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by sandworm101 3614 days ago
From talking to Brits, I'm starting to think that the greater availability of alternatives to driving one's self home seems to increase drinking. The need to get home, to get one's car home, is a good reason not to drink. During university I rode a motorcycle to school/work and can say it kept me away from many an afternoon at a beer garden. London's nightlife, the serious drinking, can only exist because nobody has to drive themselves home.

So dropping Uber into a city, giving them another option for getting home, might increase the overall level of drinking. This would muddy the drink-driving numbers. For every drunk driven safely home by Uber there may be some other person out there pressured into having a drink that otherwise wouldn't. And some of them might drive.
1 comments
laurencerowe 3614 days ago
Drinking is definitely more socially acceptable in Britain than the US, but that has more to do with differing history (no prohibition) than options for getting home.

Drink driving became socially unacceptable in Britain only in the last 20-30 years but alcohol consumption hasn't really changed. The anti drink driving ads on TV every Christmas were really quite hard hitting. I've seen nothing similar in the US.

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smt88 3614 days ago
The US has extensive ads fighting drinking and driving. I imagine there isn't much difference there.
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DanBC 3614 days ago
The UK has had drink driving ads on mainstream TV for 50 years, since 1964.

This BBC page shows some of the ads, and discusses others. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29894885

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