In 2024, the police fined about 460 drunk cyclists. Various newspapers reported this in recent days. And even more striking: about 270 times, this also led to the revocation of the driver’s license. In that case, the cyclist not only received a hefty fine but also had to leave his car or motorcycle parked for a period.

The Ghent and Leuven police, however, qualify the figures. “We do not specifically look for drunk cyclists; the majority of our findings stem from the fact that we administer a breathalyzer test to all parties involved in an accident,  including cyclists.”

0.8 per mille

But it is true that cyclists who have drunk significantly too much indeed risk losing their driver’s license, confirms an experienced police judge. “Anyone who, as a ‘driver,’ has more than 0.8 per mille in their blood today must, in principle, always hand in their driver’s license immediately, regardless of which vehicle the alcohol violation was committed with.

Those alcohol checks themselves are also under fire, by the way, because police zones do not implement them consistently everywhere. In some cities, many checks are conducted, while the risk of being caught is particularly low in other areas.

Dangerous traffic situations

Member of Parliament Niels Tas (Vooruit), who requested the figures from Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés), does not, in any case, support the proposal by the Cyclists’ Union (together with Anders MP Vincent Van Quickenborne and the Green party) to punish drunk cyclists less severely – a matter of encouraging people to leave the car at home and cycle to a party.

However, that proposal was withdrawn after the Traffic Safety Institute Vias, among others, stated that a drunk cyclist can also cause very dangerous traffic situations. Vias also pointed out that in accidents during the weekend, more than half of the cyclists involved had drunk too much.