the other drunk driving thread.

I orignially started this thread with a kind of joking style, but the replies remind me that drunk drivers are no laughing matter to anybody - especially to bicyclists. Last year we had three bicyclists killed in our community by drunk drivers.

However, I know that alchoholism and even social drinking is a problem with teeth. There are no laws or punishments that are going to stop people from getting into a car and driving drunk.

For that reason, I think bicycle transport for drunks is a whole lot better than having them drive a car. Let's put it this way; When my wife and kids pack themselves in the car and take off down the driveway, I am a lot more concerned about them being hit and injured by a drunk motor vehicle driver than a drunk bicyclist.

As for society's responsibility to protect drunks who get on bikes; hey, they are on their own. On the contrary, we need to protect sober and skillful automobile drivers from litigation in case they are in an accident due to the actions of a drunk bicyclist.

[Edited by mike on 12-03-2000 at 07:40 PM]

Not only is cycling while intoxicated dangerous, it is very very hard to do. Or, so has been my experience.

In my new town here in the US, I see homeless men riding streets and trails, bikes piled high with bags of soft drink cans and other rubbish, moving glacially slowly, weaving erratically, reeking of liquor... I can get a contact high from crossing one's wake.

I have no idea how they do it...

Way back in the 1970s a girlfriend and I took our bikes hors piste... that is, we rode our ten speeds on rutted, dirt farm roads one beautiful afternoon. This was in France, so naturally there was a pique-nique lunch involved... and plenty of wine.

I can still remember how the moderate effort of the ride into the countryside became a SUPREME triumph of will on the way back out. We were both really smashed, it was
getting dark, and the warm printemps apres midi was giving way to a chilly evening... I remember suggesting that we just build a house out there and stay. It had to be easier...

We did survive, she married someone else, and I continue to enjoy a good Bordeaux... after I've finished cycling for the day.

Well written post, Cambronne; and how true.

I think the biggest thing that keeps drunks from riding bikes is that it is very difficult to ride bikes while intoxicated.

Actually, I only drank and bicycled once. My 85 year old bike friend and fellow bike-mechanic talked me into drinking his home-made cherry bounce after our work was done.

Now, as a more experienced and knowledgeable adult, I would never drink and drive a car, but I thought "hey, I am biking home, so what the heck". Oops, that was a mistake. It was the most dangerous and miserable bike ride I ever experienced.

Perhaps we could curb drunken driving if, as a punishment, the cops forced drunk drivers to immediately, in their drunken state, ride a bicycle four blocks. The cops could pick them up at the end of it puking and pink with road rash and drop them off at home.

A bicycle is a vehicle and should be considered as such. Same rules and laws of traffic apply. If, as a cyclist, you consider a bicycle as something less than a vehicle, then you support keeping bikes off the roads. It's as simple as that.

If you want to drink and get drunk, then call a cab or have a designated driver in attendance. Want to bike drunk? Then get a designated pedaler and find one of those pedalCABs and ride as the passenger.

I got no problem with someone who wants to ride drunk, as long as they stay on their own perperty, and don't try to hold someone else accountable for their actions.

Here's an idea: donate a bicycle on a trainer to the bar of your choice, then you can pedal without even leaving the bar counter. "Barkeep, my bottle's run dry, fillerererup, thankshyouveeerryyymush."

Next question: should helmets be mandatory on bar-bikes? That story and more in our next edition.

Bicycles are considered to be vehicles in most states and are supposed to have the same rights and obligations etc, as other vehicles and their drivers.

I was walking across a bridge in Florida one night and in a drunken example of target fixation a guy slowly rolled into me, nearly knocking me off the bridge. I gave him a push off to get him started down the road (not off the bridge). I assume he was riding because his drivers license was revoked. Should we have bike rider's licenses? Anyway it is probably illegal to protect pedestrians from being knocked off bridges.

Good point, Brian. My thought is that if that drunk had been driving an automobile instead of a bike, you wouldn't have been able to simply "push him along". He probably would have jumped the curb, hit you, and your dying body would have most certainly plunged over the side of the bridge.

Agreed that being hit by a bike can be painful and annoying - maybe even worse. However, if I had to chose between being hit by a bike or being hit by a car - the choice is easy.

Mike

Here in north carolina, well in the county of buncombe, they will give you the same dui ticket, fines + jail time as they will for an auto.!!!??

In the UK we had a case of a very drunk person cycling on the pavement, falling onto a very small old woman, and killing her.
People who can cycle properly on the road can usually ride safely with a few pints inside them. The biggest problem comes from people who dont normally ride on the road, getting blind drunk, and thinking they can ride because its easy.

Here in Ontario, riding drunk will lose you your drivers licence as fast as driving drunk and carries the same punishments if you injure or kill someone. Drunk riders may do less damage, but they still do damage.

Hearing so many people endorsing drunk riding disturbs me somewhat. Call a cab or walk.

True story: My wife was stopped at a red light when a drunk cyclist pulled up beside her and promptly fell over. Thankfully he didn't hurt himself but he was a bike courier and with all that cycling experience he knew it wasn't his fault so he decided that picking a fight with my wife would resolve the problem. Fortunately, he was unable to figure how to open a locked car door.

Ride sober.

Bubba

It has been a law for many years that bicycles are vehicles. Hence the reason why I have been issued citations for speeding in residential neighborhoods (no joke)! It is also a law that operating a vehicle while intoxicated is illegal. As well as public intoxication. Laws that are written that are as vague as this usually is up to the officers discretion and is later defined in a court of law. IMHO you should not be operating a bike or anything else while intoxicated on alchohol. There is not a good track record for this. I also do not see anyone killing people while riding a bike high on pot. Or driving a car and killing people high on pot. However I do not smoke pot. When anything that you introduce in your system hinders your ability to operate machinery (car, bike etc..) one should have the knowledge that you can hurt yourself and others. If ones confidence is heightened because of this substance then one should not introduce it into ones sytem.

yO HIT IT RIGHT ON THE NAILS HEAD,COZ, IF YOU DRINK DON'T DRIVE, ITS AS SIMPLE AS THAT

I'm still convinced that having drunks on bikes instead of in cars is better for everybody.

This weekend in California, a 22 year-old drunk in a car travelling at freeway speeds on a pedestrian filled street plowed into a group of college students and killed four of them.

Ask those kid's parents if they would have preferred the drunk be on a bike instead of behind the wheel of a car. I bet everyone of them would be willing to buy that 22 year old drunk a lifetime of bikes if he would not drive drunk again. They would give anything if they could step back a couple of days in time and put him on a bike on that fateful night.

As it is, I bet he spends less than a year in jail and gets out to drive drunk again. Sure, he may lose his drivers license, but that just means he won't have insurance the next time he does it.

We can't stop the booze - that has been tried before in America and it failed. What we need to try to do is stop drunks from getting into three thousand pound vehicles and speeding into innocent people.

Given a choice, I would rather be hit by a drunken bicyclist than a drunken motorist any day.

Mike

I mean i would rather be not hit at all,, either by a bike or a car, still being hit will be painful, so my reaction to that would rather not be hit!

Yup, getting hit by nothin' isn't an option anymore.

Did you see the video of the drunk-driving bozo who hit and killed four people this past weekend in California?

After the accident, he got out of his car and started hitting witnesses with his fist!

An appropriate punishment might be to strap him to the hood of a bumper-car and let the surviving families have some bumper-car time with him. Apparently, however, he is the son of a prestigeous movie director. Mark my word, he will get minimal or no jail time, but will have to go to rehab and do community service.

Again, if the drunk had been on a bike, the only person he would have hurt would have been himself.

back in the old world, this driver would have been lynch by the mob(i mean the pedestrian)

I don't have problem with cyclist drinking, i mean i would drink one or two bottles of beer occasionally but not to get really dead drunk as in dead drunk, and that is after my biking is finished.

Yes, cycling drunk is less dangerous than driving drunk. But I still don't think it should be legal.

Its hard enough getting enough people out on bikes to have a political voice without killing ourselves off by being stupid. Call a cab.

Bubba

In North Carolina you can't get a DWI on a bicycle, it is not considered a vehicle for purposes of impaired driving [§20-138.1(e)].

Just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's smart though.

You know, I've been thinking..."Why is bicycling while intoxicated illegal in many states? I mean, hey, if you are going to be drinking and you need to transport yourself around - like to the next bar or even home eventually - isn't it WISE to bicycle (as opposed to driving a car)?

I read over and over again about drunk drivers hitting and killing innocent people. So, I decided to try it just to experiment with the burning question that gnawed at me "Why, why, why, do we have so many stupid laws about bicycling?�h

It started out as a controlled test with my friend being the non-drinking control group and myself being the guinea-pig test group. Sadly, as the test continued, we lost our test group because my friend started drinking too and I went from being a guinea pig to just being a pig.

The initial part of the test went without incident.

I drank, we rode, I/We drank, and we rode. You know, there was a bunch of other stuff that happened in-between, but that doesn't have anything to do with the experiment. On an interesting note though, we discovered that ladies are amused and even charmed at the bicycling clubman, but they are rarely willing to ride on the handle bars or rear carrier.

Eventually, as we started to mix with traffic and other party-goers who were driving the automobiles that surrounded us, the answer as to "why bicycling while intoxicated is illegal" started to occur to me with the thought "Hmmm, this seems dangerous".

Sadly, the realization now strikes me that I reached this conclusion in an intoxicated state which really puts my conclusion to questions. For the sake of accuracy and science, I/We may have to do the experiment all over again with a sober and non-participating observer.

Tell me your thoughts or experiences. "Why is riding a bicycle while intoxicated illegal?" or better yet, "Should bicycling while intoxicated be illegal?" or you can just tell us about some story of bicycling while intoxicated. Please, though let us keep this bicycle related...

It should ABSOLUTELY be illegal.

In most major cities--my personal experience comes from downtown Baltimore--there's a huge number of folks who have lost their licenses to DUI/DWI and now ride bikes. They're jokingly called "liquorcicles" and represent easily 90% of bike vs. car trauma admissions related to bikes.

Yes, your judgment and reaction time are impaired, and the risks are even higher than in a car, IMHO, because your likelihood of surviving a collision with a car are significantly lower when riding a bike.

Don't be an idiot--ride sober.

does this question really need to be asked...

honestly, ppl who actually need to ask this question are the problem with this country...

He does look thirsty though...
http://www.howtoavoidthebummerlife.com/weblog/archives/NatAustriaBeer.jpg

"Why is bicycling while intoxicated illegal in many states? ...

Because you can kill yourself and create an accident.

One or two beers should be fine - after that take a bus or a cab.

This thread is 8 years old.

That being said, I had 2 beers the other day, my own homebrew as a matter of fact, and then the weather turned spectacular. So I put my cycling clothes on and went for a ride in the park, figuring I'd do 2 or 3 loops at an easy pace. 1.5 hours later I got home after doing 6 laps at a fast pace. It felt great. I wasn't really drunk though, just a pleasant buzz. And after that experience, I went out today after I had one in the late afternoon. But again, not drunk, just a slight buzz.

I've actually avoided riding and biking after an experience I had when I lived in Seattle. There was a bar on Lake Washington Blvd in Madrona right on the lake, and Lk Wa Blvd is one of the main training routes. I always rode right past it. But one day I saw someone I knew sitting at a table on the deck so I stopped. More than a few beers later I got back on the bike and realized it was uphill all the way home as it always is. I walked.

See the problem Mike is that you are young and hip, well maybe just hip I have no idea of your age, but you are looking at this from the perspective of a different group of people. You assume maybe half of homeless people have a drug or alcohol problem (the real number I don't know i'm just guessing) then tell them its ok to ride a bike while intoxicated/high. What do you think you are going to see on the evening news every week?

In most states it's against the law to be drunk while sitting on a park bench. Explain that.

I regularly ride my bike to go out, and often get drunk while out. I'm an experienced cyclist, and frankly, riding a bike at 15mph drunk is not a danger to anyone.

I think it should be legal because it will encourage people that would otherwise be driving a car, to just ride a bike in their intoxicated (or planning to be to be intoxicated) state.

If you get the same ticket for riding a bike drunk as riding a car drunk, you might as well just take the car every time because it will be easier and more comfortable. That's what everyone thinks. If they knew they could hop on a bike and go with no risk of being harassed or ticketed, etc... then there's a high chance that's what they'll do.

FWIW, my uncle was a hardcore alcoholic and commuted to work daily on a bicycle and never had any problems. This is a guy that I've personally seen drive cars into curbs.

It would be, as they say, the lesser of the two evils IMO.

30 years ago we drove drunk all the time. It was no big deal. Now our society has vilified drunk drivers. Everybody applauds when two gay guys get married but have a few martinis and get behind the wheel and everybody thinks you're a jerk. Go figure.

30 years ago we drove drunk all the time. It was no big deal. Now our society has vilified drunk drivers. Everybody applauds when two gay guys get married but have a few martinis and get behind the wheel and everybody thinks you're a jerk. Go figure.

Every time I think this place couldn't get any stupider I am proved wrong.

I think the solution to drunk drivers is that bars / restrants (sp?) and taxi services should team up with the government where a bar could call a taxi for the intoxicated patron, and then the taxi co would bill the government the cost of the ride home, The government could pay for the program by adding on a 1 or 2% tax to all alcohol sales.

LOL, another gov't program?!, just what we need. why dont we just eliminate the waste and have people call their own damn taxi?

30 years ago we drove drunk all the time. It was no big deal. Now our society has vilified drunk drivers. Everybody applauds when two gay guys get married but have a few martinis and get behind the wheel and everybody thinks you're a jerk. Go figure.

tell that to the pedestrian that you run over and kill, dip****.

there's nothing wrong with gay marriage, why wouldn't ppl applaud unless you're one of those ppl who've been brainwashed to believe there's something wrong with it.

I have always enjoyed cycling while intoxicated, and the only person I've ever injured while doing so is myself.. Sure, to a person who sees the world in black and white, it will seem like a bad thing, but really, the reason driving motor vehicles while intoxicated is verboeten is because if you are driving a normal car and pile into a family minivan, you have just killed or injured that family, if you are on a bicycle, you have just won a Darwin Award and given that family a story to recount every Christmas about the dumb, drunk cyclist. There are subtleties and complexities in every issue. An eighteen wheeler is not the same as a pick-up is not the same as a Prius is not the same as a scooter is not the same as a bicycle. Don't claim that they are.

I have always enjoyed cycling while intoxicated, and the only person I've ever injured while doing so is myself.. Sure, to a person who sees the world in black and white, it will seem like a bad thing, but really, the reason driving motor vehicles while intoxicated is verboeten is because if you are driving a normal car and pile into a family minivan, you have just killed or injured that family, if you are on a bicycle, you have just won a Darwin Award and given that family a story to recount every Christmas about the dumb, drunk cyclist. There are subtleties and complexities in every issue. An eighteen wheeler is not the same as a pick-up is not the same as a Prius is not the same as a scooter is not the same as a bicycle. Don't claim that they are.

What if your drunk ass causes a vehicle to swerve into another vehicle , or worse a pedestrian.

What if your drunk ass causes a vehicle to swerve into another vehicle , or worse a pedestrian.I suppose I probably have the same chance of doing this as all the wrong-way cyclists and/or Mexicans on Walmart bikes I see every time I go ride, dressed in all black with no lights, but they are not against the law, either. Crack down on them and then automatically assume an intoxicated cyclist is a huge traffic hazard, but it's exactly that, an assumption.

? What if you hit someone? What if your bicycle swerves? What if What if what iffdjksalhfjldash

Playing the what-if game is stupid. I can think of thousands of what-if scenarios for every aspect of human behavior that "justify" outlawing it based on the asinine emotional arguments of DUI-punishment proponents.

Fact: a person cycling intoxicated is a risk only to themselves. The myriad situations in which they could modify the behavior of others with tragedy as the result are as irrelevant as the myriad situations in which a drunk- or even sober- pedestrian, dog, cat, bird, pothole, or piece of debris could do exactly the same.

Fact: a person who wants to cycle intoxicated (to reduce the risk of bodily injury to others by increasing personal risk) will elect to drive if the risk of DUI is greater than the altruistic benefit.

Fact: DUI laws carry harsh penalties because drunk drivers kill others directly. Subjecting a cyclist to the same punishment as a driver is an egregious misscariage of justice, as they can only kill others indirectly and even then only in "ideal" conditions.

Fact: Allowing people to cycle intoxicated would save lives.

?
Fact: Allowing people to cycle intoxicated would save lives.

No it wouldn't they already allow people to cycle drunk I have never seen cops targeting cyclist for intoxication.
Any cyclist arrested for intoxication probably would have been arrested if they were walking.

No it wouldn't they already allow people to cycle drunk I have never seen cops targeting cyclist for intoxication.
Any cyclist arrested for intoxication probably would have been arrested if they were walking.

If bicyclists aren't being targeted by police for their violation of DUI laws, the laws need to be changed to exclude cyclists. Cyclists can still be issued citations for any number of traffic violations or be arrested for public intoxication, but risking a life-altering judgment (in florida: 79 years, 1-yr DL suspension, employment issues) because they're trying to SAVE lives isn't something any prudent cyclist would do.

It is personally less risky to drive because less time is spent on the road versus cycling for the same penalty. Disgusting, but it's the truth.

riding while you're pissed is much harder than many people think, and is, therefore, more dangerous than people think :)

It's especially hard at night time when your vision is slightly impaired, then......try riding off the saddle!! Fargeddarboudit

I went from being a guinea pig to just being a pig.

On an interesting note though, we discovered that ladies are amused and even charmed at the bicycling clubman, but they are rarely willing to ride on the handle bars or rear carrier.



I just enjoyed the above comments. This forum has pretty throughly impressed me, and there's literary talent here too. Maybe a sidecar would work better than the handlebars for picking up women while drunk? Not that it's a concern for me, but there has to be an answer somewhere (in the forum of course.) It sounds like the ride was fun, and so is the thread.

And I agree with the comment mike made about another nicely written post.

best wishes, lloyd

Well I hope this thread has taught you all a lesson. Just drive your car drunk. It's all the same. :ugh:

Bicycles are considered to be vehicles in most states and are supposed to have the same rights and obligations etc, as other vehicles and their drivers.

+1

End thread.

In Minnesota it is LEGAL to ride intoxicated. You can only get a DWI on a "motor vehicle". There are A LOT of people who do this, suprisingly to you all I'm sure, they are the chronic alcoholics who have had their drivers licenses cancelled because they've had too many DWI's. Suprisingly enough also, is that we (where I work in the metro) don't have to deal with them much, neither in accidents nor crashing.

We also do not have a law for being intoxicated in public like many states...

Well if you want to drink and drive good luck! I have a friend that was driving his car one night somewhat of a dark area when all of a sudden he heard a big noise, wind shield shattered caved in he had a guy inside his car for a second then flipped out about 12 ft into the air he stopped called the police he needless to say hit the guy and your DOA, turns out the guy was standing on the curb drunk and fell onto the road just as he went by, so I don't need any drunks on bikes near me when I drive a car! and by the way he was charged with nothing.

There's something about being barely conscious, barfing all over myself, pissing my chamois, and going 30+mph downhill on a rickety 15lb bike that just makes me think it probably isn't a good idea.

And no, I haven't tried it yet. :D

Hell no.

Stupid people should be allowed to kill themselves as easily as possible. Unfortunately, I'm sure they'd find a way to take someone else out in the process.