We're Alcoholics on Bikes, Apparently

[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

[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!

(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...

[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...

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!

[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.