Western seniors Fred Carley and Meg Harris mount their bikes for a park and ride Thursday night. Photo by Rhys Logan
Western seniors Peter Morgan and Fred Carley like riding bikes. They also like drinking beer. On a cold and rainy night in November 2008, Morgan, Carley and a few other students officially combined the two into an event called park and ride. At each of Bellingham’s major parks, participants stop to drink a beer – or two – for a zigzagging, 25-mile bike ride, usually ending downtown.
After many miles, many parks and many beers, the group coming into town may be far from sober – but its actions are entirely legal. Despite the rumors and myths, bicycling intoxicated in Washington is not a crime. Instead, it offers a legal––though not necessarily safe––alternative to drunk driving.
Bicycling under the influence is illegal in some states, and was so in Washington until the 1995 Montesano v. Wells case, where the Washington state Court of Appeals determined drunk driving laws were not intended for bicycles. However, neither the ruling nor the law are well known, and rumors that bicycling drunk can get the rider in legal trouble are common among cyclists.
Western senior Brett Newell said he has never heard of the actual law, but has heard myths and stories that made him assume it was a serious crime. Newell does not own a car and rides his bike everywhere, including to the bars.
“I’ve always heard that it’s illegal,” Newell said. “I heard that you could get a regular DUI.”
To cut through the rumors and assure that park and ride was legal, Morgan and Carley had asked an officer downtown if they were OK to bike after drinking.
“He said that it was fine,” Carley said. “He just said if you’re too drunk to ride he’d take your bike.”
Officers only occasionally deal with intoxicated bicyclists, said Lieutenant Bill Slodysko of the Bellingham Police Department. If the cyclist is determined to be a threat to the public, he said officers can impound their bicycle and give them a ride to a safe place or competent person.
Although a swerving cyclist can cause accidents, Slodysko said he feels the biggest threat is not to motor vehicles or pedestrians, but to the riders themselves. Cars are big, heavy and fast, he said, and on a major roadway with many intoxicated drivers, someone as unprotected as a cyclist is taking a serious risk.
“It would be a stupid idea,” Slodysko said. “You don’t have a steel cage around you like a car and don’t have the maneuverability of a motorcycle.”
Morgan, Carley and Newell said they have all taken spills while biking intoxicated. Morgan said people crash so often on park and rides that it is nearly a rite of passage.
John Duggan, a Seattle-based attorney specializing in bicycle-related legal counseling, has handled hundreds of cases involving bicycle accidents and agrees that bicycling drunk can be dangerous.
However, he points out that only a few of those accidents have involved alcohol and none have involved an intoxicated cyclist.
“If you’re riding a bicycle intoxicated, you’re likely to injure yourself,” Duggan said. “If you’re driving intoxicated, you’re likely to injure yourself and someone else. That’s why it’s not a crime.”
Ellen Barton, president of the Mt. Baker Bicycle Club, said she could see some advantages biking intoxicated might offer if it kept people from driving drunk. But as the number of cyclists increase, she said, some progressive enforcement may be necessary.
“Let’s look at it by point of degree,” Barton said. “A person unable to operate a bicycle appropriately and keep from hitting people and running into trees should be regulated.
Someone able to operate a bicycle without this kind of imbalance allows room for discussion.”
Unlike driving a car, Morgan and Carley said, a person has to be extremely drunk to be unable to ride a bicycle and can greatly improve their safety with items as simple as a helmet and light – during park and rides people without the two are made fun of.
They said after 10 park and rides with more than 100 individuals involved, they still have not seen any serious injuries. Newell said he has ridden while heavily intoxicated and has only had one serious crash. It can be dangerous, but he said he feels the possible negatives outweigh the obvious positives.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s safer for me but it’s safer for everyone else and that’s a trade-off I’m willing to make,” Newell said. “Besides, at that point I almost ride better than I walk.”
Slodysko, however, points out that it is not simply a choice between driving drunk or biking drunk and that there are safer and simpler ways to avoid any safety issues altogether.
“Walk, get a ride, do the designated driver thing, take a bus, wait—any of the above,” he said. “Coffee doesn’t help sober you up but the time spent waiting does.”
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