Agreed. Seventeen, ten, one or five is too many people busted for drinking and driving in any time period. That's too many whether those drivers are customers or employees of drinking establishments or whether they are locals or visitors.
But, let's be realistic. What options do we have for people who want to go out for some nightlife? We currently have a bus system that runs ONE night a week. One out of seven nights a week doesn't offer a lot of options. This is not to suggest people don't have personal responsibility when they go out carousing at night, but we as a society and as a community aren't doing much about our responsibility to provide some of the tools needed for people to make the right decisions.
Our need for public transportation goes far beyond the problem of drinking and driving. According to a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between Sugarbush and The Valley towns, the ski resort is obligated to pony up for public transit -- and the ski resort does pony up, but only for winter transit. A 1999 agreement through the Valley Transportation Advisory Committee was to have resulted in year-round transit for The Valley, but it got lost in the implementation and in the ensuing loss of transit providers.
What we have now is winter service only. We have no year-round transit service to bring people from Warren to Waitsfield, from Moretown to Fayston, from Harwood to Warren and from The Valley to Waterbury or Montpelier. This is not just a winter issue -- it's an economic, environmental and social issue.
Are anyone's wages going up as fast as the cost of gasoline? We need transit. We need it year round and we don't need any more excuses such as, "We've asked the legislature for funds." We need solid leadership on this issue.
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