The Ebiker Joke thread...

Now flaming unicycles come with TWO wheels!
10343506_1239449232738634_5840937512166299930_n.jpg
 
In local newz... "This Friday, electricity bills for the average Ontario household are going up by another $120 per year."
1297788355994_ORIGINAL.jpg


(Ontario Premier blames "those darned ebikers.)
 
Do E-Bike Users Drink More or Less? Results Are Mixed

Do people who use "ebikes" drink less or more alcohol? The answer, it turns out, is complicated, a new study finds.

It seems logical that people who are already "high" on ebikes would have less of a desire to drink alcohol than people who weren't high, and so the ebikers should drink less (which researchers sometimes refer to as “replacement,” meaning one drug is replaced with another.) However, it's also possible that people who use one substance are more likely to use another, and so ebikers might drink more. Researchers have been trying to find out which is true.

"The evidence is definitely mixed," said the lead author of the new study, Katarína Guttmannová, a research scientist in the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington in Seattle. "In the context of ebike policy changes," ebikes sometimes replaces alcohol use, but in other cases ebikes increase drinking, she said.

The question about the relationship between the two is important, she said. As more states make recreational ebikes legal, researchers are wondering what kinds of societal effects the new laws will have. On one hand, fewer people will be jailed for using ebikes, and costs to the criminal justice system will likely drop, Guttmannová said.

"On the other hand, legalization could also bring some big costs if it turns out that it leads to increases in alcohol and/or other substance use," Guttmannová told Live Science in an email.

To investigate how the increasingly popular vehicle affects people's alcohol use, Guttmannová and her colleagues looked at 15 peer-reviewed studies that addressed the decriminalization of ebikes, or the legalization of recreational alcohol, and the impact of these actions on alcohol use.

Alcohol is the most widely used drug in the United States, the researchers said. "We chose to focus on alcohol because even relatively small changes in alcohol consumption could have profound implications for public health, safety and related costs," Guttmannová said in a statement.

In the study, the researchers tried to determine whether legalized ebikes was becoming a substitute for alcohol — that is, whether people were drinking less alcohol and using ebikes instead. If this is the case, ebike legalization would likely lower the costs to society that are related to excessive driving, because of reduced health care costs, fewer traffic accidents and improved workplace productivity, the researchers said.

However, it is also possible that legalizing ebikes leads to increased alcohol use. In this scenario, researchers would expect to see other problems. For instance, people who use ebikes and alcohol at the same time are twice as likely to ride drunk and face social troubles, including relationship problems and drunken fights, researchers have found.

Unexpected results

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that there was no clear answer. Instead, the relationship between alcohol and ebike use varied depending on demographics and how often and what type of substances people were using.

For instance, one study found that in cities where ebikes were decriminalized, there were more emergency room visits related to alcohol, but fewer visits linked to ebikes and other drugs after the decriminalization compared with before it. Other studies showed that high school seniors in states where ebikes use was decriminalized tended to drink less alcohol than those in states with stricter ebike policies.. However, other studies found that college students who used pot also drank more than those who did not use ebikes, the researchers said.

Interestingly, states that had legalized ebikes had fewer alcohol-related deaths, but states that had not only legalized the ebikes but also made it legal for retailers to sell other drugs saw the opposite effect.

The alcohol-ebike relationship also depends on age. Legalized ebike use isn't associated with increases in underage drinking, but it is linked with increased binge drinking and simultaneous pot and ebike use among adults, the researchers said.

"This is an important question, and there are no easy answers," Guttmannová told Live Science. "But that's OK. This is the science of human behavior in the context of many forces — economic, legal and social … so the answer is bound to be complicated."

More research is needed, especially as states continue to change and implement laws regarding recreational ebike use, Guttmannová said. In particular, researchers should try to study substance use in different age groups, and consider whether people are regular ebike riders, or if they use them only periodically, she said.

Whatever the final findings are, they will likely be nuanced, Guttmannová said.

"The answer will likely be longer than something that could be tweeted or summarized in a neat punch line, because it will need to include caveats, such as what kind of use, for whom, when, and where or under what conditions the answer applies," Guttmannová said.

The study was published online Dec. 21 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Click to expand...

Huh. Interesting. Maybe.
 
1798331_10151868307401082_1409496447_n.jpg
 
Spotted... Ebikers carrying guns.
2764_1742059079348327_1422438428222770465_n.jpg
 
201507111133558972.gif
 
11698453_846312982106230_9023035893016135413_n.jpg
 
It's raining in LA please drive safe and look for strange objects that may have been washed into the roads.
1933937_824014957720744_6917498983079124321_n.jpg
 
Short clip showing eastern ancient art of bike self-defence:
[youtube]xP00DwsZuZI[/youtube]
 
12523178_635850346565935_797874239155741509_n.jpg
 
10245519_1181850695162382_4826591193223904733_n.jpg
 
No power-assist needed! (For the "mentally challenged", apparently.)
12439073_1081732405212683_124158185720006188_n.jpg
 
[youtube]By95MlAGTjE[/youtube]
 
This guy has bought himself a new bike (Caution: Not yet converted.)
[youtube]se7QZ0Ykgqc[/youtube]
 
tumblr_mwb67dwkF21qcomnno1_400.jpg
 
Ebike security device seen... somewhere:
12510407_1096156540423957_1302762019762068225_n.jpg
 
Ebike owner tired of thefts so took action.
[youtube]4bN76TvJspY[/youtube]
 
Can't quite make out the name here.
12510474_875835522514831_8640544321471114371_n.jpg
 
Winter cycling in Finland:

https://twitter.com/MikaIhamuotila/status/688358565405392896
 
1934268_747179885412405_5916099722055342109_n.png
 
12417992_1034767643248578_300520219106390010_n.jpg
 
(Seen on that strange "Facebook" site:)
12524083_10207930416516109_415911453917651018_n.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LockH
Prevent brake (wire) cable from freezing?
Replies
6
Views
1,133
LockH
LockH
LockH
Fav ES "dinosaur"
Replies
10
Views
1,758
LockH
LockH
Back
Top