Gretchen Hoffman
Area organizations are offering free rides New Year's Eve to try
to keep revelers from getting behind the wheel after they've been
drinking.
Travelers on Metropolitan Transit Authority buses can ride for
free from 9 p.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday. The Glendale Beeline
will stop running at 7 p.m. Tuesday under its usual schedule.
The Automobile Club of Southern California is offering its annual
Tipsy Tow program from 6 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday. Drivers or
party hosts can call 1-800-400-4AAA for a free tow ride home of up to
seven miles. A regular Auto Club-contracted emergency road-service
truck will be dispatched.
"We want to make sure no one has an excuse for driving drunk," AAA
spokeswoman Marie Montgomery said. "We always advise people to have a
plan for going out that night, but some people might just get stuck
and they realize they've had too much to drink."
"You can call a cab and go home, but you have your car," she
added. "The Tipsy Tow program is designed to get that excuse out of
the way so they don't have to have that worry about what's going to
happen to their car."
The service excludes rides for passengers and reservations are not
accepted. Drivers can expect to pay the rate charged by the tow truck
contractor for rides farther than seven miles.
Glendale Police will be out in force but aren't expecting heavy
activity on New Year's Eve.
"The department always tries to make sure we have a full
deployment," Glendale Police Sgt. Kirk Palmer said. "Many times New
Year's Eves are fairly quiet nights."
