If you’re drinking on New Year’s Eve, use this free taxi
Tipsy Taxi
• Provides free rides home in Lawrence between 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve until 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
• Those looking for a ride can call 842-TAXI. DCCCA advises people to plan ahead and call early.
• DCCCA is looking for donations and sponsors for the program. For more information, call Jen Jordan at 841-4138 or send email to jjordan@dccca.org.
Lawrence partygoers have no excuse to drink and drive this New Year’s Eve. They can just call Tipsy Taxi.
In its 27th year, Tipsy Taxi is a free taxi service coordinated by DCCCA to provide rides home for Lawrence residents between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. on the last night of the year. The Tipsy Taxi number is 842-TAXI.
DCCCA contracts with Ground Transportation Inc. for the rides, which numbered more than 400 last year. The program costs around $2,000, depending on how many rides are given.
Jen Jordan, prevention coordinator for DCCCA, said it’s worth the cost to keep people safe on New Year’s.
“A lot of people benefited,” she said.
In 2009, 177 fatality accidents in Kansas involved a driver who’d been drinking alcohol. Such accidents accounted for nearly 46 percent of the state’s fatality traffic accidents that year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In Douglas County in 2010, law enforcement agencies made 948 arrests for driving under the influence, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.