What’s Vehicle Code 21200.5, DUI on a Bike? Penalties?

When the weather gets warm, it is not uncommon for folks to hop on a bike to enjoy the weather and maybe visit a bar or two along the way.  This is common along the Strand in Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, as well as in Redondo Beach.  

We caution that it against the law to operate a bicycle on a public roadway, street, path or highway while impaired by alcohol or drugs or both. California Vehicle Code § 21200.5.  It is a misdemeanor.

In Greg’s 25 years of practice, he recently handled one such case with an arrest in Manhattan Beach and the prosecution in Torrance Superior Court.

One convicted of this faces no county jail, but he or she can be fined of up to $250, plus penalties and assessments that can push the total owed to the court to around $1,100.  As it is a misdemeanor, one can resolve the matter with informal, or summary, probation with various obligations of probation such as attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, performing community service and/or staying away from a certain location, usually where the arrest took place.  One may also be required to take a safe biking course as a condition of probation, depending upon the facts of the case and defendant’s criminal history.

One may also seek a disposition based upon judicial diversion, or “DA Diversion” if the prosecutor suggests and offers this, based upon performing certain terms and conditions, obeying all laws during the period of diversion and then “earning” a dismissal upon successful completion of the terms.

When one is detained or arrested on suspicion of violating this law, the police officer may demand that the suspect submit to a breath or blood test to measure the alcohol content in one’s body.  If one refuses to submit, this can be charged as a misdemeanor. 

A bicycle, for purposes of this statute, is any device with one or more wheels that is propelled by human force through a belt, chain or gears.  So, a unicycle would qualify.  

It is important to know that DUI on an e-bike or moped would not be covered by § 21200.5.  Instead, it would be prosecuted as a standard DUI.

The defenses to being charged with a violation of § 21200.5 are that one was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs or both because he or she was not substantially impaired to be unsafe to oneself or others.  This would be shown by, for example, by what defendant did not do, i.e., he or she did not run any stop signs or crash into anyone else.  What the officer observed was not impairment or evidence of alcohol-induced recklessness, but just having fun, for example.

The other defense that is that defendant was not on a public highway, street or path.  He or she may have been just riding around a parking lot or just a driveway, for example, or on a dirt path that is not intended for public use or is not used except by a few people (so not really for public use). 

The last defense is that there was no reasonable suspicion to stop defendant.  He or she was not violating any Vehicle Code section that otherwise would support such a stop.  It is important to know that any evidence obtained after an improper stop would be regarded by a judge as illegally obtained evidence and suppressed as “fruit of the poisonous tree.”  Wong Sun v. United States (1963) 371 U.S. 471.

As the propriety of the traffic stop becomes the determinative issue, there is a plethora of California case law on what type of facts support and do not support a traffic stop based on an officer’s observations.  Much of this case law has arisen in the context of traffic stops that lead to arrests for DUI, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a loaded firearm or other crimes.