3 ms·

Don't drink and bike

6 points by grellas 17y ago

cedar 17y ago
Oregon has super clear laws on this. ORS814.400 states "bicycle is a vehicle for purposes of the vehicle code" I've known plenty of people who have gotten BUI's. On the up side of that it also means bikes are allowed the full lane! which as a biker, is really great and necessary sometimes. here is the full law: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/814.html http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/814.html
geebee 17y ago
Biking drunk should be an offense. Looks like the guy who got the BUI almost hit a small child. That could be serious. I hope that the courts find a way to treat it as a lesser offense than driving drunk, though. I'm not saying it's good, I'm, just saying that if a drunk guy wants to get home and is looking at his bike and his six ton SUV, I would hope that the law would say "both are illegal, so call a cab or use your feet - that said, we'll punish you much more severely if you drive the six ton SUV."
- chronomex 17y ago
  Washington state has a law specifically addressing this. If you're not a threat to public safety, a police officer can give you a verbal warning and offer you a ride home. He may not arrest or otherwise compel you. If he deems you to be a threat to public safety, he can compel you to accept a ride home, and he can confiscate your bicycle -- but you must be allowed to pick it up, without financial penalty, within 30 days.
stephenjudkins 17y ago
Biking drunk should be legal, or at least a far less serious offense than driving drunk. If you're looking to minimize injuries or deaths (which is the ostensible reason for drunk driving laws) it makes sense to provide an incentive for people to not drive drunk. A cyclist is extremely unlikely to kill or injure a pedestrian or another cyclist--and probably incapable of injuring a driver--while drivers kill tens of thousands of other drivers and thousands of pedestrians every year. Cars are incredibly dangerous. If someone wants to ride a bicycle drunk, they are realistically only endangering themselves. If people are going to get drunk anyway--and they will--allowing them an additional relatively safe, legal method to get home would make the streets much safer for everyone. In Portland, people bike drunk all the time. There are extremely few arrests. Cops drove by my obviously drunk friend the other night and chose to do nothing. I guess it's not an enforcement priority here. In this case, it sounds like the guy probably deserved it. Pedestrian-bicycle collisions do occur and people are occasionally injured or killed. But it's not common. I got these stats from http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html. Not the most unbiased, I know, so if someone wants to take issue with them let me know.

6 points by grellas 17y ago

cedar 17y ago

Oregon has super clear laws on this. ORS814.400 states "bicycle is a vehicle for purposes of the vehicle code" I've known plenty of people who have gotten BUI's. On the up side of that it also means bikes are allowed the full lane! which as a biker, is really great and necessary sometimes. here is the full law: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/814.html http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/814.html

geebee 17y ago

Biking drunk should be an offense. Looks like the guy who got the BUI almost hit a small child. That could be serious. I hope that the courts find a way to treat it as a lesser offense than driving drunk, though. I'm not saying it's good, I'm, just saying that if a drunk guy wants to get home and is looking at his bike and his six ton SUV, I would hope that the law would say "both are illegal, so call a cab or use your feet - that said, we'll punish you much more severely if you drive the six ton SUV."

chronomex 17y ago
Washington state has a law specifically addressing this. If you're not a threat to public safety, a police officer can give you a verbal warning and offer you a ride home. He may not arrest or otherwise compel you. If he deems you to be a threat to public safety, he can compel you to accept a ride home, and he can confiscate your bicycle -- but you must be allowed to pick it up, without financial penalty, within 30 days.

stephenjudkins 17y ago

Biking drunk should be legal, or at least a far less serious offense than driving drunk. If you're looking to minimize injuries or deaths (which is the ostensible reason for drunk driving laws) it makes sense to provide an incentive for people to not drive drunk. A cyclist is extremely unlikely to kill or injure a pedestrian or another cyclist--and probably incapable of injuring a driver--while drivers kill tens of thousands of other drivers and thousands of pedestrians every year. Cars are incredibly dangerous. If someone wants to ride a bicycle drunk, they are realistically only endangering themselves. If people are going to get drunk anyway--and they will--allowing them an additional relatively safe, legal method to get home would make the streets much safer for everyone. In Portland, people bike drunk all the time. There are extremely few arrests. Cops drove by my obviously drunk friend the other night and chose to do nothing. I guess it's not an enforcement priority here. In this case, it sounds like the guy probably deserved it. Pedestrian-bicycle collisions do occur and people are occasionally injured or killed. But it's not common. I got these stats from http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html. Not the most unbiased, I know, so if someone wants to take issue with them let me know.