The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) was one of five states to receive a grant from Lyft and GHSA in 2018. With this funding, OTS augmented its "Go Safely, California" campaign during the holiday season to provide discounted Lyft rides to impaired travelers.
"Go Safely, California" is a year-round campaign promoting safe road user behaviors, including the promotion of ride-hailing services as an alternative when too impaired by alcohol or drugs to get home safely. During the 2018 holiday season, OTS enhanced this aspect of its messaging to showcase the benefits of using Lyft instead of driving impaired. Gearing messages toward young people, who are responsible for more traffic fatalities in the state than all other age groups, OTS ran a social media campaign across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram encouraging users in the Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco areas to download Lyft and take advantage of available ride credits.
OTS' efforts were extremely successful, with posts reaching nearly 1.9 million people with the anti-impaired driving message across the three platforms. More than 2,100 Californians redeemed the available ride credits, keeping impaired travelers off the roads during the busy, and often dangerous, holiday season.