Ride-sharing company Uber released its survey results on Tuesday showing that its service helped reduce the number of drunk-driving incidents.
The survey, conducted by Benenson Strategy Group along with advocacy group Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD), was administered to 807 adults from various cities in the United States last December.
MADD President Coleen Sheehey-Church is happy with the survey results. Her 18-year-old son died in a drunk-driving crash.
"When we got the results, we were just crazy excited to see the results Uber was getting," Sheehey-Church said to the Los Angeles Times. "With so many reliable and accessible options at people's fingertips, there are no more excuses to drink and drive."
Almost 4 in 5 respondents said that most of their friends relied on ride-sharing apps instead of driving themselves home after having some drinks. Fifty-seven percent of them admitted that they would risk driving themselves home even if they were drunk if ride-sharing apps did not exist, USA Today reported.
The findings also showed that the number of drunk-driving related crashes involving drivers that are age 30 and below dropped by 6.5 percent in the California cities where UberX service is available.
This claim was backed up by data provided by the California Highway Patrol and covered 17 California markets. Uber executive Jonathan Hall said in a phone interview with Reuters that the drop may be attributed as well to other drunk driving campaigns, but ride-sharing apps played an integral role because taxis and public transportation are not readily available after hours.
"(Uber is launching) in small cities now, and these are places where (at night) maybe you either had a designated driver or you drove," said David Plouffe, President Obama's former campaign manager and now Uber's senior vice president for policy and strategy. "This study shows people are changing their behavior, particularly when they're out having drinks."
