Drunk driving: it's a cycling issue
Posted by: JessicaApr 25 2006, 4:07 pm
Earlier this year I attended the civil court trial of Lindsey Llaneza, who killed two cyclists and seriously injured another in 2003. His blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit, and he was going nearly 70 mph on Belmont Avenue in Portland (twice the speed limit). Llaneza had been a repeat offender, driving without a license for nearly two decades. He was stopped for a DUII three months before the crash.
I went to the trial to show support for the victim's family, but also because it's become clear to me: drunk driving is one of cyclists' top concerns. It's a violation that disproportionally endangers cyclists and pedestrians, and there are few, if any, steps individual cyclists can take to protect themselves.
I will be speaking with PSU researchers soon about cyclists' concerns about drunk driving. This is part of a City of Portland effort to improve DUII prevention, enforcement & treatment programs.
The BTA's volunteer Crash Team has been working with me to develop key messages I should convey from the bicycling community, but I want to make sure I hear from as many people as possible.
What do you think about this issue? Please let me know:
1. How do you think drunk driving affects bicyclists? How concerned are you, as a cyclist, about drunk driving?
2. How effective do you feel the current system is in preventing and handling drunk driving?
3. What specific changes/improvements would you like to see in how the police, courts and treatment programs handle DUIIs?
4. Should any changes be made in how drunk cycling is dealt with?
I will bring your thoughts to the researchers. In the mean time, bike safe out there.
1) Impaired driving is one of my top worries. It's the variable that makes all the preparation I put in (taking a reasonable route, being well-lit, using reflective gear, mirrors, etc.) at the mercy of someone else's ability to control their consumption of recreational substances.
2) My impression is that there is a serious problem with intoxicated drivers in the Portland metro, and that the system is not resolving it properly.
3) I'd like to see the first DUII come with a combined full year suspension of license (as in, you don't get it back just for taking a course) and a discount for a bike as alternate transport. Maybe work in a cycling requirement as part of getting the license back. (Something along the lines of cycle 50 miles in the dark, properly lit, on a series of guided rides over a few months. This could be followed by viewing videos about bike safety issues and some discussion. It would potentially be inclusive because it could easily be modified towards riding a hand-powered bike, or even in a bike trailer, for people who did not have the option of physically powering bikes with their legs.)
May 03 2006 at 8:01 pmWe'd like to see laws changed so that their cars are taken away!
May 04 2006 at 7:52 amI agree with Jack N - the penalties to repeat drunk driving need to be stiffened. As I say that, I'm aware how over crowded our courts and jails are. An alchoholic is a person that drinks to replace the sincere love that's missing in their lives. If everyone was loved as much as they needed every day, our courts and jails would become unneccessary.
May 04 2006 at 7:59 amDriving while intoxicated in motorized vehicles is a huge problem for bicyclists for obvious reasons. When I was a Paramedic in
May 04 2006 at 8:49 amCalifornia, on one of my ambulance runs I picked up a drunk
driver who had convinced a judge (after five prior convictions )
she needed a car to deliver papers. [she couldn't learn to deliver papers by bicycle?] She seriously hurt others while escaping serious injury herself. Bicyclists also need to watchout for bicycling when impaired. One night after leaving the Lucky Lab (BTA function) I hit one of the Bollards for tying up ships along the waterfront. Yes I was impaired and paid the price for a new crankset (bent by the bollard)
Drunk drivers are a great concern for me as a driver, as a bicyclist, and as a pedestrian. This problem has been around for years and it threatens everyone, not just cyclists. Better enforcement would help EVERYONE, not just cyclists.
Enforcement is going to be an eternal battle, so I also think about this: how can I ride defensively? (Is anyone old enough to remember the "drive defensively" campaigns of the 60's and 70's?).
The first rule of defensive riding is to stay away from the places and times where problem drivers are likely to be found. Let's face it: drunk drivers have impaired judgment and impaired skills. Stay away from them!
I ride less at nite, especially late at nite. I avoid areas with lots of pubs like the Pearl. I avoid roads that lead to/from popular pubs. I stay off main roads. I wear the brightest stuff I can find and light myself up like a Xmas tree. I try to ditch whatever "assertive cyclist" attitude I may ride with in the daytime. Night time, drunk driving time, is not the time for me to be pushing the envelope with my little bike.
Knowing that I'm hard to see at nite, and knowing that Portland's yellow street lamps (and rain rain rain) make it even harder to see me, and knowing that a drunk driver may not even notice me, makes me feel incredibly vulnerable when I have to ride late at nite. I derive a lot of (unjustified?) comfort from my visibility gear (lites + reflectors), and I get nervous when I have to ride without some part of it.
Sadly, I now see LOTS of younger riders, 20/30-somethings, blowing through my neighborhood at nite, dressed in black, no helmets, often no lites. I just shake my head. It's so good to see younger people taking up bikes as a way of getting around, and so sad to think about the risks they're taking.
Believe me, if you get hit by a car, it may not matter how you prepared. But — you CAN decrease your chances of getting hit.
We need to team up with drivers and pedestrians in the (neverending) campaign against drunk driving. Cyclists are far from alone in this struggle. We also need to make DEFENSIVE cycling a priority.
(Now, can we talk about cell phones while we're at it?)
May 04 2006 at 11:34 pm1. I think that drunk driving discourages people from bicycling. It's one of my top concerns. I remember some years ago that an impaired driver killed a rider on a PWTC Spring Century. PWTC offered different length courses that day; I did the 30 miler. The person killed was on the 100 mile ride. Nonetheless, that was somehow too close for comfort. For a time after that day, I stopped riding. Are any of your PSU researchers interested in public health? If so, tell them that drunk driving is an obvious public health issue because of the direct injuries and deaths caused by drunk drivers. But, it's also a public health issue because of the choices that people make to drive cars rather than bike or walk, out of fear of getting hit by a drunk driver. People feel safer surrounded by their own steel cage. So they try to avoid some of the drunk driver risk and instead take on the risk of a more sedentary lifestyle.
2. The current system is obviously ineffective in handling drunk drivers. Would an effective system for handling drunk driving system allow Llaneza nearly 2 decades of driving without a license? I don't think so either.
3. Handle the problem like it's a serious problem. Stiffer penalties. Jail time. Fines. Take away their cars. Go after the people who served them.
4. How many deaths or injuries to others were caused by drunk cycling last year here in Oregon? I'm aware of one, in Corvallis. So it's a problem, but not as large of a problem as drunk drivers. What to do about it? See my answer to #3.
May 18 2006 at 5:53 amSometimes taking away cars and licenses don't do enough. My husband and I are in recovery from getting hit by a drunk driver (Blood alcohol three times the legal limit) here in Chicago, while riding our bikes two blocks from our home. He made a left turn he shouldn't have been making. He'd had a revoked license since 1972. It was his fourth DUI.
Right now I'm in a mix of grief, anger and disbelief that we're not more seriously injured (torn ACL, sprained shoulder and ankle for me; broken shin, dead spleen for my husband; several lacerations on each of us). I haven't gotten to hatred for the driver yet. I don't know if I'm looking forward to that.
The only steady emotion I have is shock and anger at every cyclist I see without a helmet on. Our helmets are in a hospital bag, unopened in our living room. They are cracked and bloody — and we're alive.
I've made it my mission to stop cyclists I see without helmets and tell them my story. The person-to person intrusion is creepy, disturbing and unsettling enough to stick in their heads, nag them enough each time they ride without a helmet, to lead them to eventually do something.
Please tell cyclists you see without helmets that you know two people who almost died.
Thanks,
Recovering in Chicago
Sep 03 2006 at 8:44 pm