Who'd Have Thought It, Polish Legal System Dafter than the US's

[mongers]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7994857.stm

Poland 'can jail drunk cyclists'
By Adam Easton
BBC News, Warsaw

Poland's Constitutional Court upheld a ruling this week that drunken cyclists should be treated like drunken motorists and face prison if caught.

Two thousand Poles are currently in prison for riding a bicycle whilst under the influence of alcohol.

The ruling has sparked a lively debate about whether cyclists should face such strict punishment.

The Constitutional Court ruled that drunken cyclists should be tried as criminals just as drink drivers are.

'Absurd, draconian'

Under a law passed in 2000, anyone riding a bike under the influence of alcohol faces a fine or up to two years in prison, depending on the level of their intoxication.

Many courts here apply the stricter penalty and the average sentence is 11.5 months imprisonment.

Such a state of affairs has been criticised by both the prison service and some judges.

Jaroslaw Sielecki, a 37-year-old judge from western Poland, called it absurd and draconian, adding that it can drag whole families into poverty.

He argued that intoxicated cyclists should be treated like drunken pedestrians, who face a fine rather than jail, as both use their own muscles to achieve motion.

The Constitutional Court, however, ruled that cyclists use public roads and are considerably more dangerous because of the speed they can travel.

In comparison the US legal system jailing 1,000 low level drug addicts seems positively cost effective. 

[DisturbedPervert]

Not daft.  Anyone riding a bicycle drunk is a danger to other drivers and can cause a fatal accident.

[jimmy olsen]

If you ride a bicycle drunk on the street you can get arrested for it here as well.

[PDH]

Drunken bicyclist should be summarily executed. This comes from a resident of a college town who sees far too many of these types each Friday and Saturday (And Sunday-Thursday) nights.

[stjaba]

I biked home drunk once. It was pretty awful, I lost balance several times and crashed into a couple bushes. Fortunately, I was a danger only to myself as I stayed on the sidewalk in a residential area.

[Neil]

Operating any vehicle drunk is dangerous.  It's the machine that makes them dangerous.  If they were just walking their bike while being drunk, that'd be OK.

[Martinus]

mongers, explain why this is stupid, please.

Most areas in Poland do not have special bicycle routes - bikers use normal streets and roads instead. A drunk cyclist can easily cause a serious traffic accident.

What the article fails to say is that the stricter average penalty for drunk cyclists is not a result of judges hating them particularly, but these guys being repeat offenders, which means the judges are required to impose a penalty closer to the upper range allowed by law. For example, there was a guy who had five consecutive sentences for riding while drunk - you would have thought that he got the message by now.

[Martinus]

Bicyclists should be summarily executed.

FYPFY

[FunkMonk]

Bicyclists should be summarily executed.

FYPFY

I agree. 

[DGuller]

I agree with having all bicyclists executed.  Some of them make me really nervous when they zigzag in a residential area while I'm driving.

[Iormlund]

Heh. Cars made me far more nervous when I am riding bike than cyclists do when I'm driving. I actually never ride on any busy street (except on the sidewalks). A parked idiot opening a door is all you need to get killed.

As for the OP, I can't see how that's a bad idea.

[The Brain]

Criminals shouldn't go to jail? OK.

[Mr.Penguin]

Heh. Cars made me far more nervous when I am riding bike than cyclists do when I'm driving. I actually never ride on any busy street (except on the sidewalks). A parked idiot opening a door is all you need to get killed.

As for the OP, I can't see how that's a bad idea.

Well, I ride my bike everyday, lives only 3 km from my workplace and 12 km from the center of Copenhagen, so I ride my bike almost everywhere I go . Cars are the least of my problems in the trafic, they usually stay on the road where they are supose to be. Cyclist and pedestrians on the other hand are all over the place, without a care in the world. They make me nervous, not the cars...

[garbon]

Burn the bicycles!