Local SoberRide® Program Reaches “100,000 Served” Milestone
NEARLY 1,800 USE DC AREA’S DUI PREVENTION PROGRAM OVER WINTER HOLIDAYS
Tysons, VA, Jan. 6 – Greater Washington’s drunk driving prevention program, SoberRide®, reached a milestone over the New Year’s holiday – reaching the over “100,000 served” mark.
The local free safe ride service, which started in 1991 and is conducted by the three-person staffed, nonprofit Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), has now provided 101,287 free safe rides home to would-be drunk drivers in the Washington-metropolitan area as 1,446 persons used the program this New Year’s, alone (10:00 pm on December 31, 2025 through 4:00 am on January 1, 2026), as opposed to possibly driving home drunk.
A total of 1,794 persons used SoberRide® last month when it was offered nightly from December 19, 2025 through January 1, 2026.
“For its hours of operation on New Year’s, this level of ridership translates into SoberRide® removing a potential drunk driver from Greater Washington’s roadways every 15-seconds (14.9 secs.),” said WRAP President Kurt Erickson.
This most recent SoberRide® ridership comes on the heels of WRAP last month releasing a report with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) showing a 26% drop in Greater Washington DUI deaths in 2024. (See report at https://www.mwcog.org/newsroom/2025/12/22/report-26-percent-decrease-in-impaired-driving-fatalities-/)
The recent New Year’s ridership of 1,446 users was the second highest for that holiday since SoberRide® began in 1991. WRAP also offers its SoberRide® program on Super Bowl Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day and Halloween.
WRAP’s holiday SoberRide® offering provided free safe rides to local residents ages 21 and older who otherwise may have attempted to drive home after drinking.
The local anti-drunk driving service is offered as a way to keep local roads safe from potentially impaired drivers during this traditionally high-risk holiday. During the most recent 13 consecutive evening period, area residents celebrating with alcohol could download Lyft to their phones, then enter WRAP-provided codes (available at SoberRide.com) in the app’s “Payment” tab (under the Add Lyft Pass” option) to receive their no-cost (up to $15) safe transportation home. SoberRide® was available to both new and existing Lyft users.
Lyft provided SoberRide® trips throughout the Washington-metropolitan area to local residents ages 21 and older who otherwise may have attempted to drive home after drinking.
SoberRide® was offered throughout Lyft’s Washington D.C. coverage area which includes all or parts of: the District of Columbia; the Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s and towns therein plus the cities of Bowie, College Park, District Heights, Gaithersburg, Glenarden, Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Laurel, Mount Ranier, New Carrollton, Rockville, Seat Pleasant and Takoma Park; and the Northern Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William and towns therein plus the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park.
Sponsors of WRAP’s 2025 Holiday SoberRide® campaign included the 395 Express Lanes, Anheuser-Busch, Beer Institute, Brown-Forman, Chesapeake Region Safety Council Constellation Brands, Diageo, District of Columbia Association of Beverage Alcohol Wholesalers, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, Giant Food, Glory Days Grill, HEINEKEN, Lyft, Molson Coors Beverage Company, New Belgium Brewing, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington and the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association. WRAP’s 2025 Public Partner SoberRide® Sponsors include the District of Columbia Highway Safety Office, Maryland Highway Safety Office/Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
Founded in 1982, the nonprofit [501(c)(3)] Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is an award-winning public-private partnership working to prevent drunk driving and underage drinking in the Washington-metropolitan area. Through public education, innovative health education programs and advocacy, WRAP is credited with helping to keep the annual percentage of metro-Washington traffic deaths involving alcohol-impaired driving historically lower than the national average. WRAP, however, may best be known to area residents via the organization’s popular free safe ride service to prevent drunk driving, SoberRide®.
More information about WRAP’s SoberRide® initiative can be found at www.SoberRide.com.