Austin
is a city known for large amounts of alcohol consumed every weekend. Whether
it’s college students bar hoping or professionals enjoying some drinks after a
long week, thousands of locals make their way downtown to their favorite bars.
Getting downtown is considerably simple, other than traffic and finding a
parking spot, but getting home safely is an entirely different issue. Many
locals fear that if they take a cab home then their car will be towed, or in
the best-case scenario, they will just receive a parking ticket.
Capitol Metro provides public
transportation in Austin and brings multiple forms of communication for daily
commuters. Although this is great and helps relieve some of the traffic
congestion and pollution within Austin, it does not address the increasing
number of DUI related accidents within the last few years. The reason Capitol
Metro does not play a role in lowering drinking and driving in Austin, is
because during the weekends the public transportation stops at 12:30 am. This
forces locals to have to choose between an expensive cab ride, hired driver,
such as Uber or Lyft, or to just drive themselves home. This ultimatum forces
locals to make a decision when their judgment is completely altered.
Extending the hours that Capitol Metro operates may cost the
city of Austin and its residence, but I believe that it is an important cause
that would keep our friends and family safer. Not to mention more jobs would be
created. Austin is a city that looks ahead and is willing to take chances to
increase overall satisfaction. Keep Austin weird. Ride, don’t drive.
2 comments:
I don’t really agree with Drink and Ride or Drink and Drive? argument, I believe there are other alternatives you can take other than choosing between the option of a cab ride, hire a driver, or driving yourself back home. If you’re going out to drink and know that you won’t be able to drive, you can make sure that you go with someone that will not be drinking that night and can drive you back home, or that you save money for a cab ride. I wouldn’t like someone to be putting myself or anyone else in danger only because they didn’t have enough money to hire a driver or a cab ride.
I don’t think we can make Capitol Metro responsible or demand that they shouldn’t be available more hours. Not only will it be dangerous, but like you said it will cost us too. I don’t think no metro driver would like to be in a bus with people who are drunk; I don’t think I would ever like to be in that position, especially when you know that drunk people don’t act right or aren’t conscious of what they are doing. How would you know where to take them? If you’re dropping them off how would you ensure that they live there, of if they will be safe? Furthermore if you’re talking about costing the city, I don’t think the argument of giving the drunken people an option for transportation is a strong argument to make them change their mind, and extending hours for Capitol Metro.
If you’re responsible enough to go out and drink you should definitely be responsible to have some sort of transportation available that can take you back home. It’s will not only be for the safety of you, but for the safety of others.
I feel you made some misleading remarks about Capitol Metro’s service ending at 12:30 on weekend nights. While it is true that regular service ends at that time, there are currently five Night-Owl routes that cover most of the main routes including North and South Lamar, South Congress, Riverside, Airport, and Cameron. They run every half hour starting at 12:10 with the last bus leaving downtown at 3:24. They cover an area as far North as Rundberg and South to William Cannon. The only night they don’t run is Sunday, but even in Austin not many people are leaving the bars at 3AM Monday morning. I use the Night Owl busses all the time and in the twelve years that I’ve lived in Austin I have never lived more than half a mile from a Night Owl stop. It was one of the requirements I gave my realtor when I was house hunting. Where I live now the Night Owls run twice as often as the regular bus service and are much more likely to be on time. However before they combined the Airport and Cameron routes it was not at all unusual for me to catch a 2:30AM bus at 6th and Congress on a Thursday or Friday and be the only passenger the entire ride home. So as nice as more routes would be it doesn’t make much financial sense, especially when I was using my free bus pass that used to be provided by ACC.
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