Comments on: 12/28/2012 – Got a Fuzz On

By: Boobie Prize

Boobie Prize — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:37:06 +0000

Poopstains on my chamis

By: Tim O

Tim O — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:20:39 +0000

Whilst you could theoretically get charged with being drunk in charge of a bicycle in the UK, the significant difference is that compared to a car, there’s no legal limit on blood alcohol level, and there’s no requirement to provide a sample (into a breathalyzer, or a blood sample), so you have to clearly be drunk. Even then, 99% of the time, the police aren’t going to be interested in doing anything unless you’re clearly a danger to yourself, because you’ll pose a very low threat to anyone else, and they won’t want to deal with the paperwork!

By: Wogster

Wogster — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 02:32:06 +0000

The time to decide NOT to drive drunk is when your sober. If you want to go out drinking, hey no problem, take the bus, cab or a designated driver to get there. Then you can’t drive drunk, you have removed the temptation. If you NEED to drive, then drink stuff that is not alcoholic.

By: Tencon

Tencon — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 23:51:28 +0000

At least it wasn’t the other way around – you might have been riding when he moved off!
Thankful for small mercys – Happy New Year Yolanda

By: Vantastique

Vantastique — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:30:43 +0000

I have a friend in Alaska, who in the winter, got drunk at the bar so instead of driving home, he slept in his truck’s back seat. He turned on the motor now and then to have heat and got charged with DUI because the keys were in the ignition.

By: yolanda

yolanda — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:21:15 +0000

I’m going to be biking more this winter. My car got smucked by someone who was too busy staring at the weird little smart car to realize they were driving out in front of it! He was stopped at his yield sign when I came through, but started up right in my way on packed ice. Poor little mite got all smucked up and his old steel beater just got scrapes and dents.
I’m so grateful that, faced with however long it takes to get it fixed (I’ve got good insurance) I am able to take up biking, familiar with it, and with a bike ready, so that I’m not disabled by the loss of my motor wheels.
Poor little Iris. ~sigh~ I sure hope she can be fixed.

By: Adam in Baltimore

Adam in Baltimore — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:41:38 +0000

In my US state the legal threshold is keys in the ignition.

By: Tencon

Tencon — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 08:43:55 +0000

I was just thinking about what Vantastique just wrote regarding balance. Because we use counter-steering to turn and ‘weave’ to stay upright, our drunken weaving is what is keeping us from falling over?

The same weaving marks us out as being ‘under the influence’ when on foot and it only when bad judgement causes us to do something noticeable that we get caught-out on the bike. The same poor judgement that get motorists killed rarely has the same effect on us as we are much slower.

In 1977 I was working in the mechanical workshop of the Molecular Sciences wing at the University of Warwick, which was being built from scratch then. A welder working nearby used to come in to us for assistance from time to time and he was kind enough to pass on some useful hints and tips when I was learning to weld.
He had a humorous theory as to why his welds were better in the afternoon than the morning – He felt that the unsteady hands resulting from lunchtime drinking helped the ‘action’ when welding. I can report that IMHO there was some logic to the theory. However the reduced judgement from the DUI will result in losing the job eventually… Drunk in charge of inflammable gas bottles and electricity is a formula for tragedy

I Just Googled to check if there was some law regarding welding drunk, I found this fairly quickly: http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/archive/index.php/t-34494.html
So, not the law, true, but a lot of experienced comments…

By: Tencon

Tencon — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 08:16:54 +0000

@Benjamin and Yolanda: – It is the same thinking that results in so many drunk drivers…

IMHO the safe amount of alcohol to drink before taking to the roads is Zero !

Okay, I admit that as an alcoholic, that is always true for me. As a one-time Christian Evangelical, my church used to hate alcohol and thoroughly oppose any drinking. I left that church for other reasons, not least was that my more liberal views clashed with their dogmas. However I have seen too many tears resulting from drunk-driving and read too many stories of woe from drunken cyclists too. The latter are usually funny as a drunk cyclist rarely has what it takes to be a real danger (Although cycling the wrong way along the motorway hard shoulder is an exception!) The police have released numerous videos showing the antics of inebriated cyclists…

Just have a safe time folks and enjoy the New Year safely. End of rant, sorry

By: De Sisti

De Sisti — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 21:43:17 +0000

You’re right. In the UK, you a deemed in control of your vehicle if the keys are in the ignition
and you are sat in the car, even if the engine is off.