On this day in 1967, Protests in London against a ban on drink driving

One of the subtly weirder conversations I’ve ever had was when someone was whinging about their home country’s dumb driving laws. Curious I enquired further until it became clear they thought everyone should be able to get at least a little tipsy while driving because what else were you supposed to do on the long commute home from work.

Never hated cars and car people more than in that moment. What was weird was I never would have been able to tell that that person held those views.

It is illuminating that the problem isn't actually wanting to drink whilst driving, but just to pass the time faster when commuting home. The problem is how Americans have designed their cities, not drinking.

Edit: People, not Americans. Freudian slip.
- They didn't say the person was American...
Both workers and bar owners would be better served by supporting public transit than the right to drink drive.
- @alcoholicorn @maegul
  It's why I loved living right in the city, as a young man.

To me, the frustrating part about wanting to end car dependence is it doesn't mean they will completely go away. Most of the things that help are better for drivers because they keep impaired and distracted people off the road and allow us to tighten up licensing requirements. So you get less traffic with better drivers. You can also go to a bar and not worry about getting yourself or your car home.

Was this around the same time the Dutch were protesting against cars killing their children?

Early 70's for the Netherlands. So I guess that depends on if you'd call 5 years around the same time.

Every era had its Nigel Farage, it seems

In case anyone was like me and curious about the bag, it’s an early breathalyzer called ‘The Drunk-O-Meter’ developed at Indiana University in 1931:

https://www.myiu.org/stories/pride-and-tradition/what-is-a-drunk-o-meter/

but 70% of accidents are caused by sober drivers...shh the best part of freebird is coming up /s

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Castle

Barbara Castle was ahead of her time. She also introduced seat belts and speed limits despite great opposition.

In February 1966, Castle addressed Parliament, calling for "a profound change in public attitudes" to curtail increasing road fatality figures, stating: "Hitler did not manage to kill as many civilians in Britain as have been killed on our roads since the war". The statistics bore out; between 1945 and the mid-1960s approximately 150,000 people were killed and several million injured on Britain's roads.

She introduced the breathalyser to combat the then recently acknowledged crisis of drink-driving. Castle said she was "ready to risk unpopularity" by introducing the measures if it meant saving lives. She was challenged by a BBC journalist on The World This Weekend, who described the policy as a "rotten idea" and asked her: "You're only a woman, you don't drive, what do you know about it?" In the 12 months following the introduction of the breathalyser, Government figures revealed road deaths had dropped by 16.5%.