Lyft’s SoberRide offers free rides home after St. Patrick’s Day fun

The number of fatal crashes connected to alcohol always spikes on St. Patrick’s Day, and it spikes even higher for the first few hours of March 18.

That’s why the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is teaming up with Lyft again to offer free rides home so the luck of the Irish doesn’t turn bad on those celebrating the holiday.

“Nearly four out of 10 traffic fatalities on St. Patrick’s Day in this country involve drunk drivers,” said Kurt Erickson, the president of WRAP. “The greater concern is actually the six hours after St. Patrick’s Day … That’s when three quarters — 75 percent exactly — of all US traffic deaths, involve alcohol impaired drivers.”

In an effort to reduce that figure, WRAP is teaming up with Lyft to offer promo codes good for the first $15 of a fare for Lyft rides taken between 4 p.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday.

“Enter a sober ride code in the app’s promo section,” said Erickson. “We’ll be putting up a code on our website — soberride.com — at 3 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s up to a $15 fare, but quite frankly the average fare for this program is $12 … But let’s say your fare home is $20. We’ll still pay for the first $15, you’ll simply be on the hook for the remaining $5.”

This promo runs only on Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, and is vaild in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland, and Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax and Arlington counties in Virginia and D.C.

John Domen

John started working at WTOP in 2016 after having grown up in Maryland listening to the station as a child. While he got his on-air start at small stations in Pennsylvania and Delaware, he's spent most of his career in the D.C. area, having been heard on several local stations before coming to WTOP.

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