You’ve probably never heard of Samuel Smiles. And why would you be expected to, since the Scottish author and reformer died just over 100 years ago, and he likely never set foot in New Jersey. His most notable quote was: “No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.” While that much may be true, in New Jersey, your drunkenness would allow you to ride a bicycle; just don’t do it while talking on your cell phone.

Seriously, it is perfectly legal for you to ride a bicycle under the influence of alcohol in New Jersey. You’d think there ought to be a law. In 2005, there were 784 people killed in the United States, including 17 in New Jersey, in bicycle accidents. That by the way, accounts for about 2 percent of all annual traffic fatalities. The statisticians say that about 25 percent of those fatal accidents involved alcohol. Still, it’s not illegal to drink and bike.

No problem. After all, what are they going to do, set up bicycling roadblocks? Sentence you to a tricycle if caught?

Enter Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, a Republican from Union County, who sponsored a bill meant to protect us from distracted bicyclists. By the way, there are no statistics on how many of those accidents are related to distracted cyclists or those talking on cell phone.

The bill would make it illegal to use a hand-held phone while riding a bicycle on public roads. It would be okay, however, to use a hands-free device. If you’re caught, you would face fines ranging from $100 to $250.

You would expect better from a Republican. Or at least you would think so. After all, Republicans are supposed to be the ones who believe in personal freedom and less interference by government.

Wisely, Bramnick had the good sense to withdraw his bill when he discovered that “even [his] friends didn’t like the bill.”

If only Raymond Lesniak had friends like Bramnick’s. Lesniak, a Democratic assemblyman who also hails from Union County, is about to introduce a bill which would fine or send to jail any adult who smokes in a car with a child younger than 16 in the vehicle.

That’s right — you can go to jail for up to 30 days, and face a fine of up to $500. Repeat offenders face even greater penalties.

Don’t get me wrong — I am a rabid antismoker, and in the first half of my life, I even received an award from the American Cancer Society for tobacco control advocacy. I am opposed to anything that would expose young children to cigarette smoke and all of the bad things associated with it. It is well documented that exposure to secondhand smoke is dangerous, and all the more so to children. There is no question that parents should not be smoking in cars when their children are in them.

But some things are just unenforceable. And do we really intend to throw parents in jail for smoking? And when we do, will we expect our overburdened child welfare system to care for some of those children while their parents are incarcerated?

What are the police going to do? Look with suspicion into every car containing a child? Set up antismoking roadblocks?

Let me remind you, New Jersey has major budgetary issues, is struggling with the way to fund education and reduce property taxes, not to mention how we fund a Transportation Trust Fund. We may have the highest property taxes in the United States.

There have been 6,928 bills introduced in the Legislature this session. Most have obviously been overlooked, deferred, or simply thrown onto the scrap heap of bad ideas. With so many pressing matters facing the state, this is how state legislators spend their time?

If we can’t measure how significant the problem is, aren’t we just searching for solutions to problems that may not be ones at all? And if we aren’t prepared to face the logical consequences of an unenforceable law, aren’t we just grandstanding?

How far is too far? Can you really legislate common sense?