Cycling - legal alcohol limit?

michaelm

Serious question - is there a legal alcohol limit for a cyclist? It's not that I'm planning to be irresponsible or anything but I have on the odd occasion cycled to my local for (at most) 2 drinks - last week I passed two gardai doing breath tests, they didn't stop me but it got me thinking. Does anyone know of a cyclists who has ever been tested or is it a case of "unless you are behaving in an irresponsible way while in charge of a mechanically propelled something or other"?

ba

i presume the alcoholic limit is the same as that for any motorist.

oneeyedsnake

I don't think they would bother.I talked to a friend who is in the police force in the uk and he siad he'd just laugh if he saw a drunken cyclist.I have cycled home from the city center more times than I care to remember and find that you just go into auto pilot.

robfitz

michaelm wrote:

is there a legal alcohol limit for a cyclist?

As far as I can tell no, alcohol limits only applies to drivers of mechanically propelled vehicles. There is a separate offence for cyclists to do with being unable to control there vehicle.

BostonB

In my student years mates were stopped and asked to walk on a few occasions.

pete4130

I was stopped before, after a night out cycling home, about 1am. I breezed thru some red lights without stopping (obviously checking there was nothing coming either way). I had a few drinks on me. A few hundred metres up the road a cop car pulled me over about the red light. It was obvious I had a few drinks to them when they were talking to me and said that I coul dbe charged with being in control of a pedal cycle while under the influence of alcohol. I was told to walk the rest of the way home and to report to the garda station within 7 days to show my bike with full lights and reflectors (I was on my fixie so they were lucky it even had a brake on it).
I arrived at the police station a week later, lights and reflectors only to be giggled at by the cops in the station.
Generally your almost invisible to the police on a bike unless you do something that catches their attention if/when it isn't busy. Thats what I've found at least in the last 10 years cycling the streets of Dublin.

seamus

The alcohol limit doesn't apply to cyclists, however the law is similar to that of drug-driving - if a garda forms an opinion that you're unable to control your vehicle and you have been drinking, then you'll be done regardless of how much you've consumed.

It's not the same offence as drink-driving, so it doesn't lead to the same hefty penalties.

Ghost Rider

There is something to be said for the "auto-pilot" argument but, tas I recall, that's what drivers used to say too after a few jars.

I've cycled many, many times with a few beers on me and I've only ever fallen off the bike twice.:)

Then again, I fell off the bike twice...!:eek:

rubadub

I was looking at my bike and was stopped, they said they "hope I you are not going to cycle that." Said they would be circling the area and would bring me in if I was.

I do cycle sometimes after a few, if I consider it safe enough. Some say a bike can do no damage, that is not the point, if you are pissed you can swerve and wobble out into the front of a car and cause them to crash or hit somebody else, or you. I am usually freewheeling home at 6am with very little traffic.

If I am very bad the bike is used like a zimmer frame.

conor rowan

a friend of mine from college ended up in court over cycling home drunk. bear in mind he was that drunk that he crashed into the garda car. as far as i can remember he received a small fine for his troubles,
in saying that ive cycled home in varying states of sobriety and never had any problems/run ins with any gardaí ive met on the way ( not that im advocating drunk cycling)
i think a lot depends on what state your in/how much danger youre putting yourself in and the garda you meet.

mkdon05

rubadub wrote:

If I am very bad the bike is used like a zimmer frame.

ROFLMAO

cunnins4

I've cycled through a few garda checkpoints jarred and they just let me fly through without looking twice at me. Grinning because i thought i'd gotten one up on the lads, then one time i fell off because i closed my eyes going up a hill (at a snail's pace)-hit the curb and off i went. I was going so slow i didn't even hurt myself, just fell to the side still holding the bike and landed on the grass. I knocked a glove off my hand and forgot about it and went home. Found it the next day on my way to work. hehe!

Haven't done it in a while though, it's not too bright an idea really. But if i'm really broke and can't afford a nitelink home, the bike'll be coming out with me! All the lads outside hailing taxis and i just whip out a set of lights from my pocket and unlock the bike! Ya get the odd clown who'll try hailing ya like a taxi too!

Oh, and the auto pilot thing is so true-hence why i closed my eyes that time!

Victor

cunnins4 wrote:

Haven't done it in a while though, it's not too bright an idea really. But if i'm really broke and can't afford a nitelink home, the bike'll be coming out with me!

Whoa dude!

If you can't afford the Nitelink, buy 1 drink less.

cunnins4

Victor wrote:

Whoa dude!

If you can't afford the Nitelink, buy 1 drink less.

Ah but the one extra drink + bike = more fun!!!

These would also be on my absolutely smashed nights when the entire night might only cost me 15 or 20 quid (naggin/shoulder of southy and a bottle of lucozade, the sign of a true bum!)

Hungrycol

Broke this one red light (of many) a few weeks ago and sure enough a Garda 4x4 (traffic corp me ar*s) pulled up beside me and Mr Passenger Garda leaned his head out the window and said "You'll stop at the next red light won't you?", to which I dutifully replied I would and said sorry as you do. So following his instruction I stopped at the next red light. I did what I was told and I'm free to go through all red lights from now on, the Garda said so

Capt'n Midnight

I've heard of people carrying bikes home from the pub because they were worried about being done if they wheeled it home.

Then again if you have too many it affects your balance so you'll know soon enough.

Your Man

a man in the know told me only if you appear unfit to safely cycle will you be stopped. ive seen on many occasions friends of mine take bad falls while cycling drunk, not a good idea

flickerx

Hmm. I'm constantly on the bike either blind drunk or E'd off my face. I'm never worried about the cops, they dont seem to take any interest as mentioned above, but I try to do it less these days, after accidents (which I had no recollection of) became more frequent. One day I woke up with my entire right thigh black and purple, and couldnt walk properly for a week... still no idea what happened, but it occured somewhere on the way home on the bike. Another time an acquaintance saw me going up Church Street, in the middle of the road, with a line of cars behind me beeping and shouting at me, with me telling them all to F off. Again, no recollection, woke up the next day with a serious gash on my face above my left eye (one benefit was that I looked so bad that they told me to take the day off work early :-)

Drug cycling is much easier to deal with than drink cycling.

jaycummins

I've cycled a few times home drunk before but i'd never cycle through town locked. i can hardly cycle through town sober with all the pyscho drivers. it is good though when your drunk, going down a hill at 60kmph with no hand on the bars just screaming your head off. lol. man thats great!

Cianos

I HATE public transport, and Dublin is a chaotic warzone at 3am as every drunken fool is out trying to get a taxi. It feels great cycling by them all:cool:

It's also great for clearing your head and makes you that bit more ready for a good nights kip.

seamus

Cianos wrote:

I HATE public transport, and Dublin is a chaotic warzone at 3am as every drunken fool is out trying to get a taxi. It feels great cycling by them all:cool:

It's also great for clearing your head and makes you that bit more ready for a good nights kip.

Driving in the city centre at 3am is dangerous enough. You would have to be off your tits to even consider cycling there at that time. How many pedestrians have you mown down so far?

flickerx

flickerx wrote: »

Hmm. I'm constantly on the bike either blind drunk or E'd off my face.

my past caught up with me on sunday night, after many close shaves i was involved with a collision with a bus, no idea who hit who i was so drunk, had been on a 2 and a half day binge after a breakup with my partner, but got up after i regained consciousness and cycled off, with people telling me to come back and wait for the ambulance, all i could hear was the rushing in my ears.

woke up monday morning totally destroyed, went straight to my local A+E, tomorrow i am going to the hospital again to see if they need to put a wire in my right hand where it is broken, i cant write, hold anything in my right hand, and am typing this now with one hand, my left (i am right handed). skin taken off my left arm, left leg, left hip, small gash on my face, various other cuts and bruises. i really dont want this steel pin in my hand but they are saying it might be necessary if the splints dont set the bones right.

needless to say i'm not in the best form, cant get up on the bike again for ages, the poxy bus for me!!!

be warned. dont binge and bike.

Victor

You've learned you lesson the hard way. Take care of yourself.

Wez

And your original post has pretty much been my justification for doing it.. Not good to hear that's happened to you man! Best of luck getting better!

flickerx

No wire to be put in my hand, thank christ, not yet anyway.

Have to go back again same time next week for more x-rays, etc.

Going to bed now after heavy painkillers. Mmmm....

t5pwr

I got done about 12 years ago for reckless driving on a pedal bike, fined in court.
Won't go into the details but it didn't involve drink or drugs just sheer recklessness.

So I suppose you could be brought up on something like that

oneeyedsnake

I had a crash this summer on the bike.Day before heading off to croatia for a few weeks I was in town on a bender all I remember is being in judge roy beans on nassau street and then scene missing, then lying face down on westmorlan street with some taxi driver beeping and shouting at me.Bad brusing on my elbow.I'll probally do it again though such is the enormity of my stupidity.

*Page*

My partner was quite drunk the other weekend so much so he needed to sit down for a rest before cycling home...

2 Garda's came up to him asked him if the bike was his, then told him to hop on and go home as he was too drunk to be loitering around on the streets...


i guess that there is no limit...

BostonB

A few people I know were told to get off and walk, by Garda. Guess it depends who you meet. I remember one night many moons ago, standing chatting to a mate early in the morning, on our way back from an opening of something where there was free wine or something. Garda car pulls up, and Garda tells us to get off home. My mate tries to get on the bike and manages to fall head over butt over it, landing in a heap beside the car. "Guess you'd better walk" was the dry comment from the car.

I think you can be charged with something though.

Ghost Rider

Strange as it may sound, the cops may have had a point. Dublin city centre can be pretty dangerous for pedestrians, especially those who are drunk and therefore not very alert. Nearly everyone I know (including myself) has been started on at some stage by random agressors. In fact, I'd say it's happened a few times to most of my friends. Thing is, if you cycle, it never happens.

I'm not suggesting cycling drunk is a good idea - I don't think it is, and FlickerX's tale is a sorry one - but there's a lot to be said for cycling through Dublin's streets at night instead of walking them.

*Page* wrote: »

My partner was quite drunk the other weekend so much so he needed to sit down for a rest before cycling home...

2 Garda's came up to him asked him if the bike was his, then told him to hop on and go home as he was too drunk to be loitering around on the streets...


i guess that there is no limit...

rubadub

If cycling you could swerve and cause a car to have an accident too. You can be done for just being drunk walking in a public place so no doubt it could be done for cycling too.

I also have drank too much like flickerx and cycled home and cannot remember. I have come out of a haze and found myself walking the bike too, so it seems I might still have some sense in that state. I usually cycle to a pub nearby- to stop myself I have considered getting there and deflating my tyres- this will stop me cycling home! and it protects against theft. Even if it is a long walk I usually wont remember it (god & guinness willing)