Should cyclists be subject to the same drink laws as drivers when on the roads?

[Dan B]

The law is pretty clear regarding bikes and drinking. I cannot see why the same rules dont apply to cyclists

Because the same problem does not (did not) exist to the same extent. Drink driving laws saved enough lives to be worth the expense of passing and enforcing them, do you honestly think the same would be true for cycling?

 

[Linford]

I'm a safer cyclist when drunk than you are when sober.

How often do you ride on 2 wheels at 50+ mph to make this claim ?

 

[Dan B]

How often do you ride on 2 wheels at 50+ mph to make this claim ?

I can make that claim quite easily based on never riding at 50mph+, or indeed making much of a habit of riding at 49.4mph

You seem to be unaware, but there are no bragging rights in speeds attained while going downhill

 

[Linford]

I can make that claim quite easily based on never riding at 50mph+, or indeed making much of a habit of riding at 49.4mph

You seem to be unaware, but there are no bragging rights in speeds attained while going downhill

Snorri made in reality a very daft claim when he has never even met or ridden with me .... why do you have to jump on the muppet bandwagon ?
I don't expect much more than RLJing and riding when half cut whilst dodging 'mobile death greenhouses' from a London cyclist so I'm wondering if you are still suffering from the effects of the night before, or have started early this morning to prove a point

 

[Dan B]

How strange that you can make claims about everyone else's cycling without having met them or ridden with them, yet for anyone else to make a similar assessment of your riding based on what you've said about it here is apparently not allowed.

 

[Brandane]

I am surprised that this has gone on for 11 pages I have trouble staying on a bike sober never mind trying it when I'm legless.

The law is pretty clear regarding bikes and drinking. I cannot see why the same rules dont apply to cyclists. Admittedly, a collision with a cyclists and pedestrian do not often have the same impact as a car and a pedestrian, but it has in the past and I am sure, will do again.

When a cyclist goes out with the idea of going out for a few beers and then riding home, they know at the outset that they are not going to be in a fit state to control the bike as it would be normally. All it needs is for them to wobble or swerve and then a car to take action to avoid them and then disaster could strike without the bike hitting anything at all.

I am not going to try to justify drinking and riding a bike just because I am a cyclist. If you want to go out on the beer, get a lift, walk, use a taxi or a bus.

Otherwise if you get caught, dont cry about it. You know the consequences.

Steve

Could the same thing not be said about people who WALK after consuming alcohol? You are suggesting the use of a sledgehammer to crack a nut IMO..

 

[steveindenmark]

Brandane, I have never heard of a walker, walking into another walker and killing him. Nor have I heard of walkers swerving round people and killing them.

Steve

 

[Bromptonaut]

Brandane, I have never heard of a walker, walking into another walker and killing him. Nor have I heard of walkers swerving round people and killing them.

Steve

And how many cyclists have ridden into another cyclist or ped and killed him while drunk? Low single figures over ten years I'd suggest.

Drunkenness features heavily in pedestrians killed or with life changing injuries. Ten years of my career were spent working with people incapacitated by severe head injury. The biggest group after drivers and accidents at work were pedestrians falling or getting knocked down while drunk.

 

[Brandane]

Brandane, I have never heard of a walker, walking into another walker and killing him. Nor have I heard of walkers swerving round people and killing them.

Steve

Likewise, I have never heard of cyclists causing the deaths of others while drunk over the prescribed limit for car drivers (drunk cycling is already dealt with by current laws).
I am not disputing that this MAY have happened, but it is so rare as to be a non-issue.

 

[Dan B]

Brandane, I have never heard of a walker, walking into another walker and killing him. Nor have I heard of walkers swerving round people and killing them.

What about walkers walking/falling/running into the carriageway and causing road users to have to swerve around them potentially killing someone? I quite often get people outside pubs trying to high-five me as I go past, it only takes one of them to overbalance

 

[ShipHill]

I'm going to say "no"

As a good friend of mine pointed out to me during a chat about a variety of cycling and road related topics, "John, cycling is the only thing I can do without the incompetent government, or some do-gooder, telling me how I should do it. They can all fark off to be honest. I have to belt up in my car, wear a lid on my motorbike, but I can ride my bicycle in my swimming trunks while eating a banana if I want."

I paraphrase him, but that was his gist.

I tried to ride my old 5-speed racer home from the pub when I was quite drunk a few years back. It took me ages and I think I spent about 95% of the journey scooting along rather than pedalling. Ended up in a heap on my lawn at the end causing my neighbour much mirth.

 

[Cyclopathic]

The breathalyser law came in in 1967. In that year there were around 6000 deaths on our roads. That's just deaths, there were many more life changing injuries. Drink was a factor in (random but roughly plausible figure) 40% of those collisions.

Where's the evidence of drunk cyclists causing that sort of mayhem?

I'm not saying it's impossible for the odd drunk cyclist to cause a problem but the problem is some orders of magnitude below that requiring the sort of intervention you propose.

I pretty much agree with you. The magnitude of damage is negligable compared to drunk motorists and I think any law should totally reflect that. I'm not wedded to the idea of drink laws for cyclists but think it is worth the debate.
In a way it regulates itself as anyone knows who has tried to ride a bike when absolutely sloshed.

All I think my point comes down to is that in extreme cases that perhaps the drunkenness of a cyclist could be taken into account should any prosecution be made. Having said that it may be that such events really are too rare to bother with making a specific law for.

 

[Glow worm]

I'm going to say "no"

As a good friend of mine pointed out to me during a chat about a variety of cycling and road related topics, "John, cycling is the only thing I can do without the incompetent government, or some do-gooder, telling me how I should do it. They can all f*** off to be honest. I have to belt up in my car, wear a lid on my motorbike, but I can ride my bicycle in my swimming trunks while eating a banana if I want."

Spot on - couldn't have put it better myself. I love the swimming trunks/ banana bit
Perhaps this is partly why so many non-cyclists dislike us. They see us happily ambling about the place without a care in the world, whether plastered or not, unhindered by the mountains of rules and regulations that blight their lives and deep down they resent our freedom.

As I ride home from the pub later, free as a bird, lidless, banana in one hand, can in the other, I'll cherish the barely concealed resentment from our 4 wheeled caged friends

 

[Cyclopathic]

I'm a safer cyclist when drunk than you are when sober.

I'm not only a better cyclist when I'm drunk, I'm also much wittier, more intelligent and decidedly better looking than when I'm sober. Sometimes my stories are so funny I have to repeat them again and again to be sure everyone has heard just how funny it is. I get so good looking and attractive that I think it intimidates a lot of women who shy away from me, probably because they don't think they'd stand a chance. It's ok I tell them, I'm not that fussy, but still they don't feel like they can bring themselves to ask me home for "coffee".
It's truly baffling.

 

[young Ed]

I am under-age to drink (14 but 15 on Thursday) so shouldn't really be to bothered as it doesn't affect me and I am a sensible law abiding citizen. but I think there should be law on drink cycling and walking if you want to get pi**ed up then do it in your own house not in a pub or a the street corner.
but as said i am a non-drinking basically 15 year old lad you doesn't plan to be an alco when i am legal
Cheers ED