By Morgan Crabtree
Friends remembered Spencer Hanson said he wanted to leave the party.
He and a friend climbed into his 2002 Subaru Impreza after taking a cab from the party to where he parked his car. Speeding, Spencer failed to make the left turn onto his street.
He crashed into a utility pole. Both Spencer and his friend died instantly.
“He was celebrating the fact that he was about to start his new journey going to school to become a chef,” said Claire Berandini, Hanson’s close friend.
“But that all got cut short.”
Berandini remembered that the 18-year-olds had been drinking throughout the night before getting in the car.
With that decision to drive under the influence, Hanson and the passenger Josh Wozny became one of the thousands of drunk driving fatalities that occur in the United States and Canada each year. In 2012, 11,936 people were killed in a drunk driving related incident in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving initiative, also known as MADD.
In recent years people have claimed that alternative transportation opportunities like Uber have helped reduce drunk driving fatalities. But, recent research from Oxford University shows otherwise, saying ride-sharing services do little to combat the problem.
Uber launched its app in 2009, growing exponentially since then. The company began in San Fransico, California, but has now reached over 558 cities and 80 countries all over the world offering over 1 million rides a day.
“A city with Uber has fewer drunk drivers on the streets,” said Bill Gibbons, an Uber spokesperson.
“When empowered with more transportation options, people are making safer, better choices that are helping save lives,” Gibbons continued.
However, a study that was conducted by David Kirk, and his colleague Noli Brazil, found that statistically there has not been a substantial reduction in drunk driving at the hands of ride- sharing opportunities, like Uber.
“It seemed there many assertions made about the effect of ride-sharing on drunk driving without any rigorous evidence,” Kirk said in an interview.
Kirk, along with other colleagues, fear that Uber’s claims that ride-sharing opportunities reduce drunk driving may minimize the severity of the epidemic in the eyes of the public.
“Drunk driving fatalities in general do not get enough attention,” Kirk said. “There has been considerable reductions in such fatalities over the last couple of decades, but it is still an enormous challenge. Any misconceptions can heighten this problem.”
Kirk and Brazil wrote that there are many possible reasons why this reduction has not occurred, one of which may be the surcharges implemented by the company that brings in $1.5 billion in annual revenue.
The researchers hope Uber will use some of that profit to subsidize rides when surcharges are needed, allowing more customers to afford a ride home during a night of drinking.
This subsidy will entice more customers to use the app and more drivers to see the appeal in working for the company.
Despite the recent study, students in large cities like the District of Columbia where Uber is prevalent, seem to find it extremely accessible and convenient to get home safely after a night of drinking.
“I know it is a lot easier making plans in D.C. than my hometown,” said Connor Hirsch, an American University senior from a rural town in Vermont.
“I feel comfortable going out and letting my friends drink whatever they want in D.C. because I know they can get home safely,” Hirsch said. “But Vermont is an entirely
different story. I feel like my friends risk their lives or risk getting a DUI every time we drink.”
Students and drunk driving advocates seem to reject the notion that ride-sharing causes more harm than good.
The partnership between MADD and Uber saves lives, according to a press release from July of this year written by the national president of the initiative, Colleen Sheehpey-Church.
Uber has used Austin, Texas, a city that Uber and Lyft have currently ceased operations in, as an example that allegedly demonstrates how drunk driving accidents increase with the absence of ride-sharing opportunities. Austin implemented regulations on these companies in order to keep competition alive for taxi unions, which led the companies to suspend operations in the city.
“People are genuinely upset and have felt endangered without Uber,” said Lauren Evins, a senior at American University and resident of Austin,Texas. “We have the highest bars per capita, but somehow don’t have the most efficient way to get home safely after a night of drinking.”
Evins also mentioned the upset from Greek organizations at the University of Texas, who utilized the tracking feature on the Uber app to ensure intoxicated friends got home safely.
As the debate moves on, people like Berandini hope those who have drank choose a ride-share service or a cab rather than getting behind the wheel like Spencer.
“After what happened to Spencer, I will never get into a car after I have had something to drink,” Berandini said. “And Uber makes that decision far easier for me.”
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