In many states, like NY anything above 0 is illegal. Above 0.08 is criminal.

4 12oz beers is NOT small, be responsible.

Why does even-ness matter? Just because our number system is decimal doesn't mean nature fits into that pattern nicely.

at 0.08 you can be measurably tested to have worse reaction capability, so that's where they set the limit.

4 beers at 12 oz isn't exactly 0.08, that's just approximately what it takes in the average person. Some people will be more, some less. Time and other factors affect it too.

It's hard to say there was one specific act that caused it because each state has its own legal limit laws, but

From before 2000 to 2004 Mothers Against Drunk Driving protested, rallied, and lobbied to decrease the limit from between 0.1 to 0.15 down to 0.08 and federal congress passed an act to withhold 10% of transportation funding from any state which refused to comply.

The idea behind the movement is this: if you drank any alcohol, you should strongly consider not driving at all. "Buzzed driving is drunk driving". Generally if people aren't pressured as such then they will judge for themselves whether they think they're safe to drive, and drunks are horrible judges.

It was .10 pretty much everywhere when I was a kid, .08 became a thing little by little during the 90s, I think. MADD, mothers against drunk driving, is the reason behind this and many of the things surrounding drunk driving some find too restrictive or punitive. They were a very effective lobbying group.

When I was a kid it was 0.10%. And I think it was pretty well attested by a lot of different studies that that was too high, so MADD succeeded in lobbying to get it dropped lower.

And you think 4 beers is "small" for the purposes of driving? I know some people have pretty strong tolerances, but there are definitely people I know who shouldn't be driving after two. Maybe even one. Remember, you don't have to be completely sloshed to be a danger to others. You just have to be a little bit slower, a little bit less observant, a little bit less in control of your muscles, a little bit more inclined to take unnecessary risks. Your body just has to respond a little bit differently than you're used to. You just need to be a little bit more likely to nod off.

IIRC, it used to be 0.10, but was lowered to 0.08 because some studies (and maybe some advocacy groups) found out that there was significant impairment at 0.08 BAC.

The number really shouldn't be round. It should be the number where 99.999% of people are not too impaired to drive a car.

Mother Against Drunk Driving decided all of it.

Nobody can defend drunk driving, but the fact you give up your rights during a stop should make you angry.

If you get charged with any other crime you are allowed to talk to a lawyer except in drunk driving. You are tried and convicted on the side of the road and the evidence they use to convict you (your breath) isn't preserved.. it just blows away in the wind.

Nobody should be drunk driving but we still need to change the way we handle suspected drunk driver's

Is it really? People get popped for 0.00 and the cops just say they must be on drugs. After spending thousands in lawyer and court costs it gets dropped but you already went through the same (or worse) bullshit than if you were actually shitfaced.

Meanwhile cops drive drunk all the time.

The US also doesn't label alcohol content effectively - % alone is not helpful.

In Australia for example, all booze containers tell you how many "standard drinks" they contain. 1 standard drink is the average amount of alcohol a body can process in an hour. If you have no more than 1-2 standard drinks in you, you should still pass a breathalyzer, depending on weight/gender.

A ~5% beer can is ~1.5 standard drinks. So if you drank 4x beers over the last 3 hours, best spend another hour drinking water before you drive:

4 beers x 1.5 = 6 standard drinks. - 3 hours = 3 standard drinks

It shouldn't be 0.0%, but 0.08% is quite generous. At 0.02%, it is clearly detectable with equipment but you aren't likely to notice. Some people also naturally have a constant BAC in the 0.01% range. At 0.05%, you definitely feel it and are twice as likely to cause an accident than sober.

4 beers in an hour is a significant amount. People who drink that much and drive are not hardasses. They are murderers.

Get off the road.

Some countries take it further and anything above a tiny amount (like 0.02) will get you a criminal record... although usually at such small amounts it's just a fine and/or points on your licence, using bans and prison sentences for higher levels (like the US levels you describe).

This to me is the right approach - it's long been proven that even regular drinkers suffer an impact on reaction times and anticipation with even a small amount of alcohol, so it really should be zero tolerance. I can't think of any other situation where you'd be allowed to control a two ton piece of metal at 60+ mph around other people, houses, cars etc without having proper control.

In Australia it's 0.05

2 reasons, remembered from a lawyers lecture on the subject at uni, years ago, in the UK.

1. Some people produce small amounts of alcohol in their gut. It's generally not much (more becomes auto brewery syndrome) but not zero. This can blip the test up slightly, even when they haven't drunk.

2. The awkward fact that a small amount of alcohol actually improves driving. It's somewhere between 1/4 and 3/4 pint of beer. It's also the reason alcohol is considered a performance enhancing drug in some olympic sports.

The limit is set high enough that there is no arguing these points in a court. It also covers the residual alcohol in people's systems the morning after. It's well into the point where all but the heaviest alcoholic will definitely be impaired. That lets them use blood alcohol as a proxy for impaired driving due to alcohol.

On a side note. I know someone who blew red on the breathalyser. He knew something was wrong, since he has been teetotal for 20 years. He got arrested, only for the blood test to show 0.0. The police were quite confused, but let him go. It turned out, he had (unthinkingly) eaten a liqueur chocolate before being pulled over. It was enough to mess up the breathalyser.

The safe amount of alcohol science recommend for an adult is zero.

Alcohol is one of the few substances for which these is proven evidence that any quantity is bad and will cause progressive and irreversible damage to you.

I do drink albeit not much, like a few times a year, so I am not against alcohol at all, it's your body your choice.

But given the above, I am only happy if the tolerance on driving under any alcohol influence at all is punished

I'd rather it be zero. Walk, public transit, or taxi your way to drinks. Stay in a hotel.

I say this as someone who grew up driving home from the club and such when I most likely should not have been. I know a lot of people who got OMVI/DUI/DWI/whateverYourJurisdictionCallsIt and nearly lost my bandmate.

In some cases insurance won’t pay for medical expenses or life insurance premiums if alcohol is involved.

It's because of the children

Legislators decide things like that...

The limit has to be somewhere. Most experienced drivers can still drive reasonably safely after drinking small amounts of alcohol, e.g. one glass of beer; they can't after drinking ten glasses of beer. So a limit had to be drawn somewhere. It's different in different jurisdictions, for example AFAIK there are some countries in Europe (Czechia?) where the limit really is 0.0 or very close to that.

It should be zero. No worries about the limit law if you don't drink and drive. Drink as much as you want, just don't drink and drive.

Understand now?