College students at Tufts and other schools in the Boston area drive drunk fairly often. I have not only seen it taking place, but have been guilty of it myself. Sorry. I know that drunk driving is irresponsible and that I'm a bastard for doing it, but to be completely honest, sometimes I feel like I've been pushed into it.
And I'm not the only college student who feels that way either. Those who take the T into Boston looking for a good time will find themselves stranded drunk as the bars close and forced to pay expensive cab fares to get back home.
To many Tufts students, poor from paying $50 parking tickets and 40,000 dollars in tuition, these cab fares are simply too much to deal with.
It's insane that a city of Boston's size closes it mass transit system while its bars are still serving drinks. If anything, the T's early closing time directly contributes to drunk driving. The city of Boston should realize that the people in need of transportation at 2 a.m. are mostly drunk and should have rides provided for them, otherwise they'll go out and drunk drive.
In other major cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, the mass transit systems run 24 hours a day every day. Drunk people know that there's no reason for them to drive when they can get home safely and cheaply on the subway, and thus drunk driving is held to a minimum.
In Boston, the complete opposite effect is achieved; our poorly planned subway system actually encourages drunk driving. Let me give an example - imagine a fairly typical Tufts senior named Johnny College. Johnny is always down for a good time, and this is his line of thinking while planning a night out:
"What should I do tonight? I could stay on campus and go to some parties, but oh yeah ... Tufts doesn't allow parties or fun of any kind anymore. Alright, well thank God that I'm 21 then, I'll just go to Davis.
"But wait, I've gone there the last three weekends in a row and have yet to see one girl without a moustache or a hunchback. Damn. Boston then, I'll get a crew together. But wait, how are we going to get there? I only have enough money for three pints because of that fifty dollar parking ticket I just got for leaving my car in the gym parking lot for ten minutes, so I can't take a cab.
"If only the T was open all night. Then I could get there and back for less than the price of a beer and not have to worry about driving into the Charles River. It's not running all night though, so I guess I'll just take my car and hope I don't get that wasted."
Obviously it isn't a good thing when anyone, especially a degenerate like Johnny College, is pushed into driving drunk. When you consider that 207 people died in drunk driving accidents in Massachusetts alone last year, the majority of which were people at or below the age of 21, you have to wonder why the T isn't open later into the night.
It's idiotic to expect people to stop partying before the T's closing time at 1 a.m., and therefore it's impossible to expect the T to get any of these people home safely.
Johnny College is proof of this: Because the T shuts down so early, he will continue to drive back from Boston, drunk and bumping techno at top volume until there's a cheap alternative.
And, goddammit, Johnny College doesn't even like techno.
