We're Alcoholics on Bikes, Apparently

[kfergos]

The other day I was chatting with a guy as I got my bike ready for my ride home. I was in my bike clothes. He commented: "You know, when I see people on bikes in normal clothes, not wearing lycra, I always think they're alcoholics." :eek::eek::eek: I said something inane and escaped. ?!?!

So people, if you wear your jeans while riding, watch out -- apparently only alcoholics do that. Presumably because they don't have driver's licenses? Or can't afford a car?

[maillotpois]

Maybe because of license suspensions.

I think you can still get arrested for DUI on a bike....

[shootingstar]

Then a ton of people who cycle in Europe wearing ordinary clothes must be abit boozed. Over there, it's less cycling folks in cycling lycra and helmets.

[SouthernBelle]

In most states in the US, conviction of DUI is an automatic loss of license. Thus you see a lot of people on bikes who are doing so for that reason. There are people who I see on bikes who I know are riding them for that exact reason.

There are others I wonder about.

[alpinerabbit]

There will be a day when this guy is wrong, when loads of people ride. Just think 10$ per gallon.

[mimitabby]

I think generalizing that they are drunks because they wearing jeans and not lycra is pretty weak.
The drunks on bikes that i have seen generally look like they've lived a very hard life. the jeans are just a very small detail.
They're easy to pick out, a lot of times they are smoking a cigarette as they go down the road, or they are riding in the rain wearing a jeans jacket and getting drenched. You know they are not pleasure riders who would either stay home in that kind of weather or would have wet weather gear.


they also generally ride without helmets and lights and wear dark clothing. They are who i consider the invisible bicyclists because they are part of the bicycling population but they have no voice.

[Blueberry]

Maybe because of license suspensions.

I think you can still get arrested for DUI on a bike....

Definitely true here - they just changed the law in January. Of course, the cops never enforce it. But they could.

CA

[coyote]

Most alcholics I know wouldn't let a little thing like not having a license stop them from driving a car.

[Irulan]

you don't know any sober alcoholics?

[coyote]

you don't know any sober alcoholics?

Depends on what time of day as to whether they are sober or not ;)

[Skierchickie]

Youch! I know tons and tons of sober alcoholics (my DH, my best friend, .... and a zillion other people)! It's called recovery - alcoholism is a disease, and doesn't just go away. There are active alcoholics, and there are recovering alcoholics.

(steps down off soapbox and apologizes for ranting)

The same assumptions about bikers go around here, too, as well as people riding scooters. It couldn't possibly just be about exercise, fresh air, and being environmentally & fiscally responsible.:rolleyes:

[mimitabby]

and some of them are still drinking but can't afford to drive a car anymore...

[Zen]

I'm drunk right now.

[imdeanna]

This reminded me of a Letter to the Editor in our local paper last week...

The guy was bad mouthing cyclist and complaining about those that don't follow the rules of the road....

(I think he was dissing those that wore biking wear???)


Here is a tid bit of what he said:

“I believe there is a difference between a commuter using a bike for transportation and grown men/women who wear matching silk skivvies”

[maillotpois]

I'm drunk right now.

Snort! :D

[Eden]

Maybe because of license suspensions.

I think you can still get arrested for DUI on a bike....

Depends on where you are - here in Seattle you can get arrested for public drunkenness and have your bike confiscated (you get it back without penalty when you are sober), but you cannot get a DUI for cycling while intoxicated :rolleyes:

[OakLeaf]

Hm. I thought in most states a bicycle was considered a vehicle for DUI purposes.

Now that I just looked it up to confirm, here's an interesting quirk in Ohio law. If the wheels are smaller than 14", it's not considered a bicycle, and it's specifically excluded from the vehicle laws.

Folding bikes and margaritas for everyone! :eek::cool:

(there were definitely times when I was in school that I probably should've been arrested for DUI bicycle... and am lucky to have survived those times)

[mupedalpusher]

My nephew recently told me that they have a lot of dewey-cycles (dui-cycles) at Purdue. I had never heard it called that and found it incredibly funny. I see some on my commute that I have suspected might be deweys.

[Beane]

So if you get your driver's license taken away for driving drunk, what do they take away when you get a biking while intoxicated (BWI) ticket?

do they (gasp!) confiscate your bike? or just give you a hefty fine?

[OakLeaf]

So if you get your driver's license taken away for driving drunk, what do they take away when you get a biking while intoxicated (BWI) ticket?

do they (gasp!) confiscate your bike? or just give you a hefty fine?

In Ohio, still your driver's license. And jail. And fine. There's no exclusion for bicycles in the penalty section.

But since you can only forfeit a vehicle that's "registered in the offender's name," bicycles wouldn't be subject to forfeiture. Although they'd probably try, and you'd have to fight it in court.

[Zen]

I'm sure I've heard of guys being arrested for DUI while driving a lawn mower because they lost their automobile license...:rolleyes: :(

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Alcoholism is never a funny subject in my book.

This happened about 3 years ago in our town...
I have an acquaintance in town here, a nice woman I used to work with years ago. Her son was about 19 and was having trouble with his drinking. He then got a DUI and had his license taken away. He began to ride his bicycle around town and to work instead.
A couple of months later he went to the bar at the local bowling alley on his bike and stayed late drinking. It became dark and started raining heavily. Someone offered him a ride but he refused and at 2am started the short 1 mile ride home. He was drunk, had no lights or reflective gear, and apparently began riding down the middle of the wrong lane, the wrong way on the highway in the rain and pitch blackness. He was hit head on by a car which did not stop (likely another drinker since they didn't stop), and he was killed. His mother rushed to the scene and managed to see his mangled body before she was restrained. They never found the driver that hit him.

[Hammer]

The SD legislature made a rule excluding bicycles and horses from the definition of vehicle for the purpose of DUI's. So, you can ride home, or you can ride home.

There were a lot of ticked off cyclists around here regarding that. Some days I don't know. Granted, they're not going to get in a car and plow people over. And typically if they decide to bike, the thought would be that they'd just be a nuiscance to themselves. A really drunk person really probably wouldn't make it very far. But, if they rode out into the street or down a sidewalk, others could still be injured.

I don't think the bill itself has really made much difference. It was something to talk about for awhile though.

[PscyclePath]

I'm sure I've heard of guys being arrested for DUI while driving a lawn mower because they lost their automobile license...:rolleyes: :(

The DUI/DWI laws vary by state, and it depends on the wording whether they can bust you for bicycling under the influence. Here in Arkansas, the statute for DWI/DUI applies to drivers of motor vehicles, so they can get you if you're driving a car, truck, motorcycle, or, as someone mentioned, a riding lawn mower or golf cart.

Cyclists and equestrians get a break here, but you'd better behave yourself, they can still get you for "public drunkeness..."

As John Anderson once noted:

I heard it on the radio and the 6 o' clock news,
Said you'd better not drive when you get on the booze.
The sheriff was on TV an' a shakin' his hand.
Said we're really crackin' down you'd better understand...

(Chorus)
When you get on the whiskey
When you get on the whiskey
When you get on the whiskey,
Let somebody else drive!

I started drinkin' on Friday and by Saturday night
They had me blowin' through a tube, charged with DUI.
Cuffed and booked and thrown in a cell,
I was tryin' to sober up and a' tellin' myself...

When you get on the whiskey
When you get on the whiskey
When you get on the whiskey,
Let somebody else drive!

48 hours is a long is a long time to kill
In a room full of drunks surrounded by steel.
Hell's all they serve in a metro bar,
So don't be drinkin' when you're drivin' your car.
When you get on the whiskey
When you get on the whiskey
When you get on the whiskey,
Let somebody else drive!

[smilingcat]

In california its simple.

if you are on your bike and

you run a red light or stop sign, you get a ticket.
you ride over the sped limit, you get a ticket.
you ride drunk, you get a DUI.

just like driving a car. And it goes on your driver license record so watch out on your insurance. not sure about impounding of your bicycle though...

I've seen people getting a ticket for blowing through stop signs. and I know of a guy who was partying on St. Patty day (he is of Irish descent) so when he was pulled over on his bicycle, the police were ready to give him a DUI but my acquintance managed to talk his way out of it. Said something like, "okay officer, I'll just drop my bike off at home and get in a car!" The officers got very alarmed and told him to just go home and unwind there.

Anyway, I thought this thread was more about being addicted to our cycling like long distance runners do with the "runner's high" . sigh...

And my partner said "whaattt??? people think you are alcoholic just because you ride a bike as an adult? Where did they get that stupid idea?" Never crossed our minds.

Smilingcat

[Geonz]

back to the original yahoo - there are always yahoos who make asinine assumptions. Whether or not he persists in them after seeing evidence to the contrary indicates how big a yahoo he is. If I don't wear street clothes 'cause of yahoos, not ony am I limiting my freedom but I'm reinforcing his assumptions.
Sitting out here on my porch, two kinds of vehicles have been going by. Comcast vans, reminding me that I should get my own internet connection so I don't have to sit on the porch (I will :) ) ... and bicycles, and so far nobody's been in silk skivvies.
This spring I'm seeing easily triple the peope riding bicycles as last spring. I am happy to say I see most of 'em on the street - our sidewalks are lumpy and small - and *usually* going the right way.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sitting out here on my porch, two kinds of vehicles have been going by. Comcast vans... and bicycles, and so far nobody's been in silk skivvies.

How would you know? :cool:



This spring I'm seeing easily triple the peope riding bicycles as last spring.

I am seeing many more people on bikes in our town this Spring too, but maybe only about 25-30% more. Still, that's a big jump from last Spring. :)

[GLC1968]

they also generally ride without helmets and lights and wear dark clothing. They are who i consider the invisible bicyclists because they are part of the bicycling population but they have no voice.

I've also noticed that they tend to be on bikes that don't fit or they are riding with the seat way too low.


I commute in regular clothes, but I also always wear a helmet or my 'fancy' showers pass jacket to hopefully discourge the image that I'm doing this as the result of a DUI.

I agree that the general image is going to change as more and more people are deciding to bike to work due to rising gas prices.

[Meg McKilty]

I'm drunk right now.

Yes ma'am! Here, here!!

In Southern Belle's and my hometown, we have a drunk who rides his bicycle to the liquor store, wearing jeans and toting his little brown paper bagged beverage with him.

My mother calls him Odie, the name of some famous drunk on a bicycle.

[mimitabby]

I commute in regular clothes, but I also always wear a helmet or my 'fancy' showers pass jacket to hopefully discourge the image that I'm doing this as the result of a DUI.



my goodness! are you really worried about it? :eek: I just ride my bike and hope no one tries to run me over. :cool: (but i ALWAYS wear a helmet)

[SlowButSteady]

Seems like I've heard a song or poem about adults who ride mopeds and the consensus is that adults out riding mopeds are doing so because they've lost their drivers license.

My DH and I saw a guy out riding a moped once and we were laughing so hard we nearly wrecked. The guy was wearing a tee shirt that said "Please Do Not Arrest This Man."

With gas prices so high, I've contemplated a moped but then everyone in town would think that I've lost my license.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

This is just silly.
There are PLENTY of adults on bikes who wear regular clothes and no helmets who are not "DUI".
Plenty of people riding mopeds and scooters...and not DUI.
Plenty of people who can't afford cars and have low paying jobs who ride ill fitting bikes to work and shopping who are....not DUI.
To equate people on bikes who don't wear spandex with alcoholics is just a totally over-the-top crazy generalization.



My mother calls him Odie, the name of some famous drunk on a bicycle.
Meg, I think your mother is mixing up two names from the Andy Griffith Mayberry show: Opie, Andy Taylor's kid....and Otis, the town drunk who was always getting thrown in the drunk tank to sober up.

[GLC1968]

my goodness! are you really worried about it? :eek: I just ride my bike and hope no one tries to run me over. :cool: (but i ALWAYS wear a helmet)

I'm not actually worried about it...at least not so much here in the PNW - but I certainly was in NC. I actually know of a$$holes who would make a point of intentionally driving too close to people they see on bikes that they think are DUI's.

Yes, people suck for making those assumptions, but they make them anyway. I'm just trying to watch out for my own safety.

[batsheva]

here in florida, although a bike is a vehicle under the road laws, you cannot get a DUI cycling when drunk because as you need no license to cycle, you have not given presumed consent to be breathalyzed - acceptance of a driving license is the acceptance of consent to be breathalyzed and so even if you drive a car and have a valid drivers license, you cannot lose it as there would then be different penalties for car driving cyclists and non car driving cyclists, so the ruling is no DUI for cyclists as not licensed and therefore have not consented to be tested.

[cyclingmama]

here in florida, although a bike is a vehicle under the road laws, you cannot get a DUI cycling when drunk because as you need no license to cycle, you have not given presumed consent to be breathalyzed - acceptance of a driving license is the acceptance of consent to be breathalyzed and so even if you drive a car and have a valid drivers license, you cannot lose it as there would then be different penalties for car driving cyclists and non car driving cyclists, so the ruling is no DUI for cyclists as not licensed and therefore have not consented to be tested.

But you don't need to be breathalyzed to be arrested for DUI. In many states you may refuse the breathalyzer, but you can still be arrested based on officer observation, smell of alcohol, field sobriety tests, etc.

Where I work there is definitely a contingent of low-income cyclists that don't have cars, as well as several homeless people who ride their bikes around town looking for empty bottles (for the 5cent refund), spare change, and discarded food. It really never occured to me that any of them were using bikes due to DUIs. I guess it makes sense that a certain percentage of cyclists would be using a bike due to having lost their license, but I was never aware of such a stereotype or stigma. Maybe I'm just naive.

I just wish that they would all wear helmets, whatever their reasons for being on a bike . . .

[PscyclePath]

As noted, in many states the DWI/DUI statutes apply to motor vehicles of just about any sort. Other states simply use "driver of a vehicle" which definitely includes us riders in the mix.

Bob Mionske's recentn book, Bicycling and the Law has a good discussion of the BWI issues and how (and where) they work. Some states would indeed rather that when you get on the whiskey, you take your bike or faithful horse rather than the keys to a motor vehicle...