Depends on the city. In places where there are plenty of local bars and good public transportation if you're out of walking distance then it's ridiculous to drive to a bar.
If, however, you're stuck in a tiny shithole like Tallahassee, Florida, where most of the bars are in the middle of strip malls and there are hardly any streetlights, fewer sidewalks, and public transportation is a sick joke (and it's a fucking college town for chrissakes!)... suddenly, the prevalence of drunk drivers doesn't seem so unusual.
Dan,
I agree with you on this one. I prefer going to and walking to neighborhood bars and restaurants. If not possible or too distant, I'll take public transit to and then a taxi to return home. Taxis are among my best friends ever.
Yes, but some of us don't want to live in the city and we are aware of the benefits. It's greatto be within walking distance of fabulous restaurants, bars, etc. But if I do want to drive, I have to pay $20 an hour for parking, get asked for money on every block (that can make a girl broke), and pay through the nose for rent.
There are pluses and minuses to everything. I have a 1,000+ square foot apartment with a fireplace, cathedral ceiling, walk-in closets, washer/dryer, private garage, private entry, additional parking space in the lot, for $800 a month in a neighborhood that has an average of 0.5 murders a year. But if I want to get shit-faced, I have to pay $40 for a cab. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make. Hell, avoiding the dreaded Laundromat alone or having my shit stolen in the basement laundry of a city apartment is reason enough for me to enjoy my current setup.
I like drinking at home, out in the country all by myself, where I don't have to have to drive to OR from my booze, and I don't have to put up with assholes like Dan Savage telling me that "city life is superior."
Having recently moved out of suburbia hell to the middle of a city, I have to say this is one thing I appreciate -- being able to walk everywhere. And the fact that it's noisy doesn't bother me, of course :D
Fifty-Two-Eighty -- and they ALL say "Two beers!!!" when you ask them how much they've had to drink... *facepalm*
Yeah, I remember the first time I really realized that this was a problem. After living and going out in Chicago for a few months, I went back to the small town I grew up in, went out to a bar with some friends and was like, um, how do we get home (no taxis, no public transit, few people actually live near where the bars are)? It had never dawned on me that almost everyone who goes out to the bars in that town drives after drinking. Yes, people could have a DD, but I suspect that most don't.
Totally true! City living is totally superior if you can swing it. Sadly, in the rings around Seattle and every other city, the "gotta get a mortgage" boom drove people with less money (who'd otherwise have contentedly rented in town) further out to where they could get a home loan. Now that the paradigm's collapsed, so many people I work with are stuck paying the bank on devaluing crap in places like Lynnwood or Kent. Come the weekend they make the big drive in to get a taste of city fun getting bombed at Chop Suey or the Sunset, then weave home. Urgh.
Unfortunately some cities, like my own fair Atlanta, have shite public transport and suffer from the strip mall bar problem as well as urban sprawl. Taxis are certainly an option, but not one that is used often enough.
So true. When I lived on 19th I was staggering distance from Liberty and Smith. Now I'm in Greenwood-- staggering distance from Gainsbourg and Naked City. But one upon a time I worked at Texas A&M, where every bar was in a strip-mall parking lagoon miles distant from the student dorms and apartment blocks. It seemed like an Aggie died in a DWI every weekend. I've never seen such a drumbeat of carnage at a university.
adult tricycle, you got to be REALLY drunk to fall off and it even has a basket for your cooler. the cruise from leschi to/from columbia city is a gas. but yeah, bring back the local.
@26- As country folk born and raised let me tell you you are full of shit. Country folk drink and drive for recreation. They go to the store and buy a case of beer then cruise around drinking. Before there was a deposit on cans, people would just have a giant pile of empties in their backyards.
@26 - um, yeah. Lots of us on here grew up in rural areas and small towns. In my small town, you couldn't walk 10 ft without running into a church or a bar.
hmm, that must not be the case for where i live because i see people driving, and circling the block looking for parking, to get to the redwood, clever dunnes', captain blacks, etc. all the time.
while i do agree with the quote i think another big reason people drink and drive is laziness. too lazy to walk to the bus stop, hail a cab or just hoof it.
It probably doesn't help that, in Seattle, it's technically not allowed to hail a cab, and most neighborhoods don't have random cabs driving around. You have to call for one, and the wait time can be long, especially on a weekend evening.
My dad came to America from Scotland and he was pissed when he found out there weren't pubs in every neighborhood. Another stupid thing is that public buses often stop running at 1am or so, even in cities. So dumb!!
@26 You are hilariously full of shit. Whenever I ride my bike on any rural road, I can count dozens of alcohol containers per mile along the side of the road.
I am a country girl and a city girl, but I would HATE to live in a suburb.
When I lived in the country in my early twenties, plenty of people got DUIs, but they were idiots because it was pretty easy to avoid drinking and driving. If I drank at someone's house, they inevitably had a big basement rec room with couches for crashing. When I went out dancing, I went to the bars with a regular group of friends and the designated driver responsibility would rotate each weekend.
There was also a big advantage because everyone knew everyone. One alcoholic I knew rarely drove drunk because all the bouncers had grown up with him. So they'd take his keys and ask one of his neighbors or cousins to drive him home at closing time. My best friend was his cousin, so our group was tasked with taking him home a few times.
If that week's DD flaked out and got drunk, then it was easy to find another sober person to drive us home, since A. We knew everyone in the bar, and B. plenty of the women weren't drinking because their toddlers would be waking them up in 6 hours. Or, we'd just doze in the car for a few hours - it wasn't like we were in much danger sleeping in a locked car in the field next to the bar. The one time we tried to nap in a car outside a strip mall suburban bar, we had several skeevy guys knocking on our windows and then a security guard told us to get moving or we'd be towed for parking overnight.
The city's great in theory, because it's easy to walk or take transit home. Therefore, instead of worrying about carpooling and appointing designated drivers, it's expected that you'll meet your friends at the bar or house party, then go your separate ways at the end of the night. However, this means I drink a lot less than I did in the country, because I live in a gritty neighborhood and it's pretty dangerous to be out walking by myself with dulled senses. But no biggie - when I do want to get nice and drunk, I just do it on a night when I'll have a companion walking home with me.
I hate being responsible sometimes.
If, however, you're stuck in a tiny shithole like Tallahassee, Florida, where most of the bars are in the middle of strip malls and there are hardly any streetlights, fewer sidewalks, and public transportation is a sick joke (and it's a fucking college town for chrissakes!)... suddenly, the prevalence of drunk drivers doesn't seem so unusual.
I agree with you on this one. I prefer going to and walking to neighborhood bars and restaurants. If not possible or too distant, I'll take public transit to and then a taxi to return home. Taxis are among my best friends ever.
There are pluses and minuses to everything. I have a 1,000+ square foot apartment with a fireplace, cathedral ceiling, walk-in closets, washer/dryer, private garage, private entry, additional parking space in the lot, for $800 a month in a neighborhood that has an average of 0.5 murders a year. But if I want to get shit-faced, I have to pay $40 for a cab. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make. Hell, avoiding the dreaded Laundromat alone or having my shit stolen in the basement laundry of a city apartment is reason enough for me to enjoy my current setup.
Fifty-Two-Eighty -- and they ALL say "Two beers!!!" when you ask them how much they've had to drink... *facepalm*
while i do agree with the quote i think another big reason people drink and drive is laziness. too lazy to walk to the bus stop, hail a cab or just hoof it.
It probably doesn't help that, in Seattle, it's technically not allowed to hail a cab, and most neighborhoods don't have random cabs driving around. You have to call for one, and the wait time can be long, especially on a weekend evening.
Also, meth?
i have a goddamn creek running through my yard. i'll drink there, thank you very much.
When I lived in the country in my early twenties, plenty of people got DUIs, but they were idiots because it was pretty easy to avoid drinking and driving. If I drank at someone's house, they inevitably had a big basement rec room with couches for crashing. When I went out dancing, I went to the bars with a regular group of friends and the designated driver responsibility would rotate each weekend.
There was also a big advantage because everyone knew everyone. One alcoholic I knew rarely drove drunk because all the bouncers had grown up with him. So they'd take his keys and ask one of his neighbors or cousins to drive him home at closing time. My best friend was his cousin, so our group was tasked with taking him home a few times.
If that week's DD flaked out and got drunk, then it was easy to find another sober person to drive us home, since A. We knew everyone in the bar, and B. plenty of the women weren't drinking because their toddlers would be waking them up in 6 hours. Or, we'd just doze in the car for a few hours - it wasn't like we were in much danger sleeping in a locked car in the field next to the bar. The one time we tried to nap in a car outside a strip mall suburban bar, we had several skeevy guys knocking on our windows and then a security guard told us to get moving or we'd be towed for parking overnight.
The city's great in theory, because it's easy to walk or take transit home. Therefore, instead of worrying about carpooling and appointing designated drivers, it's expected that you'll meet your friends at the bar or house party, then go your separate ways at the end of the night. However, this means I drink a lot less than I did in the country, because I live in a gritty neighborhood and it's pretty dangerous to be out walking by myself with dulled senses. But no biggie - when I do want to get nice and drunk, I just do it on a night when I'll have a companion walking home with me.