MADD and Uber Join Forces to Fight Summertime Drunk Driving
Road traffic crashes remain the number one killer of young adults ages 15-29. Summertime can be a particularly dangerous time to drive, with deaths rising during summer months. Many of these deaths are due to drunk driving during summertime celebrations. This month, MADD and Uber are launching a summer-long joint campaign geared towards encouraging those drinking to find a safe ride home.
Uber started out as an app, created when two friends had trouble finding a cab one snowy night in Paris. The idea was that getting a cab should be as easy as pulling out the phone and pushing a button. Uber is now much more than an app, allowing people to hail a cab easily in 480 cities across the world. A partnership with MADD, a leading organization of angry Mom’s trying to stop drunk driving, was almost destined.
MADD’s goal is to end drunk and drugged driving. Over the course of the last 35 years, MADD has helped save approximately 330,000 lives by increasing awareness of drunk driving and being a leader in pushing for legislation to prevent drunk driving and repeat offenders.
One of the biggest obstacles to preventing drunk driving is convincing the would-be driver to find an alternative means home. In many cities, cabs are almost always hard to find. Even in big cities like NYC cabs can be hard to find. It’s always tempting to a drunk or drugged person to grab the keys and drive.
MADD recently released a report on a joint study that finds when empowered with more transportation options like Uber, people are making better choices that save lives. In support of this finding, analysis of data shows that the number of drunk driving crashes declines after UberX enters a new market.
Uber and MADD conducted a joint promotional effort leading up to the Super Bowl game in 2016, and they are working together again to curb drunk driving this summer. In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in the United States due to drunk driving. It’s clear that there’s still work to be done, and offering ride-sharing services seems to be another powerful weapon in the battle to make driving safer for all.
Here’s your FREE DMV question and answer. FREE DMV Question (answer at bottom of page):
A solid yellow line next to a broken yellow line means that vehicles: A – In both directions may pass B – Next to the broken line may pass C – Next to the solid line may pass
*RELATED ARTICLES
Do We All Need a Helicopter Mom?
Need a DD? There’s an app for that!
Lisa Lippiner covers driving news for DMVCheatSheets.com
DMVCheatSheets.com, making the roads safer one test taker at a time.
FREE DMV Question and Answer: B is the correct answer.
