A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sober Ride
Don't forget that Sober Ride is providing free cab rides tonight for those who find themselves in need. Get the details here. Call the for a ride at 800-200-8294 (TAXI).
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I just sent wrap.org an e-mail:
------------------------------------ Last night for Halloween, and friend and I went out with the intention of getting home using the SoberRide system.
We called the 800 number at approximately 1:45 am to schedule a cab ride home. We gave them (you) our information, phone, pickup and dropoff addresses and then when we asked how to find out what cab was picking us up, were told to call back in 5 minutes. This isn't the most ideal setup, but it is workable. We called back and were given the phone number 202 398-0500.
I truly feel that there is a good chance that this cab company never had any intention of picking us up. We called the cab company to confirm our details. They told us that they would call us back. It actually took me 2 calls initially to get in contact with them becasue they hung up on me the first time. After an approimately 40 minute wait, we called back to ask them when we would get picked up. They said that it would be about 15 minutes. The 15 minutes came and went. We called them back again maybe 20 minutes after the previous call, and got trough after a few attempts. I was expecting them to say, sorry, it will be another 15 minutes, but we are trying to get you a cab, we are busy. That would have been an acceptable answer actually.. Instead, I was told that they were very busy, it was the 1st of the month (which I think was irrelevant) and that they system was so full that some people were getting dropped after a half hour. I said this to my friend, and two other guys standing near us said that the same thing happened to them. I know that we weren't dropped from the system however because they had all my information, they knew my pick up and drop off locations. My friend called them on his phone right after me, and after getting off said, there is no cab coming, and he called a friend to drive us to his hosue at 3:15 in the morning.
At this point, I called the cab company back 202 398-0500 (i have this number memorized for some reason). and said that i would like to change my pick up address. I had found a ride to my friends hosue but still needed a ride home. I gave them my friend's address and they said they would call me back. I called the cab company 1 last time at 3:57 am from my cell phone.. I was on hold for a considerable amount of time. Finally a woman asked me for my phone number. After I gave it to her, the phone went silent but was still connected, and then I was disconnected after 30 seconds or so.
Both my friend, and I never recieved calls from the cab company concerning our rides that we were supposed to recieve. In my friend's case, they could only assume that he was stuck in foggy bottom with no way home.
Overall, I feel like I was naive. There is no such thing as a free ride. There is no such thing as a free anything. The idea works in theory, but it is a logistical nightmare. I will not attempt to use the "SoberRide" service again anytime in the future unless I somehow hear of people who have succesfully used the service. I will reccomend to anyone I know not to use the service unless they want to be stranded downtown in the middle of the night.
There needs to be a way where people can go up to a cab that is already on the street ready to drive someone and redeem this service. People could possibly mail in a reciept to pay for the service or use a vocher that they pick up ahead of time to pay for the cab ride.
The city busses could actually run all night long (like the signs say) instead of stopping from about 2-5, and be made free from 10 pm to 4 am. The metro train hours could also be extended for the particular nights that you offer your service.
I know that many solutions wouldn't work because of the risk of the system being abused, however, I am fairly certain that you paid for both my cab ride and my friend's cab rides that we never took.
I would like to know what the name of the cab company was that I was assigned to last night so I know never to use their services in the future.
I thought you might like to hear about my experience.
I will also be posting this comment on the only site I found so far that mentions SoberRide: http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/
I look forward to hearing a reply from you. ------------------------------------
If someone actually had a good experience with SoberRide, I would like to hear about it. I am never going to use them again, or reccomend that anyone else does however. There is no such thing as a free ride.
One of the issues with such services is that they tend to get really overloaded. There are, obviously, routinuely issues calling (I usually just try to catch one, even if it -rarely- actually requires walking to Union Station, where I can reliably say that you can catch a cab until at least 2am) a cab in this neighborhood (though this post gives no indication that any calls orignated from here), but I'm not sure that this was the issue in this case. I don't know anything about the kind of agreement Sober Ride has with the cab companies. It could be that such programs just need more funding. These programs are a good idea, but you are probably best setting up something with a designated driver. these programs are designed to basically prevent people that would otherwise drive drunk from doing so, so they aren't meant to handle every kid that goes out and gets drunk. So work those cabs, metros, buses, designited drivers, and friends' couches. Just be responsible.
In, what I consider to be an even stronger argument against drunk driving, the life/lives you save might not only be your own, but those of your best friend/some else's mother/father/kid. Just don't be stupid/selfish.
2 comments:
I just sent wrap.org an e-mail:
------------------------------------
Last night for Halloween, and friend and I went out with the intention of getting home using the SoberRide system.
We called the 800 number at approximately 1:45 am to schedule a cab ride home. We gave them (you) our information, phone, pickup and dropoff addresses and then when we asked how to find out what cab was picking us up, were told to call back in 5 minutes. This isn't the most ideal setup, but it is workable. We called back and were given the phone number 202 398-0500.
I truly feel that there is a good chance that this cab company never had any intention of picking us up. We called the cab company to confirm our details. They told us that they would call us back. It actually took me 2 calls initially to get in contact with them becasue they hung up on me the first time. After an approimately 40 minute wait, we called back to ask them when we would get picked up. They said that it would be about 15 minutes. The 15 minutes came and went. We called them back again maybe 20 minutes after the previous call, and got trough after a few attempts. I was expecting them to say, sorry, it will be another 15 minutes, but we are trying to get you a cab, we are busy. That would have been an acceptable answer actually.. Instead, I was told that they were very busy, it was the 1st of the month (which I think was irrelevant) and that they system was so full that some people were getting dropped after a half hour. I said this to my friend, and two other guys standing near us said that the same thing happened to them. I know that we weren't dropped from the system however because they had all my information, they knew my pick up and drop off locations. My friend called them on his phone right after me, and after getting off said, there is no cab coming, and he called a friend to drive us to his hosue at 3:15 in the morning.
At this point, I called the cab company back 202 398-0500 (i have this number memorized for some reason). and said that i would like to change my pick up address. I had found a ride to my friends hosue but still needed a ride home. I gave them my friend's address and they said they would call me back. I called the cab company 1 last time at 3:57 am from my cell phone.. I was on hold for a considerable amount of time. Finally a woman asked me for my phone number. After I gave it to her, the phone went silent but was still connected, and then I was disconnected after 30 seconds or so.
Both my friend, and I never recieved calls from the cab company concerning our rides that we were supposed to recieve. In my friend's case, they could only assume that he was stuck in foggy bottom with no way home.
Overall, I feel like I was naive. There is no such thing as a free ride. There is no such thing as a free anything. The idea works in theory, but it is a logistical nightmare. I will not attempt to use the "SoberRide" service again anytime in the future unless I somehow hear of people who have succesfully used the service. I will reccomend to anyone I know not to use the service unless they want to be stranded downtown in the middle of the night.
There needs to be a way where people can go up to a cab that is already on the street ready to drive someone and redeem this service. People could possibly mail in a reciept to pay for the service or use a vocher that they pick up ahead of time to pay for the cab ride.
The city busses could actually run all night long (like the signs say) instead of stopping from about 2-5, and be made free from 10 pm to 4 am. The metro train hours could also be extended for the particular nights that you offer your service.
I know that many solutions wouldn't work because of the risk of the system being abused, however, I am fairly certain that you paid for both my cab ride and my friend's cab rides that we never took.
I would like to know what the name of the cab company was that I was assigned to last night so I know never to use their services in the future.
I thought you might like to hear about my experience.
I will also be posting this comment on the only site I found so far that mentions SoberRide: http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/
I look forward to hearing a reply from you.
------------------------------------
If someone actually had a good experience with SoberRide, I would like to hear about it. I am never going to use them again, or reccomend that anyone else does however. There is no such thing as a free ride.
One of the issues with such services is that they tend to get really overloaded. There are, obviously, routinuely issues calling (I usually just try to catch one, even if it -rarely- actually requires walking to Union Station, where I can reliably say that you can catch a cab until at least 2am) a cab in this neighborhood (though this post gives no indication that any calls orignated from here), but I'm not sure that this was the issue in this case. I don't know anything about the kind of agreement Sober Ride has with the cab companies. It could be that such programs just need more funding. These programs are a good idea, but you are probably best setting up something with a designated driver. these programs are designed to basically prevent people that would otherwise drive drunk from doing so, so they aren't meant to handle every kid that goes out and gets drunk. So work those cabs, metros, buses, designited drivers, and friends' couches. Just be responsible.
In, what I consider to be an even stronger argument against drunk driving, the life/lives you save might not only be your own, but those of your best friend/some else's mother/father/kid. Just don't be stupid/selfish.
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