Sometimes a good idea is so obvious that you can’t believe no one has made it happen yet. That would seem to be the case with something called the Impair Aware Alcohol Level Indication System. It’s a machine you can put in a bar or restaurant that lets you measure your blood alcohol level so you know if you’re fit to drive or not. This takes the guesswork out of a guessing game that has been going on for generations. It has been introduced in the U.S. by Federico Forero, a longtime manager of a probation office in Atlanta, who saw the machine in use in bars in Europe. Here is some more information about the machine, and here is a press release.
As good an idea as this is, I am not sure how widely this machine will be adopted, in part because of the mixed incentives at play. Bar owners may scoff at having to buy a piece of equipment that may be seen as curbing sales. (On the other hand, the machine could help earn the bar owner some legal protection if a customer leaves the bar drunk and gets into an accident.) Also, the way it’s configured, a customer has to pay to use the machine — that’s how the bar owner is supposed to make his money back, by collecting fees for use. But will people be willing to pay, even a small fee, to find out news that they might not want to know? Would you weigh yourself in the bathroom every morning if your home scale cost $.50?
On balance, though, this seems to be a great idea. The true test would be to get data from the cities and towns in Europe where the machine has been used and look at trends in alcohol consumption, auto accidents, taxis called to bars, etc.
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We tried something similar once when I was an undergraduate in a fraternity. We bought a breathalyzer machine so we could ascertain whether or not someone was too drunk to drive home. Good in theory, but it quickly turned into “see who can blow the highest,” which quickly turned into “wake him up so he can take the breathalyzer. I bet it’ll be a new record!”
We tried something similar once when I was an undergraduate in a fraternity. We bought a breathalyzer machine so we could ascertain whether or not someone was too drunk to drive home. Good in theory, but it quickly turned into “see who can blow the highest,” which quickly turned into “wake him up so he can take the breathalyzer. I bet it’ll be a new record!”
This is only going to work if these machines are reliable because if I use it and blow a .075 (below the legal limit in most states) and then get pulled over and arrested for a DUI because I was really .08+ then there is no incentive for anyone to trust and use this machine.
I see a possible liability issue with this if someone drive after using this and they get a DUI because they based their decision to drive on this machine. Since they are not signing a waiver, their acceptance to pay is not the same as signing a waiver and general liability warnings are probably unlikely to hold up in court, which is why most of the alcohol test machines in bars today state they are for entertainment purposes only. Those machines are used more by people trying to see how drunk they can get before passing out, a favorite game of Darwin.
Although as someone trying to be a responsible adult that likes to partake in a few drinks on occasion I would love the ability to validate my level of intoxication before deciding to drive.
This is only going to work if these machines are reliable because if I use it and blow a .075 (below the legal limit in most states) and then get pulled over and arrested for a DUI because I was really .08+ then there is no incentive for anyone to trust and use this machine.
I see a possible liability issue with this if someone drive after using this and they get a DUI because they based their decision to drive on this machine. Since they are not signing a waiver, their acceptance to pay is not the same as signing a waiver and general liability warnings are probably unlikely to hold up in court, which is why most of the alcohol test machines in bars today state they are for entertainment purposes only. Those machines are used more by people trying to see how drunk they can get before passing out, a favorite game of Darwin.
Although as someone trying to be a responsible adult that likes to partake in a few drinks on occasion I would love the ability to validate my level of intoxication before deciding to drive.
I second Matt’s comments. It may not seem obvious, but every time one of my friends has had a portable brethalyzer it ALWAYS turns into a competition to see who can blow the highest score. In most cities the fraction of bar patrons driving home is relatively small, so only a small number would use the machine for that purpose. I would definitely pay $0.50 to see how drunk I was, and then probably another $0.50 later to see how much drunker I got.
I visited Australia this March and one of the bars in Byron Bay (coincidentally, it is owned by none other than Paul Hogan a.k.a. Crocodile Dundee) had one that was free. You got a straw, stuck it into the machine, and blew into it.
I second Matt’s comments. It may not seem obvious, but every time one of my friends has had a portable brethalyzer it ALWAYS turns into a competition to see who can blow the highest score. In most cities the fraction of bar patrons driving home is relatively small, so only a small number would use the machine for that purpose. I would definitely pay $0.50 to see how drunk I was, and then probably another $0.50 later to see how much drunker I got.
I visited Australia this March and one of the bars in Byron Bay (coincidentally, it is owned by none other than Paul Hogan a.k.a. Crocodile Dundee) had one that was free. You got a straw, stuck it into the machine, and blew into it.
These things are pretty common in Australia now, and I recall back in ’93 or ’94 the Uni I was at at the time had a free one. We were trying to blow the highest, and I eventually sprayed a scotch that was virtually still in my mouth in liquid form straight into the machine.
.549, or legally dead.
(FWIW, the limit is .05, so I was around 11 times the limit. Or rather, the scotch in my mouth was…)
These things are pretty common in Australia now, and I recall back in ’93 or ’94 the Uni I was at at the time had a free one. We were trying to blow the highest, and I eventually sprayed a scotch that was virtually still in my mouth in liquid form straight into the machine.
.549, or legally dead.
(FWIW, the limit is .05, so I was around 11 times the limit. Or rather, the scotch in my mouth was…)