Students who want to celebrate their return to Gainesville will have a chance to do so safely on Wednesday night.
As a way to introduce the "Be a Smarty - Think Before You Party" campaign, Student Government will throw a party of its own at The Swamp Restaurant to celebrate a new service available to students called Fabulous Rides.
Since Student Body president Jordan Johnson has stressed his commitment to student safety and has cracked down on drunk driving, his promotion of the Fabulous Rides service is commendable. While Student Government cannot provide the funds to make the service available free to students, his promotion of the service as an alternative to driving while intoxicated is a good compromise.
Students are already aware of other services that UF provides, such as the Later Gator bus service, but may be wary of them, as they force students to leave their cars at Midtown watering holes if they decide they are not capable of driving responsibly. The threat of towing may be enough to get someone who shouldn't be driving to take a huge risk. By recognizing the holes in the Later Gator service and promoting Fabulous Rides as an alternative that allows for students to leave with their cars (and their lives), Johnson is showing his commitment to student safety is more than just lip service.
We encourage students to test drive the service while it's free this week. It's cheaper than a taxi ride, and since it uses your car, it's like having a chauffeur. Hopefully the drivers are trained to deal with drunken rants, so you might even be able to have a bit of extra fun by mocking the driver, their sobriety and their driving. You can't do that with a taxi driver; they will throw you out. And hell, the money you'd spend on Fabulous Rides is probably equivalent to the gas money you'd waste circling the same five parking spots for an hour or paying for a spot in a parking lot.
Kudos to SG for recognizing the utility of this service. And, perhaps with us not having to worry about that pesky blood-alcohol content thing, we can reclaim our spots as the No. 1 party school. This may be putting a lot of faith in a horde of scooter-wielding strangers, but hey, we can dream.
