SoberRide aims to keep drunk drivers off the roads

No one wants to spend New Years Eve in the drunk tank – or worse. [FCPD]

Partiers have an alternative to driving drunk. SoberRide, offered by the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), provides free rides to would-be drunk drivers every evening 8 p.m.-4 a.m. through Monday, Jan. 1.

SoberRide is aimed at keeping the roads safe from impaired drivers during this traditionally high-risk holiday period. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 781 people lost their lives in traffic crashes involving a drunk driver during the month of December in 2016.

Area residents age 21 and older celebrating with alcohol during the holidays can download Lyft to their phones, then enter a SoberRide code in the app’s “promo” section to receive free, safe transportation home (up to $15). The promo codes are posted on www.SoberRide.com.

“Last December, nearly a thousand (911) Greater Washington residents did the right thing and availed themselves of this lifesaving service rather than possibly driving home impaired,” said WRAP President Kurt Gregory Erickson. During New Year’s last year, 336 people participated in SoberRide, which “translated into SoberRide removing a would-be drunk driver from Greater Washington’s roadways every one and a-half minutes.”

WRAP also offers its SoberRide program on St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day, and Halloween. Last March WRAP switched from taxi cabs to the Lyft ride-sharing company.

SoberRide is offered throughout Lyft’s Washington, D.C. coverage area which includes all or parts of the District of Columbia; the Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s; and the Northern Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William.

Sponsors of this year’s Holiday SoberRide campaign include the 395 Express Lanes, AAA Mid-Atlantic, Anheuser-Busch, Brown-Forman, Constellation Brands, Diageo, District of Columbia Association of Beverage Alcohol Wholesalers, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Giant Food, Glory Days Grill, Heineken, Lyft, MillerCoors, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, Volkswagen Group of America, and the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association.