The DNV sucks... Goodbye Blackbear pub

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: SixZeroSixOne

I know Syncro was being sarcastic but one of the downsides of not having a "neighborhood" pub is that some people in that neighborhood feel the need to drive to a different/distant neighborhood pub, rather than walk (too much effort) or take transit (below their social status or too inconvenient)

Which means more people DUI...

(I'm not defending the Bear, btw, as I think it's particular souless place. I much prefer the Queen's which also happens to be nearer to my home, though ironically, not as easy to reach on transit!)

That's a fair point, although I don't know how relevant the location of drinking establishments to one's home is in terms of DUI. It would be interesting to see if there's a study that compares the rate of DUI's with the number of local pubs to see if that bears (HA!) any truth. Although considering that the most drunk place on the planet (the UK) has about half the DUI's of Canada you might be on to something. I bet if you crossed drunkeness, footy hooliganism and bad teeth the UK would be world champs.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/15/uk-is-officially-the-most-drunk-nation-on-earth-9547816/

In all seriousness though I think one of the reasons DUI is so prevalent in Canada is because it's easy to get away with it, and if you do get caught the penalties tend to be low - even if you kill someone. A good example of that is Marco Muzzo; he killed three young children and their grandfather. He only served 4 years in prison and has been granted full parole after a little over 5 years. I think another reason is that socially, it still seems that the idea of having had a few before driving is not all that big a deal. Canada happens to have the worst rate of DUI amongst all developed countries, which is about double that of the UK.

It would be interesting to see where the DUIs are handed out.  When I was growing up on the SSC drinking and driving was so common you could assume most cars on the road past midnight were under the influence.  Combine that with a windy highway, no transit or cabs, kids that all thought they were Mario Andretti, decent money in logging and fishing for Mustangs and Trans-Ams, and little to no police presence meant that people died all the time.  One of my good buddies in school died a couple years after graduation after leaving the pub, and I have a million stories of near misses.  Hardly any DUIs though.  

Canada, the US, and Australia are all high on the DUI list and they all have a lot of spread out rural communities so I bet that has a lot to do with it.

Posted by: chupacabra

spread out rural communities so I bet that has a lot to do with it.

This is a big factor.

^yep, that was my first guess too. Same reason why we drive way more distance on average than most places.

Posted by: chupacabra

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: SixZeroSixOne

I know Syncro was being sarcastic but one of the downsides of not having a "neighborhood" pub is that some people in that neighborhood feel the need to drive to a different/distant neighborhood pub, rather than walk (too much effort) or take transit (below their social status or too inconvenient)

Which means more people DUI...

(I'm not defending the Bear, btw, as I think it's particular souless place. I much prefer the Queen's which also happens to be nearer to my home, though ironically, not as easy to reach on transit!)

That's a fair point, although I don't know how relevant the location of drinking establishments to one's home is in terms of DUI. It would be interesting to see if there's a study that compares the rate of DUI's with the number of local pubs to see if that bears (HA!) any truth. Although considering that the most drunk place on the planet (the UK) has about half the DUI's of Canada you might be on to something. I bet if you crossed drunkeness, footy hooliganism and bad teeth the UK would be world champs.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/15/uk-is-officially-the-most-drunk-nation-on-earth-9547816/

In all seriousness though I think one of the reasons DUI is so prevalent in Canada is because it's easy to get away with it, and if you do get caught the penalties tend to be low - even if you kill someone. A good example of that is Marco Muzzo; he killed three young children and their grandfather. He only served 4 years in prison and has been granted full parole after a little over 5 years. I think another reason is that socially, it still seems that the idea of having had a few before driving is not all that big a deal. Canada happens to have the worst rate of DUI amongst all developed countries, which is about double that of the UK.

It would be interesting to see where the DUIs are handed out.  When I was growing up on the SSC drinking and driving was so common you could assume most cars on the road past midnight were under the influence.  Combine that with a windy highway, no transit or cabs, kids that all thought they were Mario Andretti, decent money in logging and fishing for Mustangs and Trans-Ams, and little to no police presence meant that people died all the time.  One of my good buddies in school died a couple years after graduation after leaving the pub, and I have a million stories of near misses.  Hardly any DUIs though.  

Canada, the US, and Australia are all high on the DUI list and they all have a lot of spread out rural communities so I bet that has a lot to do with it.

I can only speak from what I have seen or experienced in Europe, mainly Germany, Ireland and Austria - and I have to agree, kind of. It seems that the more rural a community is, the less pressure by police or the locals, the higher the chance of taking your own car after a few drinks. 

Some Austrians have literally told me that when they were growing up they knew on which roads they had to be careful on  because of drunk drivers, some still do, and I have seen loads of crosses on the sides of mountain roads. It seems that a rough, lonely and rural environment and lifestyle have a serious impact on what a person deems acceptable and what not. 

Although it depends on your peeps as well, even in bigger cities and more densely populated areas there are people who do drive when having had a few drinks. 

Once again, common observations but too many variables, character being one.

Posted by: Mic

I can only speak from what I have seen or experienced in Europe, mainly Germany, Ireland and Austria - and I have to agree, kind of. It seems that the more rural a community is, the less pressure by police or the locals, the higher the chance of taking your own car after a few drinks. 

Some Austrians have literally told me that when they were growing up they knew on which roads they had to be careful on  because of drunk drivers, some still do, and I have seen loads of crosses on the sides of mountain roads. It seems that a rough, lonely and rural environment and lifestyle have a serious impact on what a person deems acceptable and what not.

Although it depends on your peeps as well, even in bigger cities and more densely populated areas there are people who do drive when having had a few drinks. 

Once again, common observations but too many variables, character being one.

I don't think that it is loneliness.  I felt far more lonely when I moved to the city.  Rural life is very social because you know everyone in town and you see your friends and family everywhere you go.  It is actually kinda suffocating and the reason a lot of kids leave town straight out of high school.  The problem with drinking and driving are the lack of other options and there isn't much fear of getting caught.  Where I grew up you needed a car to go anywhere.  If there was a party somewhere the only way to go was in a car.  No cabs, no transit, and everything is spread out.  Plus 80% of our parties were in the bush somewhere, or by a lake.  On top of that the closest RCMP station was a 30 minute drive down the coast in Sechelt.  They hated coming to my town because it was a long drive, nothing really happened there, and when they came to town it took about 15 minutes for everyone to know where they were set up and they wouldn't catch anyone.

Went for dinner last night (a bit out of curiosity).  Man, the food quality has really gone downhill, it was basically Applebees.

Sad they didn’t keep up with the times, but I won’t miss it,

Innovate or die

Australia is high on the DUI list as they have WAY more enforcement that Canada. You are literally guaranteed to hit a breatho leaving downtown on a weekend night / morning.

I'm surprised Canada is on the list at all as there are barely any roadblocks....

Posted by: syncro

In all seriousness though I think one of the reasons DUI is so prevalent in Canada is because it's easy to get away with it, and if you do get caught the penalties tend to be low - even if you kill someone.

I recently learned that in several states, if you get convicted of DUI, they issue you new license plates which are color coded, or start with specific letters, so that everyone knows.