Wow is it true that driving under the influence #DUI in the USA is an average of $6,500 for the first offence!? That would likely discourage folks from trying that as I think #SouthAfrica is probably a good 10 or 20 times less...

See https://twocents.lifehacker.com/how-much-a-dui-can-cost-you-1846086998

@danie10 in the UK (for alcohol, drugs or both) its normally at least a 1 year ban from driving, a fine, license points (or revocation for new drivers in probation period) as well as massively increased insurance premiums for 11 years afterwards, so its a similarly expensive penalty (but this only started being the case from around the late 2000s as testing and ANPR enforcement became more effective)

@vfrmedia @danie10 depends greatly on the state

and there’s also driving bans (sometimes with heavily restricted privileges for driving to work and school) that come into play

and then, in rural and suburban areas, extreme car-centricism means that DUIs happen at an incredibly high rate anyway - like, bars don’t even have a functioning business model in many suburban or any rural areas without rampant DUIs

@vfrmedia @danie10 I actually wonder how much Uber and Lyft have affected this, too

in suburban areas there’s usually taxi services, but they’ve historically been incredibly expensive and poor quality service, to the point that people would rather risk the DUI driving home from the bar (especially because you’ll need the taxi service the next day to get your car). Uber and Lyft might’ve changed that (by abusing their drivers and scamming venture capital to subsidize rides)?