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City is receptive to teen rides plan, but money's a problem Red Cross would coordinate program
By Steve Enders
Teens are notorious for getting their way with adults, and they might again soon in Saratoga, as a proposal to help lessen the risk of drunken driving makes its way through City Hall.
Last month, a group of Saratoga High School students addressed the City Council with a plan to provide rides home for their peers on Friday and Saturday nights.
The proposal, called Safe Rides, began in Palo Alto in 1984 as a result of two drunken-driving related deaths to teenagers at Gunn and Palo Alto high schools.
Eventually, what began as a community-backed volunteer effort was taken over by the Red Cross to provide ongoing program support.
According to Marcus Fong, Safe Rides coordinator at the Palo Alto Red Cross, the community there was outraged after the students died and wanted to do something to help get dangerous drivers off the roads.
They created Safe Rides, a program which last year gave rides to nearly 500 high-school students in northern Santa Clara and southern San Mateo counties.
Now, they'd like to extend the program to the rest of Santa Clara County. They're starting with Saratoga and possibly Los Gatos because the communities are relatively small, Fong said.
"When you say 'Red Cross,' it just gives it stature and credibility," Betty Morse, a Saratoga parent who's heading the effort, said. "It's not just a group of people trying to get a program going."
Morse heard about Safe Rides in October and ever since has been trying to get it going here with the help of her sons, Daniel and Benjamin, and six of their friends.
In Saratoga, they'd like to run the program out of the Warner Hutton House on Friday and Saturday nights and into the early morning hours.
Safe Rides is run by and for teenagers. In Palo Alto, more than 500 youth volunteers are supervised by about 60 adults throughout the year. They're armed with cellular phones and vans, and pick students up from any situation in which they're not comfortable. It can be because someone's been drinking, is with a bad date or is stuck somewhere without a ride--it's not always alcohol-related, Fong said.
"The reason it's worked so well is because the community is so open minded," Fong said. "It's one of the only programs for teens that is run by teens. It gives them leadership skills and management skills."
The students also go through training sessions with CPR and first aid, as well as driving record checks.
Beyond giving the students a ride home, Fong said, the program serves as a deterrent and a way to bridge the communications gap.
"Some might think that it'll encourage their kids to drink, but that only happens with the kids who won't call their parents to pick them up anyway," Fong said, adding that many student volunteers are repulsed to see their drunken peers.
"But through the program, we encourage parents and their kids to talk about drinking," he said.
The Saratoga City Council appeared very receptive to the idea when it was presented last month in a joint meeting with the city's Public Safety Commission. The project also has Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith's endorsement.
But before Safe Rides gets rolling, a few wrinkles need to be worked out. The group has asked the city for $27,000 for gasoline and advertising and copying expenses. The rest of the money would go to a program coordinator at the Red Cross office in San Jose.
According to Pete Gonda, the city's Youth Commission liaison, Saratoga just doesn't have that much money for the program.
Instead, Gonda said he's in the process of arranging a meeting between the parties to see if a deal can be worked out. SHS students and the city's Youth Commission have also proposed a fundraiser to pay for the costs.
Also, Gonda said, the plan calls for a jointly operated project between Los Gatos and Saratoga high schools, which is contradictory to what was originally presented to the city.
Gonda said he just wants to get everyone on the same page before the proposal goes through the commissions and on to the City Council for final funding approval.
"The council supports it, but they're concerned about the accountability and responsibility of a program that's run by and for teens," Gonda said.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
