Impacts of Subsidized Ridesharing on Drunk Driving, Alcohol Consumption, and Mobility

The purpose of this research study is to understand people's alcohol use in public places and their risks for harm. The overall goal of this study is to test the effects of subsidized ridesharing as an intervention to reduce self-reported alcohol-impaired driving, along with alcohol consumption and changes to mobility.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people aged 13-25 years in the US, and approximately 31% of all fatal crashes involved some alcohol use. Several peer-reviewed studies have found that ridesharing was associated with fewer alcohol-involved crashes and DUI arrests. Theories of behavioral economics provide a clear theoretical mechanism by which ridesharing will reduce alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes compared to other private transportation. However, while ridesharing may be an effective intervention to reduce alcohol-involved crashes, it may simultaneously increase alcohol consumption. This study will assess the impacts of subsidized ridesharing on impaired driving, alcohol consumption, and mobility. Participants will be randomized to either receive a rideshare voucher or an online shopping voucher, and effects on alcohol impaired driving and alcohol consumption will be measured. A GPS sub-group will use a custom smartphone application for GPS tracking to measure mobility.

Participants will be asked to complete 3 surveys over 2 weeks to collect in information on their alcohol use and about themselves, and receive ridesharing vouchers.

Participants will be asked to complete 3 surveys over 2 weeks to collect in information on their alcohol use and about themselves, and receive online shopping voucher.

Ridesharing vouchers will be given for completing each of the online surveys, for a possible total of $80 if you complete all three surveys. You will be paid with electronic vouchers that will be sent to your cell phone.

Online shopping vouchers will be given for completing each of the online surveys, for a possible total of $80 if you complete all three surveys. You will be paid with electronic vouchers that will be sent to your cell phone.

Participants will provide two self-reported measures of impaired driving by indicating whether they "drove after drinking any alcohol" (driving after drinking) and "drove after drinking too much alcohol to drive safely" (driving while intoxicated) for each day during the previous 7 days.

Participants will be asked to state the number of drinks consumed on each day for the 7 previous days, and their responses will be used to calculate the frequency (defined as the number of drinking days) and the continued volume (defined as total number of drinks consumed after 1 drink on a drinking day) of drinking.

Participants enrolled in the GPS sub-sample will be tracked and GPS records will be used measure exposure to alcohol outlets and mobility.

Participants enrolled in the GPS sub-sample will be tracked and GPS records will be used measure exposure to alcohol outlets and mobility.

The Drinker Inventory of Consequences is a 45-item measure of alcohol-related consequences on which higher scores reflect greater alcohol consequences. It measures harms related to alcohol consumption within 5 sub-scales: physical consequences, intrapersonal consequences, social responsibility consequences, interpersonal consequences, and impulse control consequences.

Inclusion Criteria: ≥ 21 years old Reside in a study city Have a driver's license Have access to a motor vehicle Have consumed alcohol in a bar in the last 30 days Own a smartphone Read English Exclusion Criteria: Non-English speaking participants

Data from the study will be submitted and shared with NIAAA Data Archive (NIAAADA), a data repository housed within the NIMH Data Archive (NDA).

Data will become available March 2028, 2 years after the end of the project, as designated by NIAAADA policy.

Study data can be accessed on the NIAAADA website: https://nda.nih.gov/niaaa/getting-data For access to individual-level data, researchers will need to receive authorization from NIAAA by completing the NDA Data Access Request (DAR).