Pittsburgh,Drunk Driving Capital of America!

The Friday mayem has got me thinking about an Idea that occured to me soon after I came to town. The city seems to be sadly obsessed with creating a niche of specialness with endless slogan campaigns and stuff. Here is one from me. Pittsburgh, Drunk Driving Capital of America.

That Pittsburghers love to drink is a sort of an absolute fact. Coming from NY, which is a hard party town, I felt at home. But, soon I could see that partying in the Burgh had a sort of wierd edge to it. In most of NY, because of it's high housing density and transit system ; one is often not far from home or a convenient way to get home after partying. drunk driving in NYC is a sort of unforgivable act. You are likely within 10 blocks or much less of a subway line or you can walk home or you can catch a cab out of the endless sea of late night cabs that troll the party alleys of NY. There is just no excuse for drunk driving in almost all of NY.

You have to wonder, Is someone trying to create some sort of drunk driver road course? There is hardly a high density transit system to speak of and so many of the popular party spots like The Strip and Station Square have marginal transit links. Service on the marginal system that does exist shuts down pretty early at night. Years of active aggressive and stupid urban planning has removed most of the housing density from near the center of town and created massive amounts of parking for people who might drive in from the massive sprawl that surrounds the city. Then some of the same genious people who discouraged or removed housing from the city try to market it as a place to come and party.

WTF. I mean WTF. Is it just me or is someone just trying to kill people. So anyway-- I think that we should challenge other cities to some kind of drunk driving contest or have some kind of suicide Grand Prix. I know it will be tough and that many other cities in America are designed to train drunk drivers. But I think we can win. It's a prize that we deserve.