mihlbach

Fear of cops pulling you over and giving you a breathalizer test isn't a good reason not to ride drunk. That doesn't mean its not dumb. Its dangerous and instantly removes all your credibility if something happens.

I just won a huge settlement because some moron driver mowed me down two years ago, knocked me out cold and busted me up pretty bad. The settlement easily paid for medical bills, plus it replaced every penny I have spent on bike related stuff for the the last decade, plus more. If I had been drinking and gotten hit, even if it wasn't my fault, I wouldn't have stood a chance in hell of getting anything but blame and fines, and possibly would have ended up paying a settlement rather than collecting one. You never know when this **** is going to happen.

Riding a bike drunk sucks anyway. Drunkeness and physical exertion do not mix well.

Hartigan

I hate the system...

Scrodzilla

Why? Because it doesn't allow you to ride a bicycle while drunk?

zoltani

From the vid:
"Imagine the chaos a bike on a 55-mph stretch of road can cause, then compound that with alcohol."
While this statement is a little ridiculous, drunk and riding next to the center divider on a 55mph four lane divided hwy? dumb

IMO riding drunk isn't that big of a deal, but be drunk and riding like a jackass should be penalized fo sure.

If you get your license taken away from a BUI you can still ride your bike right?

Scrodzilla

This. I've cruised home from the bar that is six blocks away after a night out but wouldn't put myself in a situation where I'm going any sort of real distance or riding on a damn highway drunk in the middle of the night (when most of the drivers on the road are also drunk as well).

I still don't really grasp how getting pulled over on a bike should have anything to do with your driver's license. You don't need a license to ride a bike and not everyone has a driver's license so the two shouldn't be related. Picture it this way: two people riding bikes drunk get pulled over. One has a driver's license, the other doesn't. The one with - in addition to the charge of BUI - gets points on his license and his auto insurance rates go up as a result. What happens to the one without?

mihlbach

Stop worry about this crap and ride responsibly. The punishment doesn't have to be a preventative measure...it could be anything. You put murders in prison...you don't just take their guns away so they can't shoot people. You can take drivers licenses away from people who use roads irresponsibly or punish them in some other way. If you lack a license, I'm sure the judge can think up some other way to make you pay for the crime. Really, drinking and riding (beyond a few short blocks to get home) is inexcusable. There are better things to get up in arms about.

Scrodzilla

I wasn't really "worrying" about it too much, just making the observation.

This thread - while the riders in the news story were riding fixed - has less to do with SS/FG and more to do with advocacy and safety. We all know that moving the thread there will cause a ridiculous ****show so instead of doing that, I'm opting to close it.

It's just as easy to not be an idiot as it is to be one. The choice belongs to all of us and because of this, we must be responsible for our own actions.