I know I know I know...a billion people are probably going to tell me that THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD BAR IN THEIR CITY uses this idea already...but in the Albany NY area I have never seen this.

People like drinking & getting drunk... Bar owners like to see their patrons get drunk & have fun because they make money......... but nobody likes Drunk Drivers....so why can't bars/clubs offer their own taxi service?

They could have their own car/bus/van and either for free or a reduced price give the bar hoppers a ride home. I realize that in larger metropolitan areas taxis & the subway are easy to come by...but in small cities like Albany taxis are expensive and they aren't lining every downtown street either.

I personally would have a lot more fun going out to a bar if I knew that my friends & I could all have a chance to drink & not worry about driving home.

With the money that bars/clubs generate on a typical weekend it shouldn't be too much of an expense for them to buy a few vans & have some of their staff drive the drunk home & keep the streets safe!
-- funkychunky, Mar 27 2003

Hm...perhaps the bar should be *in* the taxi.

I imagine the major problem is with patrons who have arrived by car, and are now too paralytic to drive home safely, but are reluctant to leave their car behind, with the consequent extra trip back to retrieve it the next day. So add a tow truck service.
-- DrCurry, Mar 27 2003


...and they throw up in the back seat.
-- beauxeault, Mar 27 2003


GREAT IDEA...... I'd volounteer for the job. Can I get paid by a shot a rider?
-- theThinker, Mar 27 2003


Maybe the bars should just hire old retired geezers to taxi everyone home! They are too old to drink anyway...so we might as well put them to good use!

No, on second thought....I think most old people drive worse than drunk drivers anyway.
-- funkychunky, Mar 27 2003


Hmmm..... DrCurry & TomBomb have given me another idea....

You take an old school bus or maybe a city bus and tear out all the seats - replace them with funky squishy couches & some shag carpeting..... a bar built into the middle of the bus........ You wait at the "BAR STOP" and the bus picks you up...pay perhaps $5 per ride........... hang out on the bus ...drink..party ... all while the bus drives around the city until you get back to your stop (unless by then you are so smashed you can't remember which one that is) although.......then you might have to deal with motion sickness.....ewww.
-- funkychunky, Mar 27 2003


Oooh...that's even better! Different music genres could be played in each train car! All aboard!! Whoot! Whoot!
-- funkychunky, Mar 27 2003


we *did* bar bus before.
-- po, Mar 27 2003


Sounds like an unpleasant surprise for the kids.
-- Worldgineer, Mar 27 2003


There's already service in many areas where a driver comes out to your bar on a small, foldable, motorised scooter. The driver drives you home IN YOUR OWN CAR (with the fold-up scooter in your boot). Costs only a bit more than a taxi, but you don't have to collect your parking-ticket-ridden car in the morning.

Once you arrive safely home, the driver gets the motor scooter out of the back of your car and drives to the next bar on the job list.

Cool, huh?
-- not_only_but_also, Mar 27 2003


Wow! – record number of baked ideas in a single posting.
-- Shz, Mar 27 2003


Sure--and how about a double-decker Starbucks with a roaming wifi connection? Also--why wait until the bus gets there? How about intimate little bars set up in elevators?
-- cloudface, Aug 10 2003


Why would a bar, which specializes in providing drinks, want to diversify into transportation? And wouldn't local businesses which already provide transportation services be more than a little unhappy with the competition?

Here's a better solution: get the bars and the taxi services to coordinate a little better. Maybe the local taxi service offers a deal where you pay to be taken to the bar, and the return trip later on is free. The bartenders keep the taxi service's direct, quick service line on speed dial so they can get you a ride home very quickly. Taxi drivers might wait in the bar for the next drunk fare, and the bar would provide them with free coffee and snacks.

But no, a bar owner doesn't generally want to get into the business of buying and staffing a taxi business, even if he's doing it in cooperation with other bars.
-- ThinkTwice, Aug 08 2004



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