ND Sober Ride provided 83 sober rides during the Thanksgiving weekend by giving out free Lyft codes to partygoers. Lauren Wahlman, Safety Public Information Program Manager for the NDDOT, says they are seeing a trend of around 80 free rides given per holiday.
"Unfortunately, we don't know if they are repeating customers. They can't use the code more than once during the time period, but they may be using it in October and then they may be using it again in November, and we actually hope that's the case. If these people are out at the bars, they're our target audience and we want to make sure they're getting home safe."
Wahlman says the ND Sober Ride program will give out more rides for Christmas and New Year's. She hopes more people will start using the program
"We haven't been able to really compare to see how much of a difference this program is making compared to DUIs. We hope that after a few years of running this program we'll be able to compare and hopefully see a coalition between them. We are in a downward trend overall over the past few years with DUIs and I think that is in large part because of these rideshare services."