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N.J. town to be designated driver for residents

Date Posted: Thu, Oct 15 2015, NJ.com
When the township first started its anti-drunken driving program known as Evesham Saving Lives last month, Mayor Randy Brown had a simple metric on how to determine whether the campaign was a success or not.

"If we take one person home, it's a success," he said.

The 30-day pilot program used shuttles and the Sober Sam designated driver service to take township residents home after a night out at a bar or restaurant. In September, Brown said the program took more than 350 people home.

"We not only took them home, but we kept them off the road," he said.

On Thursday, the township announced it would be extending the program through the holiday season, although under a slightly different model.

Gone are the shuttles and Sober Sam, replaced by Uber and BeMyDD, another designated driver service.

The names might be changing, but the main goal of the program remains the same. The rides provided by either service will be free for Evesham residents.

Brown said they are getting funding from the Evesham Celebrations Foundation, as well as anonymous donors to avoid using taxpayer dollars for the next phase of the pilot program. That phase will run through Jan. 2.

Ana Mahoney, General Manager of Uber New Jersey, said the partnership with Evesham is the first of its kind for Uber.

"We're always looking for ways to utilize our technology to better serve the communities we operate in," she said. "This is a safe and free ride for people when they need to get home at the end of the night."

Evesham Police Chief Christopher Chew said the township was on track to see a 49-percent increase in the arrest of residents for driving while intoxicated. Since they instituted the program they've seen a big drop in those numbers.

In August, 19 residents were arrested for DWI. In September, that number went down to just eight.

"From January to Augusut, 35 of the residents who we arrested said they were coming from local establishments," Chew said. "Since we instituted the program, we had zero people come from local establishments."

Brown said they decided to do away with the shuttles because Uber provided them with more flexibility.

"They can get you home faster than we can," he said. "With the shuttle it was more of a rotation."

He added that Uber and BeMyDD both already possessed the technology needed to make the program as simple as possible for its potential users.

"We were looking for someone technologically sound and savvy," he said. "We had to make it to a point where it was so simple and so easy to use. ... Instead of having to make a call to a taxi service, you can just push a button and they'll come get you."

The estimated costs for the rides are about $7 for Uber and about $35 for BeMyDD, according to Brown.

Evesham Mortgage made a $2,500 donation to the Evesham Celebrations Foundation to help pay for the next phase of the pilot, and Brown said an anonymous donor has pledged to make sure that the program has enough funding to make it to that Jan. 2 end date.

After this pilot ends, Brown said they will look at the numbers and consider asking the businesses for donations to continue the program if needed.

Brown believes that the Evesham Saving Lives program could serve as a model for other towns to put together similar plans, and that its benefits outweigh any costs it might incur.

"You can't put a price on a human life," he said. "This is a program that will be emulated throughout the United States because it's easy and relatively inexpensive."