Breathalyser bike lock intended to prevent drunk cycling

Gizmodo reports on a new bike lock with a built-in breathalyser. The Alcoho-Lock will send a message to a nominated friend or partner should you fail its test.

The lock connects to the user’s smartphone and once they have breathed into the sensor, it will display the amount of alcohol detected within an app. Fail the test and it will send a text message to whoever has been nominated in advance. This will then allow the concerned friend to – in the words of the Alcoho-Lock website – “convince them with the power of love.”

The expected price tag for this is around £200.

The creators claim that the Alcoho-Lock is the world’s first breathalyser bike lock. However, in 2010 a group of engineers from Taiwan applied to patent an electric bicycle which featured a handlebar-mounted breathalyser that would prevent the bike from being ridden if the cyclist were over the legal limit.

In the UK, cycling while under the influence of drink or drugs is covered by section 30 (1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which says:

A person who, when riding a cycle on a road or other public place, is unfit to ride through drink or drugs (that is to say, is under the influence of drink or a drug to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the cycle) is guilty of an offence.

However, unlike driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, however, there is no set threshold beyond which an offence is committed.

In-car breathalysers have been around for a while and are employed in some countries to prevent convicted drink-drivers from getting behind the wheel. In 2012, the BBC reported the government's former chief drugs adviser David Nutt’s belief that these should be installed in cars as standard.

"You hear about terrible accidents when four or five young people die simultaneously in the one car because the driver's been drunk,” he said. “It could save a lot of lives."