A Safe Ride for Everybody
Drunk driving is a serious problem throughout the US, including here in Arkansas. There were 123 drunk driving fatalities in the last year alone, representing 25.5% of all total traffic deaths in the state.
Uber recently announced a national study conducted in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which revealed that when empowered with more transportation options like Uber, people are making better choices and those choices are saving lives. In particular, the report found that in Uber cities like Miami, ridership peaks at the same hour that historically has been the worst for drunk driving and in Pittsburgh, demand for Uber spikes at closing time for bars.
Given that we’ve been operating in Arkansas for several months now, we wanted to take a look at local data to see what kind of impact we might be having on reducing drunk driving in Fayetteville and Little Rock.
Arkansas Peak Demand
As you can see from the chart above, peak demand in Arkansas (in both Little Rock and Fayetteville) occurs on weekends late at night into the early morning. In Arkansas, last call is at 2AM, and demand for safe rides is at its highest during this time when riders are out and about at bars and restaurants.
But we wanted to dig even deeper and see what part of the city ride requests have been coming from on Friday and Saturday nights from midnight to 3AM since launch. In Little Rock, 26.8% of all trips during those hours come from River Market District and downtown riverfront area, an area popular for nightlife. While in Fayetteville, 67.6% of all trips during those hours come from downtown Dickson Street and the surrounding blocks, an area concentrated with local bars.
If even one rider who used Uber to get safely home would have otherwise driven under the influence without access to our platform, it’s safe to say that Uber is helping to make Arkansas’ streets safer.
While there’s still a lot of work to be done, we’re confident that we’re making strides toward a community where drunk driving is a thing of the past and a reliable ride is just the touch of a button away for everyone — anytime, anywhere.
Uber on,
Team Arkansas