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I heard on NPR this moring that ND has passed a law allowing people to ride bikes or horses while intoxicated. The rationale was that these alternative forms of transportation were safer than a car and should be encouraged as a way for drunk people to get home.
What do you think of that?
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I guess the average sober person on the street is less likely to get run over.
Horses?
I guess the average sober person on the street is less likely to get run over.
Horses?
If I had to guess there are probably more horses than people in N. DK
There's probably less of a chance of them killing somebody else on the back of a horse or on a bicycle but still a strong probability of injuring or killing themselves. Perhaps the logic is "one less drunk". I guess if I'm for live and let live I'm for live and let die.
As one who has practiced drunk cycling on more than one occasion, I can see the rationale behind legalizing cycling and horses as an alternative to ones car. (Though horses seems a little antiquated, haha)
If you're too drunk to ride a bike, you're too drunk. period. Somehow, people who are entirely too intoxicated can operate a car enough to get on a road and be a great danger to others with their 4 ton behemoth of a vehicle. This can't be the case with cycling. One needs balance in order to ride out, and you can't kill anyone but yourself on a *at most* 36 lb bike.
Legal in Washington State too.
Of course the advantage of the horse is that it can become the "designated driver," providing of course the horse knows the way back to the barn.
The only time I ever tried to bike drunk, I crashed before I cleared the driveway. I wonder if you can ride a drunk horse? They like oats and barley right? They probably enjoy beer too.
The only time I ever tried to bike drunk, I crashed before I cleared the driveway. I wonder if you can ride a drunk horse? They like oats and barley right? They probably enjoy beer too.
See the movie "Cat Ballou" with Lee Marvin, Jane Fonda and a horse that will answer your question.
Legal in almost all jurisdictions.
DUI is a criminal offence and legislated under the criminal code. Bicycle is not designated as a vehicle under the criminal code. Moving violations are legislated through the Highway Traffic Act which does recognize a bicycle as a vehicle and allows for tickets to be given to the operator of a bicyle.
We need a rigorous scientific test to see how drunk you can get and still ride a bike. I volunteer :D . I expect a study will find the judgement you need to drive/bike safely will be gone long before your physical ability to bike/drive goes. That is North Dakotas error. The drunk cyclist/horseperson will be out on the road with the cars. A bad thing.
When they were discussing the law on NPR a couple of weeks ago, one of the sponsors said that the reason behind the law was to try to correct a technicality in the state law and prevent people from losing their driver's license when they weren't driving a car.
He said that this was not intended as permission to cycle drunk. The laws about public intoxication and inproper operation of a bicycle would still apply.
Question is, does the law have unforseen consequenses?
There was a thread about drunks on bikes in South Dakota. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=170887&page=1&pp=25
I mentioned,At least there is some admission that a drunk in a car will cause more damage than a drunk on a bike.
One of the fundamental arguments in the claim a bicycle is safer than a motor vehicle is that a bicycle doesn't have the same capacity for damage to others as a motor vehicle does.
and that the linked article said, Legislators, however, said prosecutors still can charge drunken riders on horses and bicycles. Rather than drunken driving, they can be charged with disorderly conduct.
I also said,maybe the real reason this law has been passed, is to remove a cyclists' rights to the road (seeing as a bicycle has now been removed from the definition of a vehicle)... Removing a bicycles designation as a vehicle seems a pretty flimsy reason to have people get on a bike after they drink where it's likely they'll just fall from the bike (isn't balance and co-ordination essential to riding a bike and isn't that removed after drinking?) and be hit by a car (unless they start removing the cyclists from the road - for their own safety-) anyway.
Bikes and horses can't travel at 100mph and take out a guardrail or kill a ped/cyclist.
Biking or riding a horse drunk is or should still be considered public intox which is still not legal.
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