Launched in eleven Minneapolis suburbs this month, Get Home Free is a flat rate,
prepaid cab card that gets its holder home
safely.
Mainly targeted at teenagers and college students, the concept’s
initiators are aiming to help out kids who are stuck with car trouble,
have been drinking, or whose ride home has fallen through.
Cardholders place a call to the Get Home Free
hotline, and a car is
immediately dispatched to bring them home, no questions asked.
Teen drinking and driving is a serious issue. As reported in the
Star Tribune: “According to the 2004 Minnesota Student Survey, 28
percent of high school seniors reported having driven after using
alcohol or drugs at least once in the previous year.
Also, almost 40 percent of seniors reported that they had ridden
with someone who had been using substances.” Having a Get Home Free
card as an emergency back-up should help keep some of them off the road.
Cards can be purchased online and are valid throughout the Twin
Cities metro area, with statewide expansion to all key cities in
Minnesota planned for 2008, and to high school and college campuses in
all 50 states by 2010.
In order to offer the service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Get
Home Free has partnered with Airport Taxi and Town Taxi, Minnesota’s
largest fleet of taxis with over 300 vehicles.