Mitch Perry
At a drugged driving summit sponsored by AAA earlier this week, the former founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Candace Lightner, seemed unhappy when querying state Senator Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) about Florida’s lack of enforced regulations when it comes to increasing penalties against drunk drivers in Florida. She also disapproved of the legislator’s enthusiasm for ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft as being the short-term answer to dealing with drunk and stoned drivers on the road here in Florida.
Against that backdrop, Uber and MADD have just released a joint study that claims that Uber’s “choice, reliability and flexibility” makes the San Francisco phenomenon “a powerful tool” in the quest to protect families from drunk driving.
According to the study, prior to Uber’s arrival in Seattle in 2013, approximately 7.6 people per day—or 2,750 per year—were arrested for driving under the influence. Using publicly available data and what they call a simple “econometric model,” the authors discovered that Uber’s entry into Seattle market was associated with a 10 percent decrease in DUI arrests. They then began making comparisons in other major U.S. cities where Uber has been operating in, and say that their study shows that there is convincing evidence that riders are using Uber to get home from bars and restaurants after drinking.
The study shows a graph revealing that in Miami, Uber ridership peaks at the same time as historical drunk driving crashes. The same thing in Pittsburgh.
In Chicago, the authors identified whether rides were requested within 50 meters of a bar, restaurant, or hotel that serves alcohol. Their findings revealed that a disproportionate number of weekend, late- night Uber requests come from businesses with liquor licenses, with 45.8 percent of rides requested from these locations coming during the peak drinking hours of 10PM and 3AM, compared to 28.9 percent at off peak times.
And they compared the use of Uber in California cities that have UberX vs. cities that don’t, and find that “We believe that there is a direct relationship between the presence of UberX in a city and the amount of drunk driving crashes involving younger populations.”
When contacted about the study, Lightner was somewhat dismissive, writing that MADD is working with Uber because of their financial contributions to the organization, “which isn’t unusual.” (She left the organization in 1985). She later told Florida Politics that she didn’t take issue at all with MADD working with Uber, and said that Uber had reached out to her organization that she currently is president of We Save Lives, which works not only on drunk driving issues, but also drugged and distracted driving.
In an email she writes, “Although I definitely agree that cabs, etc. are a positive thing, I do not agree that they will solve the drugged driving problem. Drivers under the influence of drugs do not call cab services because they do not think they are a danger to themselves and others, unlike some drunk drivers. However, even the hardcore high BAC (Blood alcohol content) drivers who cause most of the crashes are not always responsible enough to use car services. If they were we wouldn’t be killing more than 10,000 people a year in impaired driving crashes, not to mention the non fatal crashes. “
The study comes out days before the Super Bowl, when millions of Americans will undoubtedly be getting their drink on at bars and houses across the country. Uber says they will donate $1 to MADD for every trip taken on Sunday, February 1, 2015 between 3:00 PM and 12:00 AM ET when users enter the promo code THINKANDRIDE.
