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Breathalyzer Bike Lock Stops Drunken Cyclists In Their Tracks
Zothecula writes: Driving while drunk is a bad idea even on a bike. Slowed reflexes and decreased awareness of the world around them can make a drunk cyclist a danger on the road. Working in much the same way as breath-test locks for your car, the Alcoho-Lock aims to prevent cyclists from hopping in the seat when they've had one too many. The device even comes with a smartphone app that connects with the lock over Bluetooth and lets a loved one know that you are trying to bike drunk.
A drunk biker is safer then a drunk driver.
1. They are exercising so blood is pumping and creating energy that a downer like alcohol to prevent. Cars on the other hand you can be very relaxed and amplify the sedative effect.
2. Bikers do get some leeway, they can drive on the sidewalk away from traffic without mush hassle, although you suppose to ride in the road, it isn't inforced. They can also drive in the breakdown lane.
3. Exponential less damage when they hit something. Sure you can get hurt but your collateral damage is much less.
The issue with drunk driving isn't about the safety of the drunk, but the safety of others. A biked drunk will cause less damage.
This device only removed an other transportation method for people who may had a bit too much to drink. While offering little actual safety advantage.
If you are dangerious to bike, you probably wouldn't get too far anyways.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No self-respecting cyclist drunk will ever voluntarily purchase one of these, and they can't serve a purpose sitting on a store shelf, so what's the point? Will the manufacturer now secretly draft boilerplate for new state legislation that will require the use of breathalyzer locks by all cyclists and make it a criminal offense to refuse, thus guaranteeing themselves a captive market?
(Don't laugh; how do you think California wound up with laws mandating bicycle helmets, car insurance, and smog checks, among other things? Assemblymen had little faeries with deep pocketses whispering in their ears. Captive markets created by and for corporate interests.)
Even if they can't steal your bike, can they steal your $300 lock?! Also, don't most cyclists have another rather obvious means of blowing (alcohol-free) air into a tube..?
I remember reading a while back about drunk cycling being a commonplace issue in Russia
Well, sure, but alcoholism in Russia is so rampant that it's negatively affect lifespan stats. There's a real problem, for instance, with people passing out in the dead of winter and freezing to death on the streets. So, it's likely that drunk whatever is a problem in Russia, so long as it's possible to do whatever while intoxicated.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Okay, I'm seeing a lot of respondents say this is a non-US thing.
Fair enough.
I'm in the US, where there's this attitude of "you're safer in an SUV" prevalent. So, perhaps this has the effect of "I wouldn't be safe on a bike AT ALL", which is ultimately why people in this country hate bikers.
In my experience (and where I'm at), "Share the Road" signs often mean "If you're on a bike, stay on the shoulder and cars will swerve around you into the left lane. That's not safer, but at least drivers aren't inconvenienced by bikers."
In other words, biking sober is highly discouraged. Drunk biking is right out.
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.
I live in Amsterdam and I've been biking drunk way more times than I should admit.
Still I wouldn't buy one of these things!
This.
All Dutch people bike drunk (at least, those who drink also bike, since every Dutchie has a bike). But there is a decent infrastructure for bikes, and as a result there are negligible accidents with drunk bikers.
If you grow up biking all the time (like most Dutch people), you will be able to bike home just as easily as you can walk home. A biker will (at most) cause harm to himself, if anything... but the numbers are so negligible that I cannot begin to state my disapproval of this invention.
Also, I just already thought of a funny way to sabotage my friend's alco-lock on his bike (remember, that bike is parked outside the pub). Spray a little parfume (or any alcohol containing liquid) into it, and that bike isn't moving for the next 15-30 minutes, lolzors. Vodka shots probably work as well. :)
Also, I can just breathe into all the bikes on the bike parking while drunk.
And a smart drunk person will just ask someone else to open his lock.
Why not put an alcohol lock on your shoes? Drunk walking is probably a problem too. Hell, just turn all the pubs into hotels: mandatory staying overnight until you're sober. You cannot leave if you're intoxicated. That would make the world a better place. /rant
That was about 10,000 people in the US in 2013.
You weren't by any chance involved with George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner were you?
About 33 percent of the number of people killed by guns in the US - depending on your metrics. Don't see too many people giving a shit about that number.
Respectfully, 10,000 people a year is a barely a blip on the radar when dealing with causes of death. You don't want to hear that, I'm sure, but the drunken driving issue in the US is well into diminishing returns as far as resources expended. When we have random checkpoints set up to fine and incarcerate people who haven't even been in an accident, and when we lower the BAC level needed for conviction, we're running out of options other than setting snipers outside of bars and maybe swatting people if their credit card statements show they ever purchased anything at a liquor store.
To my argument, there is a reason we're seeing those stickers that say "Impairment begins with the first drink" on cars with a MADD sticker on them. Maybe it's time we start random stops and testing for Alka Seltzer Plus intoxication, or banning people who have colds from driving.
Before you call that ridiculous, my father once ran into a light pole when he had a nasty cold and coughed and spit out the window - totaled his car. We used to tease him about "going into hock" for his new car after that accident.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
we'll pay our fair share. Don't bikes cause something like 1/10.000 of the damage to a road that a car does? looks like it's the cars that are subsidised anyway according to: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/9...
sag
How about the cops stop pulling people over for being black, and start pulling people over for driving like shit? They'd have plenty of time.
Semi related note about the profiling thing - My wife bought a new car a few years back. And we started getting pulled over a lot. Never a ticket issued. Wondering just what the hell, I did a little research. Turns out that Suzuki Arieo's were a favorite of young male drivers who wanted a "tuner" for not too much money.
Also explained the looks of confusion on the gendarme's face, when they were expecting to give some kid a shakedown, and it's a semi respectable olde farte like me was driving the thing. A severe moment of cognitive dissonance for the poor guy. Getting rid of that car, and going back to our Jeeps solved the profiling problem.
Now, its time for an Alka-Seltzer Plus, and I can quit any time I want - that's right. Besides, it's those nuts driving under the influence of Nyquil who are the real problem.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Wouldn't a reasonably complicated combination lock basically serve the same purpose without needing any fancy electronics?
Actually....I have to say, I think in the US the real problem is inexperience. Not just on the part of car drivers but of bicyclists as well.
I grew up riding a bike. I learned to ride a bicycle living on the longest main road in one of the most densly populated cities in the US (we compete with burroughs of NYC for density). I had no bike lanes and city busses passing me going 35 at 2 feet away. I learned to navigate rotaries....but...nobody was riding back then. It was something kids or the occasional DUI convict did.
Now bikes are everywhere and some of them are clueless.
Just the other day I stopped for a pedestrian entering the crosswalk on the right. Bicyclist next to me completely ignored this and almost creamed a 70 year old woman entering the road, just kept right on going. The woman had to step back to avoid being hit and still was brushed.
A few months back I was in heavy traffic approaching a crosswalk. I saw a bicyclist on the side street across the road. He was approaching at about 25 MPH, and what did he do when he got to the intersection? He scooted over to the crosswalk and crossed the street at full speed making me slam on my brakes to avoid him.
But I don't think the problem is bikes so much as, we never had so many people using them, people are new. Compare them to young car drivers and its clear what the issue is. I remember being both a shitty bicyclist and shitty driver. Its just growing pains, we don't need technological solutions, we need people to get used to new situations, and that takes time.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"