Just Take A Nap Right Where You Are: Alaska Town Seeks To Ban Drunk Walking

Everyone knows driving drunk is a no good, very bad idea. But one Alaska town wants to take that a step further — or actually, it doesn’t want tipsy people taking any steps, and instead wants to ban drunk walking. Jokey headlines aside, the city doesn’t want drunkards just stopping and dropping, but taking one of the city’s 75 cabs.

KYUK.com reports on the ordinance amending the city’s public decency laws, wherein the Public Safety and Transportation Commission introduced a few tweaks to the public decency laws. The amendment would prohibit drunkenly strolling city streets or ice roads.

“It’s not geared to prohibit the intoxication as much as it’s geared to keep these areas of our community safe. Public streets and roads, ice roads or highways, are very dangerous areas. They have a lot of fast-moving, big vehicles,” explained one city council member. “A lot of foot traffic as well. To have an intoxicated person in those particular areas makes for an exponentially greater risk of harm not only to the person who’s intoxicated, but anyone who’s traveling on those roadways.”

Another council member says he’s not in total agreement with the drunken walking prohibition.

“I can’t support that particular section. I understand people can be a menace, but there’s other ways to handle it than outlawing drunk walking,” he said.

But another council member thinks it’s a grand idea, pointing out the 75 cabs running in the city and designated drivers. And also? It gets really cold in Alaska, like 40 below, so anyone walking on the road in that situation is going to be in danger, much less if you’re hammered.

The city council ultimately voted to introduce the ordinance, which means it’ll still get discussed at future meetings. No one better waltz in with a bottle of whiskey, that’s for darn sure.

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