Safe, reliable rides for Canadians on St. Patrick’s Day

Crashes involving alcohol and/or drugs are the leading criminal cause of death in Canada. Every day, on average, four Canadians are killed in crashes involving alcohol and/or drugs that are entirely preventable. Everyone has the power to prevent impaired driving and having safe, convenient and accessible transportation options helps people make the right decision.  

Most impaired driving incidents happen at night and during the weekend. In cities where Uber is available in Canada, rush hour for ridesharing is not first thing in the morning or at the end of the day when people are getting to and from work, but late at night when bars close.  And this is especially true for big celebrations like New Year’s Eve, Halloween, and St. Patrick’s Day. This is why Uber is part of the solution to reduce impaired driving accidents.

From Calgary to Montreal, tens of thousands of Canadians took to their Uber app and made a smart choice as they celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by relying on ridesharing to get them home after the last green pint.

For those who rode Uber on St. Patrick’s Day–we’re glad we were able to help you get from point A to point B safely and reliably.  Ride requests were up over 25% from the previous Friday, but as a result of the flexible supply of drivers and dynamic pricing, which encourages more drivers to hit the road when demand is high, we saw hundreds more drivers come out to drive in these cities. This allowed more people to get where they needed to go without getting behind the wheel while still maintaining our reliability.

These safe and reliable rides wouldn’t have been possible without allowing people to decide if and when they want to offer rides and make income.  At Uber, we believe that it’s important to offer options to Canadians so that no one takes the risk of driving impaired.

Earlier this year we announced a national partnership with MADD Canada to jointly promote safe and sober driving. We are asking Canadians to pledge to not drive impaired and to make further use of transportation options like ridesharing that can serve to prevent impaired driving. Together with MADD Canada, we are empowering Canadians to always make responsible, safe choices and to prevent impaired driving.

On St. Patrick’s Day, and every day, we thank the Uber driver-partners in over 40 municipalities across Canada who are providing safe rides, and the riders who are making the responsible decision to arrange a sober ride home rather than risk driving impaired.