Drunk cyclist: oh no! what will I do for transportation now?
DC: wait
Alcohol has long been seen as a social lubricant for thousands of years in Japan, where business deals and difficult issues are discussed over bottles of beer and sake.
It is believed that drinking alcohol creates a more relaxed environment for such discussions.
This is such an odd bit of “cultural context” to include in the article. Alcohol is a social lubricant in basically every culture that doesn’t outright forbid it.
ChatGPT just kinda felt like that would be useful context today.
So the more comfortable way to lose a license is to drive a car instead?
If you punish everything you’ll just get people who stop caring.
Not really, same in Germany if you are generally drunk in traffic (except by foot or public transport, i.e. an active participant) the same sober laws apply. So the incentive is not to do that when drunk. Also believe me when you lose your driving license completely you will care if you need it, and even if you don’t, fines hurt, too.
Japan is even harsher as you can go to prison directly, and if you are in their court system once (that is after only a fine or simple suspension) due to customs and cultural norms you will be found guilty with a chance of about 99 % (the Japanese court system is notoriously bad).
Alternatives to escalating by using a car can bet walking or taking the metro, the latter is easily possible in Japan, for instance. When the trains don’t run there are plenty cheap manga cafes or capsule hotels.
This is something that happens in beach cities in CA. People get drunk at the beach bars and then take the beach bike path home. However, those paths are used by pedestrians and other cyclists going at high speeds.
…going at high speeds.
Well, there’s a double entendre for you.
Drink cycling is fun, red wine and white wine is a good cycle option, stay away from gin and vodka though. Ohh not that drink cycling…
This is dumb. Write a drunk in public, sure, but a drunk cyclist isn’t a danger to anyone but themselves.
Cyclists here in Japan flaunt all the rules and ride like maniacs (illegally in most cases) on the sidewalks (and also illegally with earphones and staring at their phones). Pedestrians have absolute right-of-way and the cyclist is at fault for hitting them. Add to this generally high density and bad spacial awareness and it’s bad without drunks. Absolutely keep people from drinking off the cycles.
If its like Australia, then its probably because the way the legislation is worded.
If the DUI legislation has demerit point accumulation for DUI, and it covers all vehicles, not just motor vehicles, then drunk cycling or horse riding could also result in a loss of licence.
It sounds like you are saying that if a drunk cyclist hits a pedestrian, it’s impossible for the pedestrian to get injured.
Or if that same cyclist weaves out in to the street, a car that hits them cannot be damaged (and the driver of the car won’t be held liable even though cyclists pretty much always have the right of way vs. cars).
Not impossible, but very very rare in practice.
And whether the driver is liable varies around the world. Most countries require drivers not to hit dumb animals, including drunk humans.
Cyclists injure fewer pedestrians per year than sidewalks do.
Thanks for confirming my assumptions above. I don’t agree.
How can you disagree with a recorded fact? 🙄
