Over one third of pedestrians killed in the US each year have been drinking too much to drive.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/05/drunk-...
Okay so a third of all pedestrian fatalities have been over the driving limit of alcohol, as the article points out. That sounds horrible. It sounds like you should never drink and walk, ever.
Thing is, there were only 1,547 pedestrian walking deaths in the whole 311 million person country in 2011. That same year there were 32,479 automotive fatalities. Throw in liver disease victims[1] and you’re looking at maybe a 1:60 ratio of pedestrian walking to every other kind of alcohol death.
More people actually die of “natural heat and cold” than alcohol related pedestrian accidents.
Alcohol is generally bad as we all know, and leads to all kinds of bad health outcomes, but I’d argue that pedestrian accidents are the least concern if we are to prioritize.
[1] There’s a bit of a silent fatty liver disease crisis going on, but that’s just obesity doing its thing. I’d love to see more urgent action on obesity.
I've walked home drunk from bars more than a few times and I've never experienced any trouble using crosswalks like normal. I'm pretty certain it's much safer than driving home drunk (not that I drive to bars in the first place.)
Somebody who's not really thinking, or just stumbling around and being goofy. Lots of people including myself have said "DUDE wouldn't it be funny if we did [X incredibly stupid thing]?" while unreasonably drunk. Normally calm people start fights with people who can clearly kick their ass after a couple drinks. Probably a few think they can take on or play chicken with a car. Some people also just blink for a second and suddenly they're asleep, if they have enough drinks.
Depression may be a cause, but honest accidents and impaired thinking are definitely big reasons.
If you can't tell for sure, are you certain that you weren't drunk yourself?
And though it was the kind of town that would make you want to top yourself, i think the real reason was there was a pub on either side of the tracks.
Taking an uber is always the move.
Rehashed here: https://freakonomics.com/2011/12/28/the-perils-of-drunk-walk... Google will provide people who don't like assumptions made in Levitt's math.
Disclaimer -- I did research for Levitt and John List when I was planning to go for an Econ PhD, but on nothing related to drunk driving.
Or at the very least, to walk cautiously after having several drinks.
No, being outside so drunk that you can't control yourself enough to correctly cross a street is not a "not a big deal".