Sure. But we don’t suggest either. There’s a thought-provoking dialogue between Eric DePlace of Sightline and Jonathan Hiskes at Grist. Hiskes was curious why we mandate parking in bars if driving in general and drunk driving especially harm the public:

There's a larger lesson here though, and it's that "parking minimums" are nuts. Although they are a staple of land use codes in virtually every North American city, they produce all kinds of strange distortions and lousy outcomes.

Fortunately, there is a solution: free market parking. We should stop forcing property owners to provide parking if they don't want to. In fact, stripping parking minimums from the books would be a great free market reform that would make for solid public policy and better social outcomes.

Hiskes says as far as biking home from bars, drunk biking is illegal in the handful states he researched. “Ethically, it's preferable to drunk driving, since you're more likely to injure yourself than anyone else, and a bike can't do nearly the damage that a Ford Explorer can,” he writes. “But it's also a bad PR move that won't help bikers get more respect and better infrastructure.”

Still, consider the insanity: Bars exist to sell alcohol for on-site consumption yet they often need off-street parking even though people drive to them, drink, and drive home. Free parking is the last thing they need.

Whether your mode of transit is carbon-free or a Ford Explorer, please be safe.

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