Uber, the popular ride-sharing service that has spread worldwide despite some bumps in the road, has some good publicity to report--its app-based rides may be reducing drunken driving.
Teaming up with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Uber has released a study involving 807 adults in 19 cities with Uber that shows that ride-sharing services mean fewer people who are driving under the influence, USA TODAY reported.
Of the respondents, 78 percent said their friends were less likely to drive drunk since Uber and other ride-sharing services had come to their city.
While it's unclear exactly how much influence Uber has had, the report points out that drunk-driving crashes in California have dropped by 60 per month among under-30 drivers since July 2012--when Uber launched UberX in its operating markets. Altogether, some 1,800 crashes have been prevented since 2012. California is Uber's home state and remains its largest market.
"(Uber is launching) in small cities now, and these are places where (at night) maybe you either had a designated driver or you drove," Uber strategy chief David Plouffe, the man behind President Obama's 2008 campaign, told USA TODAY. "This study shows people are changing their behavior, particularly when they're out having drinks."
In the report, Uber additionally found correlation between ride-sharing demand and the hours that are typically more likely for people to be driving drunk.
"In Miami, Uber ridership is peaking at the same hour that historically has been the worst for drunk driving," the company said in a statement. "In Pittsburgh, demand for Uber spikes at closing time for bars. In Chicago, three-fourths of Uber trips on New Year's Eve were requested within an eighth of a mile of establishments with liquor licenses."
Uber will donate $1 to MADD for each trip taken this Sunday between 3 p.m. and midnight when customers employ the promo code "thinkandride."
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?
