Can you get a ticket for DUI on a bicycle?

On Apr 26, 7:11 am, bon...@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote:

> Note: Even today, significant parts of the code do not apply to bicycles in
> almost every jurisdiction.  E.g. airbags, seatbelts, head/tail lights, turn-
> signals, requirement for driver's license, requirement to carry 'title and
> registration', requirement for liability insurance. etc., etc.

We're going to have to come up with a suitable nickname for Robert in light of his world land speed record bicycle attempt.  How about "Flash" Bonomi?  8*)

But I think the discussion was about whether the "rules of the road" portion of the traffic laws apply to bicycles, not whether the entire vehicle code does.   The sections you cite apply only to certain kinds of vehicles and certain dates of manufacture, not to _all_ users of the public highways (e.g. a motorcycle does not require airbags or seatbelts).  But the "rules of the road" -- who goes first at an intersection, how fast you can go, obeying traffic signals, etc, should apply to everybody, including pedestrians as well as bicycles, kick scooters, etc.   That's why a jaywalker can get a ticket.

> Things can get more complicated.  The "traffic laws" usually apply only
> to vehicles being operated on "a public street or thoroughfare". Consider
> a drunk  cyclist _on_the_sidewalk_.

Why isn't a sidewalk also a public thoroughfare, or a part thereof, if it is built within the area designated as the highway right-of-way?  In MD they generally are; the "highway" right-of-way generally extends well beyond each edge of the portion of pavement intended for vehicles.   A privately owned walkway, e.g. at a resort or an apartment complex, may be another story.   So would a recreational path, which in MD is treated as "parkland" rather than "thoroghfare" and has a whole different set of laws applying.

>  Where bicycles are not prohibited
> from the sidewalks, that is.  yeah, one can always cite for 'public
> intoxication', or similar. but 'DWI' gets problematic.

As always, "it depends" not only on the specific facts, and the specific language of that state's DUI law, but also on how such law has been customarily interpreted in the common law of that state.  There's certainly no constitutional prohibition on applying DUI laws to bicyclists.

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