Making San Diego Safer

Every holiday season, we’re reminded that driving under the influence is dangerous. And the statistical reality? Every two minutes, someone is injured because of this entirely preventable crime. Drunk driving is a serious problem throughout the United States, and that is particularly true in California, which is the second-highest state for DUI fatalities. At the local level, there are more than 16,000 adult DUI arrests in San Diego County in a typical year.

We’re big believers that if you give people a safe, affordable, and convenient alternative to drinking and driving, fewer people will drive drunk. With reliable options at a variety of different price points, we expect to make a huge impact here. Let’s take a look at some data to understand why.

A vast majority of DUI fatalities occur at night, and 8pm to midnight is the peak period for alcohol-related incidents. We can compare that to the distribution of Uber San Diego’s trip requests over a 24-hour timespan. Two things jump out: Trip requests spike at night, and they spike during the times when alcohol-related incidents are at their highest.

Let’s take a closer look at the weekend data, keeping in mind that bars in San DIego close at 2am. We can see in the chart below that trip requests spiked tremendously between 1am-2am, showing us that users rely on Uber to get them home from the bar safely. Given the late-night reliability, it’s clear that Uber is helping to take drunk drivers off the road.

We are committed to the safety of everyone using Uber, and that commitment extends throughout the Southern California communities of which we are proud to be a part of. With Uber, a safe, reliable, hassle-free ride is always a few taps of a smartphone away.

We recently partnered with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to help keep our roads safe over the holiday season. With all the planning that goes into this New Year’s celebration, Uber and MADD urge you to plan ahead for the most important part of the night: the ride home. This holiday and throughout 2015, make the right choice – designate a non-drinking driver and keep San Diego roads safe. And if your choice is Uber, please take a minute to thank the thousands of driver-partners making that safe ride possible.