Meera Pal, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – The ball has dropped, the champagne toasts are over and you’ve had your midnight kiss. Do you know how you’re getting home?
For those without a designated driver, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is reminding D.C. area residents of its SoberRide service.
Now its 18th year, the program offers a free cab ride to anyone age 21 or older to anywhere in the greater metro area.
The program pays up to a $30 cab fare. Callers are responsible for fares above $30 and for tips.
In addition to offering the service during the December/January holiday season, WRAP provides free cab rides on St. Patrick’s Day, Independence Day and Halloween.
The two-week holiday program kicked off on Dec. 16 and runs through Sunday between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Revelers can call 1-800-200-TAXI or #TAXI on AT&T wireless phones.
The program “aims to combat drunk driving during various times of the year when it’s obviously very well needed,” says Kurt Erickson, the president of WRAP.
Recent National Highway Transportation Safety Administration data shows more than 10,000 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, including 415 during the second half of December.
Last year, D.C. had five alcohol-impaired driving fatalities, Virginia had 211 and Maryland had 154, according to NHTSA.
Since WRAP began offering the SoberRide service, they have provided rides to more than 52,000 people, Erickson says. Last December, they had over 2,500 people use the program.
“We had almost 1,000 people in the greater Washington area use SoberRide last New Year’s Eve,” he says. “If you do the math that translates into the removal of a would-be drunk driver off our shared roadways every 30 seconds last New Year’s Eve.”
WRAP contracts with nine different taxi companies throughout the region.
The annual $50,000 budget is subsidized by WRAP, which in turn receives sponsorship from various corporations. This year’s sponsors include Geico, AT&T and Budweiser.
Before Independence Day 2010, WRAP was close to not offering the service, due to a 60 percent increase in ridership and a 35 percent decrease in funding, Erickson says. Thanks to a two-week capital campaign, WRAP was able to raise the necessary $31,000.
That close call led WRAP to decrease the fare cap for each ride from $50 to the current $30. He says the average cab ride during the program runs around $27 each.
The cap has not affected ridership, Erickson says. In fact, there was a 40 percent increase during New Year’s Eve last year.
When not offering SoberRides to area drivers, WRAP is doing drunk driving prevention education.
“We realize that no matter how good those public education programs might be you need to still have a safety valve to these high-risk, high-alcohol consumption holidays,” he says.
All SoberRide calls must originate in the following counties and cities in the greater D.C. Area:
- Maryland: Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland; cities of Rockville, Bowie, College Park, Gaithersburg, Greenbelt and Takoma Park
- District of Columbia:
- Virginia: Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and Eastern Loudoun counties; cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas and Manassas Park.
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