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When it causes injury or death, the answer is obviously yes. But some New York cyclists are finding fault with this morning's City Room article about pedaling under the influence. (PUI?) Brian Fried at Streetsblog says the article, which suggests an anti-drunk biking P.S.A. might be in order, is wrong to equate the dangers of drunk driving with drunk cycling:
Drinking and biking puts cyclists at risk because impairment makes them more likely to be killed by a motorist. Drinking and driving puts everyone in the vehicle's path at risk of being killed by that motorist. In 2007, nearly 13,000 people died in crashes involving drunk drivers on American roads. More than 4,300 of those killed were people other than the impaired perpetrator behind the wheel [PDF]. Meanwhile, how many people died at the hands of a drunk cyclist?
The article in question looked at a study of cyclist autopsies after fatal accidents in NYC from 1996 to 2005. Of the 225 bicyclists who died in accidents during the 10-year time period, only 176 were tested for alcohol. And because of the time-sensitivity of alcohol tests, only 84 of those cases were considered to have valid tests. And out of those, 18—or 21 percent—showed signs of alcohol.
While it's difficult to draw conclusions from those numbers about the overall prevalence of drunk cycling, it's clearly something for bike riders to think twice about. Take it from rock star cyclist David Byrne: drinking and cycling don't mix. Unless it's during Bike Kill and a giant mobile dildo is involved.
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If you're PUI and biking erratically, you're invariably going to cause motor vehicles to swerve to avoid you, which can result in separate accidents/fender-benders. Stay off the road.
drunk cycling? if you can do it get to it.
BTW love the pic!
Drunk cycling should be limited to events like Beer Bike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_University#Beer_Bike
one time i tried to ride my bike drunk (i was 22) and crashed into a parked souped-up caprice and passed out on the hood.
Drunk cycling should only happen in the safety of your own home, people!
is this a new trend or something?
City Biking is whats dangerous.
All these people don't care at all about the harm they are doing the Urban Environment.
Even though we have the greatest public transportation system in the US of A.
I'd argue that automobiles are doing the real harm to our urban environment. City biking is dangerous, but it can be made much safer by riding sober and wearing a helmet.
Why not encourage people to find alternative modes of transit and reduce the strain on public transportation?
Here comes a lot of comments
Can a cyclist be found liable if, while intoxicated, destroys private property or causes another road participant to destroy private property? Motor vehicles must be licensed, registered and insurance on top of being operated by adults meeting similar requirements. The same can't be said about cyclists. We all know what happens if a drunk person in an automobile causes damage, but what happens to a cyclist that does not have to present ID, registration, insurance or even submit to a breathalyzer? There seems to be a major disconnect between the privileges given to this one subset of road users.
didn't that guy who died riding on the manhattan bridge was said to be drunk. he's the only one I've read though I'm sure they're some stories bout riders on the williamsburg br.
but really compare that to the drunk CEO killing beemers.
Bikers are the biggest bunch of moral relativists in the world. Tell them that drunk cycling is bad and they'll respond that drunk driving is worse. Tell them that bikers running red lights is a danger to pedestrians and they'll tell you that cars kill more people than bikes.
Yeah, we get it Brian Fried, cars are worse. But that doesn't excuse bikers when they do something wrong.
Yeah, but drivers are bigger moral relativists.
Good one.
And cyclists are bigger cultural relativists.
Agreed. Is it as bad as driving drunk? Obviously not, you're not going around in a two-ton hunk of metal. But it's still bad. Some mild penalties for it seems like a decent idea.
And while I'm all for protecting the environment, and walkable neighborhoods, and the rest, I'm sorry, but cyclists often have a holier-than-thou attitude that borders on insufferable. If you want to holler about how great your bike is, follow at least SOME rules. For what it's worth, as a pedestrian, I've had MANY more close calls with bicycles than with cars. Cyclists often behave as though they are pedestrians - they're not.
OK...stepping off the soapbox now...
I think the penalty of death is a pretty strong deterrent.
the drunks certainly take their cars for granted and assume that because they are covered entirely by metal, plastic, styrofoam and air bags that driving drunk is perfectly ok. as a cyclist, I think I care too much about my bike (and face) to go off and ride home while drunk.
Interesting point in the article:
Maybe those who claim that wearing a helmet doesn't make a difference will shut the hell up now.
I've ridden my bike while slightly intoxicated but even that didn't feel safe. At least I chose streets that didn't have a lot of traffic (pedestrian or vehicle) but I'm sure my reflexes weren't as good as they are when I'm sober.
So yeah, it isn't the best idea, and I haven't done it since -- although, as others have pointed out, it doesn't really compare to driving drunk.
There's no reason cyclists shouldn't undergo some form of (possibly compulsory) basic training on traffic rules (and just common sense stuff specific to city biking). Everything from don't bike drunk to which side of the road to ride on to how to not get doored by taxis - nobody teaches people this stuff, you just learn it by doing.
If cyclists really want to be taken seriously and bikes to take off as a true alternative transportation mode, the vast, vast majority need to learn how to respect everything else on the road - cars, buses, other cyclists. I wish someone, be it the city or TransAlt or some bike shop somewhere, would get a ball seriously rolling.
I agree with this idea. There are a lot of cyclists out there who don't know the first thing about safe or defensive riding (or, for example, that it's totally uncool to ride up a bike lane the wrong way).
I heard there is a law in some states for "BUI" Bicycling Under the Influence, and it is treated like a "DUI" Driving Under the Influence.