Frontline
Sober Rovers a barhopper’s new best friend
January 10, 2006
When you’ve had too much to drink and need to get home, you no longer have to depend on a taxi or sober buddy to get you home safely. Now anyone under the influence who needs a ride home can hand his or her keys over to someone who shows up on a gas-powered scooter.
Bellingham’s Sober Rovers started offering this service October 2005. The group will drive to any party or bar in Bellingham and the surrounding area, and drive you and your car home safely.
This new innovation provides a positive alternative to taxi services, and above all else, should help reduce the amount of drunk drivers in Bellingham.
Anyone who has stayed at the bar until closing and then tried to get a cab in the long line of other drunk and impatient customers knows the wait can be long. When you finally get a cab to stop and pick you up, a few questions can come about. You might wonder if the driver actually knows where he’s going and if he will try and take you the most round-about way home to make an extra two bucks. You might hop in the cab, smell booze and wonder if the driver has had more to drink than you. These thoughts will make the ride home unpleasant.
The service provided by the Sober Rovers is more pleasant. The company provides safety against drunken driving in the community and saves lives that could have been lost if a drunk driver was behind the wheel.
The service provided by the Sober Rovers does include a cost. The $2 pick-up charge and $4 per additional mile, might seem a bit steep, but think about the advantages involved. With a taxi, if you want to avoid leaving your car downtown and retrieving it the next morning, you need to find a way to get to where you’re going. If you can’t find a friend willing to do so, expect a $10 minimum cab ride.
With Sober Rovers, no matter where you wake up, your vehicle will be right there waiting for you.
Trusting your car in the hands of a Sober Rover will reduce the number of accidents caused by drunk drivers. Even if someone under the influence is fortunate enough to avoid an accident, the police are harder to avoid. One simple mistake such as a burned-out headlight can get you pulled over and cited with a DUI that could end up costing thousands of dollars in lawyer fees.
True, you might be hesitant to hand over your keys to a stranger and worry about your car. The Sober Rover might crash your daddy’s new Audi or screw up the clutch you just replaced in your Honda, but what the consequences if you drove home drunk could be much worse.
Any sober driver should be trusted over a drunk to get you and your friends home safely.
The next time you decide to drink and no one is sober enough to drive, trust the man on the fold-up scooter to get you where you need to be.
Frontlines are the opinion of The Western Front editorial board: Lauren Miller, Adriana Dunn, Bradley Thayer, Jacob Buckenmeyer, Amy Harder, Jared Yoakum, Ciara O’Rourke, Michael Lycklama, Susan Rosenberry, Andrew Irvine, Marissa Harshman, Dawn Chesbro, Aaron Apple, Loren Shane, Chris Taylor and Chris Huber.
Frontline
Post your feedback on this topic here
| Date | Subject | Posted by: |
|---|---|---|
| No feedback has been posted yet. Please post yours! | ||
