You’ll Never Drive Drunk If…
St. Patrick’s Day is always one of my favorite days of the year, though often the day after is one of my least favorite, because everybody comes out and has a good time. It seems as if Milwaukee comes out of hibernation on this day, and the streets are bustling with people. But it also reminds me that everyday somebody says “I think I can drive.” I don’t need the news to tell me that people jumped in their cars on St. Patrick’s Day who had no business driving, I’m sure some did.
This is terrible and to make matters worse it is a completely avoidable problem.
This solution is often is hinted at when for example on St. Patrick’s Day the Milwaukee County Transit System offers free bus service. What this says is that the solution to drunk driving is to eliminate the driving. I know it’s crazy, but if you live in a walkable mixed-use neighborhood there is no need to drive when you go out on the town. Neighborhoods like East Town, the East Side, Bay View, and Riverwest to name just a few all offer the advantage of being able to walk to your corner tavern. It’s not to say that people who live in the city don’t drive drunk, there are surly people who do, but when you can walk a couple of blocks to the tavern you’ll never be the person saying “I think I can drive.”
It’s simple really. You’ll never drive drunk if you don’t drive. So live in a neighborhood where you can go out and get home safely without a car. And if you can’t do that, please, at least take a cab.
Car Culture
-
It’s PARK(ing) Day, Let the Celebration Begin
Sep 20th, 2013 by Jeramey Jannene
-
Why WisDOT Is Behind the Times
Jun 12th, 2013 by Dave Reid
-
Walker’s Massive Borrowing Scheme
Feb 19th, 2013 by Dave Reid
How about only allowing liquor licenses for places within a 1-mile of a transit stop? Rural Wisconsin would hate that, but it would help solve the problem…if that’s really the goal. Not sure if the J-S has offered any great solutions so far, other than make the penalties worse. I totally agree with what you are saying though…too often the “Don’t Drink and Drive” campaigns turn into “Don’t Drink”, but they rarely address “Don’t Drive”.
@MilwaukeeD Yea I wasn’t suggesting any new legislation, but that if someone wants to personally insure they won’t drive drunk they should live in a walkable mixed-use neighborhood.
Good point, Dave.
I think the best way to change our mentality about drunk driving is to make alternate transit more of an option for people. St. Patrick’s Day and other free transit days have a huge surge in ridership, but when someone’s forced to pay $4 round-trip for a bus ride any other day, it’s not worth it to them. Either we need to lower the bus fare or make the alternative consequences of driving drunk more costly so that people find value in transit.
I for one took the bus and cab on St. Patrick’s Day. It doesn’t really bother me as I take the bus almost every day to UWM anyway. The only real problem I see with depending on the bus is the time it stops at. They generally stop picking up around 12:30 which is normally way before I would like to leave. It may not seem like a big deal, but I could see this stopping many from using the service in the first place. $4 is not much for a round trip, but it adds up when you’re forced to take a cab back instead.
@Michael I agree transit service needs to run after bar time.
We definitely need to make transit more widely available and affordable (numerous reasons). And it is really easy if you live in a walkable neighborhood to avoid getting in a car at all.