DWB (Drinking While Biking)

[DismalScientist]

Drinking while biking means only one hand on the bars. This is very dangerous.

[dkel]

I’m curious as to how many of the drunk cyclists were riding due to losing their driver’s licenses to DUI. Sometimes we’re better at punishing people than addressing their underlying problem.

[baiskeli]

That reminds me – when is the next happy hour?

[Supermau]

I love a good ale but I’ve never understood people who mix drinking with anything remotely athletic. I did a grocery run recently (about a mile round trip) with two Sierra Nevadas under my belt and found the whole thing much more difficult than I would have imagined. I’d be useless on a brewery tour.

I guess there’s another angle…those folks who’s only transportation is a bike, and who perhaps don’t see it so much as an athletic endeavor. Drinking and biking might just be SOP for some folks.

I’ll save the beers for after the ride.

[Anonymous]

@dkel 98189 wrote:

I’m curious as to how many of the drunk cyclists were riding due to losing their driver’s licenses to DUI. Sometimes we’re better at punishing people than addressing their underlying problem.

We don’t take driver’s licenses away (primarily) as punishment OR as a means of addressing an underlying problem. Not to be too callous about people being killed, but if we assume that the majority of the killed, drunk cyclists who were riding home from the bar because they lost their licenses to DUIs were killed due to their own misjudgment, what we accomplished by taking away their driver’s licenses is preventing them from killing someone else by exercising the same misjudgement and hitting or running over someone with their cars, which they would otherwise have been driving. That is a public policy success.

[jrenaut]

The article doesn’t mention it (because, really, journalism is HARD) but they’re drawing conclusions from statistics in a vacuum. I mean, between 9pm and 3am is a dangerous time to be on the road for anyone, not just cyclists who have been drinking. How many of those drunk cyclists were obeying the law and hit by a drunk driver? How does the rate of drunken cyclist fatalities compare to sober cyclist fatalities at the same time of day?

I don’t want to justify drinking and biking, because it’s a dumb thing to do and you could hurt someone or yourself. But articles like this just piss me off. You can cherry-pick statistics to say pretty much anything you want.

[rcannon100]

@baiskeli 98195 wrote:

That reminds me – when is the next happy hour?

I certain person is escaping the Island of Misfit Toys to the Ukraine. Seems like we should test what is being discussed on this thread in his honor.

[culimerc]

I’d be a little surprised if 25% of men 30- 49 in urban areas between the hours of 9 pm and 3 am weren’t drunk. Bikes or no bikes.

[rcannon100]

Now I get to play the role of Dasgeh. Oooooooooooooooh this sounds like victim blaming.

A report by the Governors Highway Safety Association shows that 25 percent of the cyclists killed in the U.S. were drunk, with blood alcohol concentrations of .08 or higher.

Of all the really bad things that have happened to cyclists in our area, I have never not once read or heard this as a factor.

I would also seriously question the methodology. Exactly how was the blood alcohol level tested on the dead body lying on the pavement?

And then this????????

The report also cites a lack of helmet use among cyclists as a “major contributing factor” in fatalities

I am sorry, that pretty much seals that this is BS. If you died bc of a traffic accident, your helmet probably would not have save your life. I do not want to enter the helmet wars. I wear a helmet ever single ride. But I am under NO ILLUSION. A helmet give you a little bit of protection. And I am the type of person who is willing to do something that gains a little bit more protection (use lights, high viz, choose safe routes, make sure my brakes work). But those who attack helmets are right – the amount of protection a helmet provides is much less than purported. It’s going to protect you from a nasty head laceration. Its not going to protect you from a concussion. And if you get hit by a truck, its going to do almost nothing.

@culimerc 98202 wrote:

I’d be a little surprised if 25% of men 30- 49 in urban areas between the hours of 9 pm and 3 am weren’t drunk. Bikes or no bikes.

Uummm. Can I recommend that you try hanging out with different men 30-49? As the modernists taught, perception depends a lot on perspective.

[DismalScientist]

If I’m not mistaken, the percentage of drunk dead pedestrians and drunk dead drivers is higher than the percentage of drunk dead cyclists.

washcycle has a discussion of statistical issues.

[Orestes Munn]

Anyone found dead, bike or no bike will be at least referred to the medical examiner and they will likely get blood for alcohol and drugs, which data can be of considerable legal importance. An appreciable number of those found down will die in hospital, where tox screening is routine.

Agree that helmets have no role in preventing concussion, but they do prevent skull fractures, which increase the likelihood of death from head injury.

[Orestes Munn]

@rcannon100 98203 wrote:

Now I get to play the role of Dasgeh. Oooooooooooooooh this sounds like victim blaming.

Of all the really bad things that have happened to cyclists in our area, I have never not once read or heard this as a factor.

I would also seriously question the methodology. Exactly how was the blood alcohol level tested on the dead body lying on the pavement?

And then this????????

I am sorry, that pretty much seals that this is BS. If you died bc of a traffic accident, your helmet probably would not have save your life. I do not want to enter the helmet wars. I wear a helmet ever single ride. But I am under NO ILLUSION. A helmet give you a little bit of protection. And I am the type of person who is willing to do something that gains a little bit more protection (use lights, high viz, choose safe routes, make sure my brakes work). But those who attack helmets are right – the amount of protection a helmet provides is much less than purported. It’s going to protect you from a nasty head laceration. Its not going to protect you from a concussion. And if you get hit by a truck, its going to do almost nothing.

Uummm. Can I recommend that you try hanging out with different men 30-49? As the modernists taught, perception depends a lot on perspective.

Anyone found dead on the street, bike or no bike will be at least referred to the medical examiner who will likely test for alcohol and drugs. Those data can be of considerable legal importance. An appreciable number of those found down will die in hospital, where tox screening is routine.

Agree that helmets have no role in preventing concussion, but they do help prevent skull fractures, which increase the likelihood of death from head injury.

[cyclingfool]

@rcannon100 98201 wrote:

I certain person is escaping the Island of Misfit Toys to xX—t-h-e—Xx Ukraine. Seems like we should test what is being discussed on this thread in his honor.

ftfy. Drop the “the”. It’s just Ukraine.

Sorry, not trying to be an arse. Just a pet peeve as someone who lived there for three-plus years.

#PeaceCorpsGoalNumberThree

That said, given his soon-to-be new home, if you want to test something in his honor, I would suggest a horilka (i.e., vodka) shot. Besides, he needs to start training his liver for life in Ukraine.

“Bud’mo!” (It’s Ukrainian for cheers.)

[baiskeli]

@rcannon100 98201 wrote:

I certain person is escaping the Island of Misfit Toys to the Ukraine. Seems like we should test what is being discussed on this thread in his honor.

Great idea. When does he leave?

[baiskeli]

@culimerc 98202 wrote:

I’d be a little surprised if 25% of men 30- 49 in urban areas between the hours of 9 pm and 3 am weren’t drunk. Bikes or no bikes.

Being a man 30-49 in an urban area between 9 and 3 right now, I can assure you that I am indeed 25% drunk.

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