Originally Posted by mike

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...