BY KAYLEE SAYRE

I doubt this would have as much effect as you think, Mr. Skolnik. If you look at a map of the drunk driving deaths in New Mexico, a good number of them are around the core of Albuquerque, but many of them are everywhere else. We are a huge state that has no method for getting home if you accidentally drink too much in the bulk of the areas where there are drunk driving deaths.

If someone drinks too much up at the Tub, they are left with the options of trying to get a friend to drive home, sleep in the car, or risk driving home. If there were other options, like calling an Uber, or taking a bus, I suspect you would see drunk driving deaths go down, especially if that option was not overly expensive. The problem with comparing us to many other states is that those states have some of these options due to them having more larger cities and fewer small towns.

I would propose that if you really want to reduce drunk driving, start offering some of these services. One that I would suggest off the bat is if you have police on patrol anyway, use them as a public service and let them pickup and drop off people that drank too much while on their routes (remember they used to say to serve and protect on their cars). I would rather have them take someone home safely than just trying to catch someone that may happen to be driving straight enough when they pass. This could be done by extending bus coverage to include at least Friday night and Saturday, the prime time people are socializing.

This also becomes a regressive tax. The people who can afford it will not slow their drinking, while the poor are kept away from enjoying it, essentially punishing them more. While I think getting drunk drivers off the roads is important, I do not think this is the way to do it. If you want to go the tax route, then the fine should be like some other countries and based on percentage income. In addition to possible jail time, a mandatory X% of your yearly income is the fine. Then it becomes a fair punishment the hurts everyone equally.