Prepaid "liquor stickers" hope to decrease Seattle DUI arrests

Wow what a brilliant idea by the Seattle Nightlife Initiative and the Road Safety Action plan.  Why am I just hearing about this now?  Liquor stickers have been placed on every meter in Seattle, essentially allowing an individual to prepay for 2 hours of parking the next morning.  Why what you want to do that you ask?  Well what is the most common reason people have when they decide to drive home after a night of drinking and risk a Seattle DUI arrest.  I don't want to leave my car downtown and have it get towed in the morning because Im not going to wake up at 7 am to go get it.  

This idea essentially eliminates that reasoning, and under the initiative will hopefully decrease the number of Seattle DUI arrests, because people will decide to take a cab home, and come back in the morning to retrieve their vehicle

Now I'm a Seattle DUI lawyer, and I have never heard of this program before.  And it has been put in place for the past 2 years, and only used 45,000 times.  What does that tell you?  There is not a lot of talk about it, I'm even willing to bet a good majority of people think it is some kind of a scam.

I recently found this article on Kiro 7 discussing one of the major problems with this initiative.  And that is nobody knows what it is.  The gist of the article is nobody knows what these stickers are, and they are hard to find if you do.  The news reports makes an excellent point.  Anybody who has ever lived in Seattle, or used a parking meter knows there is a bunch of crap all of these meters.  From graffiti, to other stickers, to posters, etc.  The reporter points out that nearly at the bottom of the meter is the liquor sticker idea saying what to do.  Problem is it just looks like any of the other garbage on the meter, and not necessarily official.  

So what does the City plan to do about it?  According to the article, absolutely nothing.  Because 45,000 people have decided to use it, that is somehow indicative this initiative is working.  Call me a pessimist but I don't think 45,000 over the course of 2 years is that great.  Plus how do we know these 45,000 people are in fact using the liquor sticker for what it is intended.  I bet a good majority of these people park their car regularly on City of Seattle streets, and are just using it so they don't have to wake up first thing in the morning to move their car on the weekend.

But kudos for the City of Seattle thinking of this idea.  I honestly can't say I have ever seen or noticed one of these stickers.  And I park regularly downtown and use meters when I go to Court, or picking something up at the downtown mall area.  But I will definitely check it out next time I'm at a meter, and I suggest you do as well.     put in place by the Seattle Nightlife Initiative and the Road Safety Action plan.  Why am I just hearing about this now?  

So what is it?  Liquor stickers have been placed on every meter in Seattle, essentially allowing them to prepay for 2 hours of parking the next morning.  Why?  Well what is the most common reason people have when they decide to drive home after a night of drinking.  I don't want to leave my car downtown and have it get towed in the morning because Im not going to wake up a 7 am to go get it.  

This is idea essentially eliminates that reasoning, and under the initiative will hopefully decrease the number of Seattle DUI arrests, because people will decide to take a cab home, and come back in the morning to retrieve their vehicle

As you know I'm a Seattle DUI lawyer, and I have never heard of this program before.  And it has been put in place for the past 2 years, and only used 45,000 times.  What does that tell you?  There is not a lot of talk about it, I'm even willing to bet a good majority of people think it is some kind of a scam.

I recently found this article on Kiro 7 discussing one of the major problems with this initiative.  And that is nobody knows what it is.  The gist of the article is nobody knows what these stickers are, and they are hard to find if you do.  The news reports makes an excellent point.  Anybody who has ever lived in Seattle, or used a parking meter knows there is a bunch of crap all of these meters.  From graffiti, to other stickers, to posters, etc.  The reporter points out that nearly at the bottom of the meter is the liquor sticker idea saying what to do.  Problem is it just looks like any of the other garbage on the meter, and not necessarily official.  

So what does the City plan to do about it?  According to the article, absolutely nothing.  Because 45,000 people have decided to use it, that is somehow indicative this initiative is working.  Call me a pessimist but I don't think 45,000 over the course of 2 years is that great.  Plus how do we know these 45,000 people are in fact using the liquor sticker for what it is intended.  I bet a good majority of these people park their car regularly on City of Seattle streets, and are just using it so they don't have to wake up first thing in the morning to move their car on the weekend.

But kudos for the City of Seattle thinking of this idea.  I honestly can't say I have ever seen or noticed one of these stickers.  And I park regularly downtown and use meters when I go to Court, or picking something up at the downtown mall area.  But I will definitely check it out next time I'm at a meter, and I suggest you do as well.    

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About the author: Matthew Leyba is a Seattle DUI Lawyer.  His practice focuses on representing those accused of DUI and other alcohol related offenses.  He is currently rated by Avvo as a Top DUI Attorney in Seattle, and was recently named a 2013 Rising Star in the field of DUI Defense by Superlawyers Magazine, an honor less than 2.5% of all Attorneys in Washington State receive.