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Let's find a better way home with cabs |
By Louise Crow
September 15, 2006
It's almost two in the morning on a Friday before gameday. Students have been partying all night, celebrating the weekend and getting ready for the big football game. The bars on the Strip begin moving everyone outside as they close down for the night.
Even if you are able to make it across the street where your car is parked without getting charged with public intoxication, you might not be as lucky on the drive home. But even trying to avoid driving home drunk and deciding to walk the few blocks to your apartment can be just as dangerous of a decision, as crime dealing with sexual and violent assaults has been a problem for the area around the University recently.
Just about every student here, including myself, has had a friend or knows someone who was thrown in jail, charged with a public intoxication or a DUI or was harmed walking home. More than 530 students in the Tuscaloosa area have been charged with a DUI or public intoxication since 2003.
The obvious problem is that our lives and our friends' lives are put at risk each night we go out. The options for Alabama students to find a safe ride are not just limited, they are practically nonexistent. If you ask me, it's time for a change. We need to find a better way home.
Each DUI, each student hurt walking home, each car wreck leaving the Strip could have been easily avoided with a safe ride. The University provides us with 348-RIDE, but this escort service is both ineffective and inefficient.
The current system, 348-RIDE, not only refuses to drop off or pick up students on the Strip, but their driving boundaries are minimal, covering from River Road to 15th Street. Since the University has obviously not made an attempt to provide students with an alternative ride home from the Strip, then it's our responsibility as students to charge ourselves with this task.
This is why I am thrilled about a recent proposal in the Student Government Association to solve this problem. William Bloom, a College of Arts & Sciences senator, has been working diligently with cab companies to ensure that cab drivers are ready and available to give students a smarter option to get home safely.
This resolution, if passed, would encourage cabs to line the Strip on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Since more than 60 percent of driving accidents occur during these three days, Bloom has chosen a time to provide this service when there is the greatest need.
Normally waiting for a cab at 2 a.m. would have you standing on a street corner for 30 minutes, but Bloom's plan requests for the cabs to be present consistently from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. to avoid this problem. Then the cab service would drop you off at your front door, on or off campus, far exceeding the limitations of 348-RIDE's boundaries.
Although those who use the cab service will have to pay a small toll, that price sure beats the $2,000 you would be fined for a DUI and court fees.
I think this is a very feasible plan. To encourage participation, the SGA will be providing a monetary incentive to the cab companies.
Also, it is important to look at other universities that have successfully implemented this system. A similar one is in effect in Athens, Ga., for University of Georgia students, who are kept both safe and happy. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved. The cab companies have an opportunity for profit, the University's alcohol related incidents will likely decrease and, most importantly, students will have a better way home.
Louise Crow is a sophomore majoring in public relations and SGA executive program vice chair. |
Article courtesy of http://www.cw.ua.edu/.
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