DAILY LOBO new mexico
August 26, 2011
Why not?
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
College students prone to DWI by Hunter Riley hriley@unm.edu
Zach Gould / Daily Lobo Michelle Tarin and Kaela Pearson look at photos from earlier in the night on the Party Trolley. The Party Trolley is a group of taxi service for the University, Nob Hill, and Downtown areas.
According to a New Mexico Department of Transportation study, college-aged drivers made up about 24 percent of total DWI citations in 2010. Robert Archuleta, the enforcement bureau chief for the New Mexico Department of Transportation traffic safety bureau, said college-aged drivers are the target audience for anti-DWI campaigns because of their frequent risky behavior, like drinking and driving. “Those are your young males, mostly, who are within that age range, and they are out drinking, going to college, or working,” he said. “And they aren’t quite in that mature age range when people start settling down.” In 2009, college-aged drivers made up about 25 percent of total DWI citations according to the State Department of Transportation (DOT) study. Archuleta said though males tend to get DWI citations more than women, the number of women with citations has increased. But, Archuleta said the instances of fatalities due to drunk driving have gone down in New Mexico. He said New Mexico is no longer in the top 10 in the nation for alcohol-related fatalities. Joshua Asplen works at a com-
Lobo Village halts Party Trolley by Hunter Riley hriley@unm.edu
Last Friday and Saturday, Lobo Village officials barred the Party Trolley from entering its gates to pick up customers who had made a reservation for transportation from Lobo Village. Party Trolley’s founder Paul Aitken said he was driving the bus on Saturday night when a security guard told him he could not enter the facility. “I told him ‘I am turning around.’ I told him, ‘I’m sorry there was a problem.’” Aitken said. “And I guess the night manager, who was a lady, said that they don’t want to promote drinking at Lobo Village.” Aitken said property manager Brent McPherson said, in an email and in person, that at the end of the spring semester the Party Trolley could do business at Lobo Village, but Lobo Village did not want to officially associate with the ride service.
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“If you’re (drinking) at Lobo Village and I can’t pick you up at Lobo Village there is no cheap, safe, fun way to go downtown or to Nob Hill or to a party,” Aitken said. The Daily Lobo contacted Lobo Village for comment on the incident, but office staff said it was against policy for Lobo Village to talk to the media and directed the reporter to American Campus Communities’ (ACC) corporate office. The corporate media contact did not return multiple phone calls as of Thursday afternoon. Aitken said UNM has not given him trouble about doing business on campus, and he will have the bus in front of the SUB on Monday, Thursday and Friday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Walter Miller, the Associate Vice President for Student Life, said there is a committee meeting to find out whether Lobo Village is able to decide if the Party Trolley can enter. “It’s been a discussion because of the main campus dorms,” Miller said.
“I would hope by the end of next week we should have something concrete. We’ll be talking to the management committee which is made up of University and ACC people.” ACC rents from UNM’s lot on where Lobo Village is built. When the new ACC dorms on main campus are finished, Miller said they will be subject to University procedures and policies, and no alcohol will be allowed. John Steiner, the director of Campus Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, said DWI is too large a problem among college students to not give them as many ways as possible to get home without drinking and driving. “I think it’s a shame that ACC turned them around,” Steiner said. “From what I know about it they are in business to help people get home safely who have made the decision to drink. At least they aren’t driving cars, and they’ve done something to avoid that.”
trying to find the Heart Hospital. Students who witnessed the incident said he drove through Smith Plaza and ran into a deadend. “This guy comes down and he hits the first step,” student Andrew Wayner said. ”And he literally just hits the gas and almost skips off the steps. He just started driving around people and two of us start
“He just started driving around people and two of us started chasing them”
pany called Street Guardians, which drives people and their cars home after a night of drinking. For example, he said he and a friend would show up in one vehicle. He would drive the intoxicated person home in his or her vehicle while his friend follows. Once home, his friend drives the two of them to the next call. Asplen said Street Guardians also has street scooters that fold up to fit in the trunk of the car they’re driving home. Asplen said Steel Guardians charges $10 per pickup and $2 a mile after that. It costs about $18-20 for a ride from downtown, he said. UNM student Paul Aitken gave students another option to avoid drinking and driving with the Party Trolley, which began offering rides this summer. “This is a shared-ride carrier,” he said. “So you are sharing the price of transportation and so we charge individual fares.” The charge to ride the party trolley is $5 if you have cash and $5.50 if you want to pay by credit or debit card. “The legal statues for a sharedride carrier say that I have to have a zone, and that’s a grid structure,” he said. “So we have our Zone 1, and that is from 12th Street to San Pedro and Gibson to I-40, so that is $5. Then if you want to go farther out, that adds $2.50 additional per rider.” The Party Trolley will pick
customers up at their house and then take them to drop spots in either Nob Hill or Downtown. The Nob Hill drop spot is in front of Imbibe and the downtown drop spot is on Central Avenue and Third Street. The vibe on the Party Trolley is just that, a party. With black leather seats that are larger than airplane seats, chalkboard paint on the roof and walls and several flat-screen TV’s on the inside and outside of the Party Trolley, Aitken said people sometimes enjoy the ride more than the party they might be going to, even though alcohol is not allowed on the bus. “We had a request that we could drive people around for 30 extra minutes to just drive around and party,” he said. “There should be a way to have guilt-free drinking. So, we can go out, have fun and not worry about anything and there is a cheap, safe efficient way to get home.”
If you are drunk and need a ride home, call Street Guardians at
(505) 881-SAFE To reserve a space on the Party Trolley call 505-433-7386
ART OF ARCHITECTURE
Dylan Smith / Daily Lobo Designs from The High Bridge competition is currently showing in the Raincosek Gallery on campus. Geared toward reinforcing the connection between the Bronx and Manahattan boroughs of New York City, the contest recieved designs from the artists of over forty different nationalities
Elderly driver steers car through Smith Plaza by Kevin Forte kforte@unm.edu
An elderly driver took a “wrong turn” in his car Thursday. The wrong turn caused the car to go down a staircase east of Zimmerman Library and onto the plaza, police said. Lieutenant Robert Haarhues said the man, 83, got lost while
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~Jaime Gilmore UNM Student
Susanna sold the jet
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chasing him.” Student Jaime Gilmore said the driver seemed scared because people surrounded him, took pictures and called the police. “I was sitting near my stand and I looked over towards the SUB and I see a Saturn coming down the stairs, and I’m kind of confused,” Gilmore said. “Then he passes by us and he stops because he can’t
go past the pole.” The man did not receive a citation, and according to Haarhues, UNMPD officers drove him to the Heart Hospital. His family was contacted to pick up his car. “He said he made a wrong turn,” Haarhues said. “But he did end up in the middle of the plaza.”
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