Drunk driving remains one of the leading causes of death for young people aged 15 to 20 in the United States. For Urban students living in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, the message “Don’t drink and drive” is more complicated than just a slogan.
At Urban, only three out of 312 (0.9%) student respondents reported having driven under the influence on the spring 2025 Health Initiatives Peer Education (HIPE) survey. In comparison, more than 5% of high school students in the U.S. reported having driven after drinking at least once in the previous month, according to the 2019 National Youth Survey.
Health education teacher Jennifer Epstein uses the HIPE survey results to shape how she talks about drunk driving in her classes.
“We don’t spend a lot of time talking about drunk driving because the numbers are pretty low,” she said. “But we do talk about harm reduction for all drugs, including not driving under the influence of anything.”
One reason Urban students drive drunk less often may be the accessibility of public transport. Public buses and rideshare apps in San Francisco give students options for how to get around the city. “There’s really no reason that someone has to drive under the influence because of how accessible public transportation, Ubers and Waymos are in the city,” Robbie Milne ’26 said.
That isn’t always the case in other places around the Bay Area. “In Marin, we don’t have reliable buses, and Ubers are a lot more limited,” Lilly Kate Higgins ’26 said. “More people end up driving each other, which makes underage drunk driving a bigger concern.”
For some teens, what qualifies as intoxicated driving is not always clear-cut, leading to potential for dangerous situations.
“There are misconceptions around what ‘Don’t drive drunk’ means,” Epstein said. “I say, ‘Don’t drive if you’ve been drinking.’ [But] someone might say, ‘Oh, I just had one [drink]’ [or] ‘I’m a better driver when I’m drunk; I pay more attention.’”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), even a small amount of alcohol (a blood alcohol concentration of 0.02%) impairs judgment and slows reaction times, contributing to thousands of motor vehicle crashes each year.
The bigger issue for Urban students isn’t driving under the influence, but riding with a friend who is. Nearly one in four students said they had gotten into a car with a friend who was driving under the influence, according to the HIPE survey.
“[If you’re] going with friends who are under the influence, … it’s easier to talk yourself into, … ‘Oh, it’s only a mile or two,’” Epstein said.
Epstein recalls when the 2024 HIPE team spoke with people serving life sentences at Vacaville Women’s Prison for voluntary manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol. “That made a big impact,” she said. “Almost worse than being in jail is having to live with the fact that you took people’s lives. Hearing those stories and having genuine, human dialogue is the most effective way to prevent drunk driving.”