Recently a study was conducted to see if people who use a FREE safe ride drank more.  We at safe rides believe that offereing FREE safe rides is not the answer since it leave people with more money and a greater incentive to start abusing alcohol.  The key is to find the right balance between making the rides as cost effective as possible, while still allowing people to enjoy the night out. below is the article that was found on ScienceDirect.com

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The article below shows that drunk driving accidents in NJ are declining.  Even though it does not mention Safe Rides Unlimited or any other organization as a reason for the decline.  We at SRU would like to believe that the 1000 or more people that use SRU instead of driving drunk are the ones that should be praised.  With your help we have proven that people will make the right choice granted they have the available options.

When asked SRU Founder Moe Sattar commented on the article and thanked people who made the right choice by not driving drunk.

Article taken from: http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics-new-jersey.html

The number of alcohol-related deaths in New Jersey has dropped significantly from a high of 622 in 1982, to a low of 263 in 2005. The percentage of fatalities that were alcohol related has also dropped steadily, from a high of 59% in 1982, to a low of 35% in 1996 and 2005. In 2006, out of all traffic fatalities, 29% involved a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 or higher.

The table above shows the total number of traffic fatalities (Tot) for the New Jersey, alcohol related fatalities (Alc-Rel) and fatalities in crashes where the highest BAC in the crash was 0.08 or above (0.08+).

All 50 states in the US now apply two statutory offenses to operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. The first (and original) offense is known either as driving under the influence (DUI), driving while intoxicated/impaired (DWI), or operating while intoxicated/impaired (OWI). This is based upon a police officer’s observations (driving behavior, slurred speech, the results of a roadside sobriety test, etc.)

The second offense is called “illegal per se”, which is driving with a BAC of 0.08% or higher. Since 2002 it has been illegal in all 50 states to drive with a BAC that is 0.08% or higher.

It is important to note that the New Jersey drunk driving statistics, as shown above, include data from individuals who were in an alcohol-related crash, but not driving a motor vehicle at the time. The U.S. Department of Transportation defines alcohol-related deaths as “fatalities that occur in crashes where at least one driver or non-occupant (pedestrian or bicyclist) involved in the crash has a positive Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) value.”

That’s the new catch phrase in the Kahlua advertisements.  They could not have been more correct.   Drunk driving does start with an excuse “I’m not going to drink too much therefore its ok if I drive” “I’ll have one of my friends drive on the way back” “I’m not that drunk” “I’ve driven when I was in much worse shape so I’ll be ok”, the list can go on forever.  However the most important excuse has become embedded into our psyche “I don’t have any other way of getting to and from the club”.  In a survey conducted by SRU over 90% of people going out claimed how else would they get to and from the club.  These individuals claimed they didn’t think any drunk driving incident could happen to them. Worse yet all of the individuals claimed campaigns that instruct us to be responsible drinkers never even became a thought when going out. Lately alcohol industry has been placing messages at the end of their commercials such as “Drink Responsibly” etc.  When we asked, students remembered the ad but surprisingly said they didn’t remember the drink responsibility part or they didn’t really pay attention to it.  They all remembered the rest of the ad.  It seems that these drink responsibly ads have become more of a formality than to have an actual effect and therefore are being ignored.

Moe Sattar Founder of Safe Rides Unlimited said “All the messaging campaigns are great but they don’t really give us an actual alternative.”  He also stated that “college students and general public are more than accepting of a real solutions.  The proof of such a statement is in the phone calls that come in by the hundreds from people praising our services and making safe ride reservations.”

The bottom line in this whole thing is this.  Drunk driving can be reduced to nearly non existent if advertisers realize that instead of wasting money on messages, lets provide people with a choice.  A choice that would allow people to make the right decision.  A choice that will be a lot more effective in reducing alcohol industry liabilities.  A choice that will be profitable to all parties involved from the users to the providers. A choice that will make people responsible for their actions instead of blaming them on lack of alternatives. Safe Rides Unlimited is a testament to such a choice.

Lets allow our minds to become creative so we can get away from talking and start taking action.  Lets explore options and with that we will have made the greatest change in the old mentality.  A Mentality that did not allow you to even think about any available alternatives to a mentality that knows that we can be safe and have fun by simply using Safe Rides Unlimited.

Safe Rides Unlimited founder Moe Sattar informed us that SRU will be joining forces with Favbars.com, a complete night club directory website that operates like myspace where clubs can create profiles.  General public can than become fans of their favorite clubs and receive updates automatically.  Secondly, SRU is also joining forces with Snapfoo.com, an extremely cool and efficient photo blogging site.  Snapfoo.com allows people to take pics via their phones and email them directly to their profiles on favbars.com or other networking sites.

Mr. Sattar stated he is extremely pleased with the prospects of partnering with the two sites.  He also said that together SRU and its partners will make nightlife information streamlined for the public.  Now people will have the ability to interact directly with the people that run their favorite venues.

Specific details of the partnership were not disclosed but Mr. Sattar assured the details will be made available in the near future.  So far we know that favbars.com is powering the new venue system on Safe Rides Unlimited website.

We look forward to see what comes out of this seemingly excellent partnership. Stay tuned…

Below is the Safe Rides Unlimited Site Traffic info as found on www.Alexa.com. According to them safe rides unlimited is growing at an extremely high rate and is ranked even higher than some club based sites in NJ. Safe Rides Unlimited website is currently ranked 143,236 in the United States of America.

Reach for Saferidesunlimited.org:

Percent of global Internet users who visit this site

Yesterday	1 wk. Avg.	3 mos. Avg.	3 mos. Change
N/A*	.00008%	.000051%	21%

Traffic Rank for Saferidesunlimited.org:

Alexa traffic rank based on a combined measure of page views and users (reach)

Yesterday	1 wk. Avg.	3 mos. Avg.	3 mos. Change
N/A*	955,71269	35147,141759,21095	475487,23787

Page Views per user for Saferidesunlimited.org:

The number of unique pages viewed per user per day for this site

Yesterday	1 wk. Avg.	3 mos. Avg.	3 mos. Change
N/A*	3	8.1	447.11%

Saferidesunlimited.org users come from these countries:

Saferidesunlimited.org traffic rank in the United States:

Safe Rides Unlimited has been providing services to the greater New York and New Jersey area for over a year now. SRU’s growth can be credited mostly to word of mouth recommendations. SRU takes pride in the fact that it has been able to attract new users every day thru recomendations of other users. This proves without a doubt that SRU has a program that works and is extremely effective and efficient. SRU program is saving people money and providing them with a level of service and reliability they can not expect to recieve from any other safe ride system in the country.

On Friday Aug 22, 2008 Safe Rides Unlimited founder/president Amanat Moe Sattar informed that Safe Rides Unlimited has entered into contract with Cablevision subsidiary Rainbow Advertisments. The purpose of this contract is to bring the message to the masses by conducting a year long tv ad campaign. According to Mr. Sattar SRU is entering this contract because of tremendous success of the program and its ability to serve even more users every week. He hopes this campaign will help spread the message of a real available alternative to drunk driving faster and to a larger audience. This tv ad campaign will air over 50 ads per week starting with Northern NJ. Networks that will air ads include MTV, VH1, E, FX, Comedy Central and a few other popular channels. Mr. Sattar says he is very optimistic about the results from this campaign.

SRU currently provides over 500 people with safe ride services. Thats over 500 people that utilize the life saving roundtrip safe rides, pay no cover charges at clubs and don’t wait on any lines. According to Mr. Sattar, SRU safe rides require a per person donation of usually what most clubs charge for cover. In simpler words SRU rides are practically free if you consider that you would have to pay cover charge and/or wait on lines if you did not use SRU safe rides, not to mention SRU helps avoid all the other hassels that come along with driving if your going for a night on the town.

Safe Rides Unlimited and its staff started the year with extreme optimism and for good reasons. Safe Rides Unlimited had just finalized the pilot program that had been running for a little over 2 years. SRU’s innovative methods are proving to be extremely effective.

The idea that people can now get round trip luxury safe rides that cost normally as much as what someone would pay for cover charge at club. This makes the ride practically free since SRU users do not have to pay the covers or wait onlines at SRU member venues.

SRU’s initial obstacles were due to the fact most individuals could not believe they can prevent themselves from driving drunk and save money at the same time. It was hard to believe it can be so much fun to get the VIP experience as a reward for making the right choice. SRU utilized the support of its member venues to help spread the message. According to Amanat Moe Sattar Safe Rides Unlimited Founder/President; SRU would not be successful if they did not receive support from venue owners and individuals like Joe Barcelona (owner of Bliss formerly known as Joey’s) Sergio Tiggs and Tommy D who offered their guidance and help bring the program to the masses.

Today SRU is proud to say that its user base has grown to numbers that exceed all expections for a program just introduced to the general public. The results from pilot program were good but no one expected to providing over 500 safe rides a week as soon as they launched. Safe Rides Unlimited is looking forward to having an amazing and successful second half of the year.

All Safe Ride programs are initiated with the best of intentions. The people that start these programs really truly want to make a difference, most programs do make a difference but only a few are able to last. The main reason for many programs to fail is lack of funding. Safe Ride programs are usually designed to be dependent on outside funding, either thru major sponsors, donations or state. The question is why does the funding run out and the answer is simple once these safe ride programs start showing results, the funding disappears for the simple fact funders see it as mission accomplished no more reason to keep spending money. The truth is that at this is the time safe ride programs need funding the most to continue as their demand has grown and they need to sustain their operational costs.

The difference between all other Safe Ride programs and SRU is simple. SRU was designed as the first and only program to be self sustaining. SRU simply asks people to directly utilize their donation for a safe ride thru SRU. This donation amount is usually what they would pay as cover charge at most venues. In return of their donation SRU users receive a round trip Safe Ride to and from the club in luxury vehicles. This Safe Ride model helps pay for the operational costs and helps SRU be self sustaining. People can still donate but now their donation is immidiately giving them results in form of a safe ride.

Another major reason for Safe Rides Unlimited’s success is unlike most safe ride programs SRU welcomes alcohol serving venues into its efforts and utlizes their help to offer incentive to safe ride users. Incentives such as not paying cover charges or waiting on lines at clubs, such incentives actually make it cheaper for people to use safe rides than to drive. Safe Rides Unlimited has been growing at a steady pace since its inception and has not needed to solicit outside funds. Not to say SRU would not accept funding but the simple fact is SRU’s program is not dependent or suceptable to outside sources that may control its success.

Today Safe Rides Unlimited is providing safe rides to over 500 people every week and even though once in a while there are small issues, 99% of the time SRU is able to provide an extremely high level of service to its users. This is the reason why Safe Rides Unlimited is successful.