A week ago, if you’d told me that there was more than one answer to the question, “Should you tweet RIDE locations?” I’d have thought you were joking.
I wouldn’t have imagined that there were people out there who wanted to help others drive drunk. But after a lovely Christmas Eve dinner, when my tipsy guests all got into cabs to get home safely, I noticed, via police officer Tim Burrows, that there were Torontonians tweeting the location of RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) checks. It seemed ghastly.
I may not agree with everything that the Toronto Police do, but the RIDE program is not an abuse of civil rights or a cash grab for overtime hours. It is an attempt to diminish the dangers of motorists having the flesh torn from their bodies, their heads lopped off, spines broken, lungs punctured or other gruesome outcomes, because some of them are drunk.
Some who have been tweeting RIDE locations, or defending the practice (or their friends) have done so under the guise of helping people avoid traffic slowdowns. I respect a good bit of spin and so I tip my hat to this argument. I also would not like being stopped in my car, made to wait, answer police questions or take a sobriety test. If someone told me how to avoid that, I would appreciate it.
The problem with this explanation is that it’s not true. One of the gentlemen from Christmas Eve used the hashtag #avoidifhammered. Another explained in his bio that he likes “to get really blackout drunk and do stupid shit.”
These boyscouts were not trying to help me save time. They were trying to help me drive drunk. Attempts to spin their behavior are just that, spin.
The first to pick it up was Josh Visser at CTV
Soon, every media outlet had covered the story, in their own ways:
and my favourite of the lot, Bert Archer in the Toronto Standard
“People will do all manner of nasty, venal things if they think they’re doing it under cover,” wrote Archer. “ But of course, Twitter, not to mention Facebook and the other social media, are not under cover.”
These people were broadcasting their behavior. Indeed, on Christmas Day, Mr. #avoidifhammered’s first reaction was to brag that he was named on TV. Later, he apologized. Though he continues to maintain that he is being bullied. Apparently I am part of a conspiracy with every media outlet, INCLUDING THE TORONTO SUN, and the Toronto Police.
We’re seeing a lot of this defence in politics (or at least at Toronto City Hall); the misappropriation of the term “bully”. It seems the rise in awareness about bullying means, as Scott Agostino says, “Monstrous people called out for being monstrous are crying of being bullied. We're seeing it with bigots too.”
As to the issue of privacy, two weeks ago I took a photograph of a Hummer parked in a bike lane that made it’s way into The Grid. The license place was clearly visible. I had it obscured, as a courtesy to the driver’s privacy.
These kids were broadcasting their message. They found an audience.
It’s easy to get mad at these horribly raised children. But they’re just a symptom, the Brock Antons of drunk driving, the tiny minority vilified for something done en masse. Everyone does it. They were just the ones who thought to advertise.
But I was out with a friend for lunch and he explained it succinctly. “You would have no way of knowing this about Car Culture,” he said, “but everybody drives drunk.”
Maybe it’s just a cultural divide between urban and suburban. Sure, it’s easy for Toronto Elites to call a cab if they’re drunk. But it’s not so simple when you need to get from Markham to Mississauga at 2 a.m.
The problem with that is that it’s also a copout. We do things by choice. Like infidelity, people don’t choose to drive drunk at 2 a.m.. It’s a series of choices. At noon we choose to get together for drinks tonight. At 6 p.m. we choose to travel by car, bike, foot, cab, TTC. At midnight, we choose to have another drink.
Plan ahead, and you’re more likely to choose to RIDE home safely.
For ten years I’ve chosen to spend New Year’s alone. My friends have always found this odd. But with these kids out there, juiced-up and shameless, determined to drink and drive, to have a good time at the expense of others, it may be safer to stay inside.
There is a positive and negative to all the media attention, as David Topping writes:
Media coverage of the problem has since exploded, but, unintentionally, it’s also pointed every wannabe drunk driver in the direction of where to find information that’ll help them avoid getting caught, and every dummy with a Twitter account in the direction of how and where to help them. It’s 1 a.m. on the Friday night before New Year’s Eve as I write this, and they’re doing it right now.
There is one really simple thing to do that might make a difference, though, and that’s to turn #RIDE from a hashtag that helps people drive drunk into one that makes it harder for them to.
It’s easy: when you tweet this New Year’s Eve, use the hashtag #RIDE—the same one people have been using to share RIDE check locations. Use the hashtag #RIDE especially if you’re sharing an anti–drunk driving message, and especially if it’s after midnight. “My uncle was killed by a drunk driver in 2008. Please don’t drink and drive. #RIDE.” “Remember, the TTC is free after midnight tonight! Maybe you’ll get to ride one of those fancy new subway trains. #RIDE.” That kind of stuff—whatever works for you.
The more of it, by the more people, the better. If someone is searching for RIDE locations on New Year’s Eve, those are the tweets they should see, not the location of a spot check. It’s worth a shot.
What's nice is that, despite discussing with Topping what we might do to counter this trend, people all over Toronto came up with the same solution. I saw them doing it last night.
After I posted "RIDE# locations all over Toronto. Best to stay out of the city", one gentleman gave me the perfect, appropriate response (despite his bad punctuation).
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