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Free rides: take it easy on New Year's Eve

City of Moose Jaw, SGI and Moose Jaw Police Service team to expand New Year's Eve free local bus service.
NYE bus
MLA Warren Michelson, left, Mayor Fraser Tolmie; Sgt. Kevin Pilsworth from the Moose Jaw Police Service and Steven Loptson, manager of transportation services for the City of Moose Jaw, stand in front of one of the Moose Jaw Transit buses that will be free of charge on New Year's Eve. (Matthew Gourlie)

People don't always make the best decisions on New Year's Eve.

The City of Moose Jaw and SGI want to ensure that there's no reason for driving impaired to be one of those bad choices.

The City, in partnership with with SGI and the Moose Jaw Police Service, have expanded -- and rebranded -- their annual "Wing in the New Year" free ride program.

"We appreciate SGI sponsoring the program again this year and allowing Moose Javians who are out celebrating the brand new year to get a safe ride home," said Craig Hemingway, communications manager for the City of Moose Jaw.

Moose Jaw Transit will offer free rides from 7:55 p.m. to 3:15 a.m. over the course of New Year's Eve. The City has altered two of their routes for the night to better serve the public.

"We have, this year, for the first time, adjusted the routes slightly. We're going to make pick-ups in front of a couple of places where we don't normally stop, but that are sites of a couple of big New Year's Eve parties. One is Mosaic Place where the Moose Jaw Warriors are hosting their New Year's Eve cabaret and also the Royal Canadian Legion on High Street where they have a New Year's Eve party," Hemingway said. "We want to really encourage everybody at those events -- and any other event throughout the city -- to hop on a City bus and get a safe ride home that night."

A map of the New Year's Eve routes will be available on the City's web site starting on Dec. 20. While the routes are altered they will still make all of their regular stops through the course of the evening as well. The bus will arrive at each stop every 40 minutes.

Para-Transit will also have a bus offering transportation on New Year's Eve. Para-Transit riders can pre-book their trip through Moose Jaw Transit (306-694-4888) and they can also call that night as Moose Jaw Transit will have people manning the phones and dispatching the Para-Transit bus as needed.

The safe ride program has been a great success since its inception 30 years ago as "Ding in the New Year." This year has seen the name changed to reflect SGI's "be a good wingman" campaign that focused on combating impaired driving. Sgt. Kevin Pilsworth from the Moose Jaw Police Service believes programs of its kind have made a significant impact.

"The holiday season is a time when people do celebrate and quite often people, as part of the festivities, are drinking and using other substances. So, it's really important that we do provide some of the opportunities, such as Wing in the New Year," Pilsworth said. "We can't attribute the success to just one program, but the fact that we just had one person charged with impaired driving last New Year's Eve probably speaks to a lot of the things we're doing as a community. Again, to have SGI and the City to do something for 30 years, they should be congratulated for what they've been doing for this length of time and there's no doubt in my mind that it's helping keep the impaired drivers off of the road."

Pilsworth feels that having programs like Wing in the New Year can help promote the idea of planning a safe ride home year round.

"To have something like this in place, not only does it provide a legitimate alternative to driving yourself when you shouldn't, it's also sending a social message: this is what other people are doing. This is what is expected. This is available. It does tell the people of our community that this is something that we maybe should be doing," Pilsworth said.

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