Drinking and Cycling

langdang

I'm with you on this one studiorat... what's the harm in a few civilised pints and a pootle home?

seamus

studiorat wrote: »

Going on the piss is a different matter completely, but I certainly don't think that being over the limit to drive a car makes you incapable of safely cycling.

I agree on principle, but if you ever actually gets your hands on a working breathalyser, give it a go some night that you're drinking. At the upper limit of 0.08% you'll find that you're surprisingly pissed, in my experience it's well past the point that I would consider getting behind the wheel. A bottle of beer or an hour after one pint is about as far as I've ever pushed it, though I generally just avoid drinking if I know I'm going to be driving.

Cycling at 0.1% BAC or even 0.08% is getting to the point of riskiness, even though for the latter you're technically legal behind the wheel.

There's also a big difference between 0.08% that night and 0.08% the next morning. The former is made worse by an increase in confidence and loss of inhibitions, and the latter is made worse by a decrease in confidence and massive drop in reaction times (cos you're knackered).

tomasrojo

What about having half a pint of normal-strength beer and then cycling home? You shouldn't cycle when you're drunk, but I'm not sure when you start being "drunk". Two pints drunk over five hours probably doesn't leave an adult male drunk.

tomasrojo

It's a funny thing. I have friends who regard cycling as dangerous, but at the same time seem surprised that I only have one pint when I've cycled to the pub. Apparently I should throw being drunk into the mix of this "dangerous" activity, because, hey, I'm not driving.

Lumen

tomasrojo

0.08% seems to be an inflection point, so I assume that's why it was chosen as the legal limit for driving here.

Good table showing what level you are at after various numbers of drinks here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_content