Alcohol abuse and DUI is a huge problem in the Southwest. My Dad used to work in a detox unit for the four corners area and saw…lots of stuff. Natives often can’t get alcoholic beverages on the reservation, so they drink the wood alcohol out of hairspray, Sterno cans, whatever (this is also more cost-effective than a bottle of everclear). Then they’d get put on Antabuse and drink right through it. Scary stuff.
I’m not the least bit surprised. I was driving to play racquetball at the Chavez center on Monday, and was nearly three times! I was following my buddy, and had about one car length between us. A large Chevy truck pulled out into the turning lane from our left, and I thought it was going to hit him. It slowed down enough that I thought the danger was over, but I was still covering the brake. Then, the asshat cut in front of me! A bit later, after the truck turned off, we were going around a roundabout. I had about two and a half car lengths between us this time, and yet another asshat nearly plowed into my friend’s car in the roundabout. They both braked hard enough for a visible drop in the front suspension. Finally, after we dropped my car off at the shop and were riding together, he was nearly hit while entering the Chavez parking lot. Three near misses in less than fifteen minutes!
I was actually having a conversation about this last night. When people around here drink, particularly those who are underage, everybody will drive their own vehicle to a house party, get hammered, and then drive home. Up until a few years ago (due mostly to entire families dying due to wrong way interstate drivers), it was considered socially acceptable behavior.
The other huge problem is the lack of public transport. Santa Fe is the first city in New Mexico I’ve lived in (2 years here, 25 years old) that had a bus line or a taxi system. The bus lines aren’t open when the bars let out, and it’s not very common to take a cab, culturally.
This brings us to another contributing factor. New Mexico, aside from Albuquerque, is a mostly rural state. Even in Santa Fe it is not uncommon for people to live quite far from the city limits. Walking is not an option, while I understand it is generally an option in Europe. When I was in Brazil, for example, there was basically a bar on every corner. Here, almost all the bars are either downtown, or in the case of Albuquerque, either in downtown, or in uptown.
I am in no way saying that the DWI problem is acceptable, nor am I saying that the government is not trying very hard to curb the problem. What I am saying, is that there are some substantial cultural, economic, and social reasons that the problem is not going to go away anytime soon.
I can guarantee you that any type of overpass is not going to happen. The entire city would have to be retrofitted with a twenty foot bicycle track over every single seat. It wouldn’t make sense economically or logistically.