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I don’t think so. In fact, while there is a lot of push on drunk driving you know there’s not a whole lot of actual movement in areas which could prevent it. There’s a large double standard on some level, and I’d venture a guess it’s because DUI is big business for the State. Fact of the matter is in the way we district businesses and such now, there are not many places left with a corner bar on every corner. Things are distances away, you have to travel to get out there. But public transport is not very good in A LOT of places. So you drive, and one can say that “well you shouldn’t drink and drive so you shouldn’t drink at all”, but it’s going to happen and everyone knows it. It’s like telling kids abstinence is the best method of birth control. Technically true, functionally unrealizable.
If we were really worried about DUI, we would be putting effort into better public transport across the nation. Better access to alternative ways home, hotels, etc. We’re not looking into that. Fort Collins, CO for example has very few taxi services. And at night when the bars close it becomes neigh impossible to get a taxi. The reason is that the city restricts heavily the companies allowed to operate taxi companies in the city. If there was a goal to decrease DUI, you don’t do that. Furthermore, cops will sit outside of bars and look for drunks getting into cars. Wait till they’re getting into their cars and then go arrest them for DUI. If the idea was prevention, you have cops intervening BEFORE they get into the car. But the idea isn’t to stop DUI from happening, it’s to wait till it does happen and then pounce. Because we’ve emotionalized this issue to such a degree to allow for unreasonable punishment, including excessive fines, there’s a lot of money. They WANT the DUI to happen because that’s money in the city coffers.
DUI is one of those crimes that you can rile people up easily and get them to throw away reason. There is no real effort to minimize DUI instances. The effort instead is maximizing DUI punishment. There’s a difference.
Where I live there are big signs in every bar,
WE WILL CALL FOR A CAB AND PAY FOR YOUR RIDE HOME, JUST ASK