For Whom The Bonebell Tolls

Here’s an interesting article from the east coast –> DUI on Bike.

Though I understand the letter of the law as applicable to cyclists and the rules of the road (boy do I!) - there is this inherent interpretation of said law that really seems kooky ‘at times’. I feel that officers carry some good subjective weight on their end to make the right call at the appropriate time without always whipping out ye ‘ol rulebook slamdown 100% of the time.

So you drink and have a few more than anticipated, and you chose not to drive a motor vehicle (yay!), but instead ride your bike (still not so yay). You get into an accident caused by a motor vehicle, not you. Officer rules that the driver of the motor vehicle gets a citation for ‘careless’ driving, but ‘you’ get the DUI charge. ??? WTF ??? Your life was in more peril than the driver of the motor vehicle, yet the careless driving can be interpreted in a number of ways that could’ve cause a life and death situation with a cyclist. I know there is an argument for how a cyclist can still cause danger to themselves and others by propogating the intensity of danger in a given situation, but if the situation didn’t exist - do we lean on a heavier charge to prove a futile point regardless?

I wonder if public intoxication could muster a charge if a car almost hits me and the police arrive in the City of Chicago, hmm….Hopleaf here I come, again.