A new cab queue is being tested in front of Boulder's Fox Theater on the Hill starting tonight in an effort to reduce drinking and driving and to better facilitate taxi traffic between the Hill, Pearl Street and other Boulder locations.
In a joint effort among the Hill's Responsible Hospitality Group, CU-Boulder's A Matter of Degree Program (AMOD), the city of Boulder, the Hill Neighborhood Association and Boulder Yellow Cab, the cab queue will be made available from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Six parking spaces on the west side of 13th Street have been reserved for cabs during these hours and will be marked with yellow parking meters, white cab signs and tow-away signs.
Late night traffic between the Hill and Pearl Street is one reason that the cab queue makes sense, according to Mark Heinritz, owner of The Sink and a member of the Responsible Hospitality Group.
"We have a young, mobile clientele which is very aware of the hazards of drinking and driving, but doesn't always have ready access to safe transportation," Heinritz said. "This cab queue should provide reliable transportation without long waits and without the risks associated with over-consumption."
Charter retail members of the Hill's Responsible Hospitality Group include the Fox Theater, La Iguana, The Rack, The Sink, Tulagi and the soon-to-open Players Club. Boulder Police Department officers who routinely patrol the Hill have been active participants in the group founded late last year by the University-Hill liaison office, which is coordinated by the AMOD program at CU-Boulder.
"This is just the first step of many in a program that we hope will benefit the university, the Hill merchants and the community in general," said Peggy Bonner, the new AMOD program director. "While the members of this group are somewhat diverse, the concerns about drinking and driving, over-consumption of alcohol and disturbances are remarkably similar."
The AMOD program has developed an advertising and point-of-sale program based on the group's input. Topics addressed thus far include the cab queue, date-rape drugs and fake IDs, all of which are primary concerns of the Hill merchants, the Boulder Police Department and the university.
Print ads and posters have been produced that will generate awareness of these issues both on the Hill and in CU-Boulder residence halls. Self-policing of underage drinkers, collaborative advertising campaigns and a neighborhood sign program are other topics being discussed by the group.
In addition to the new cab services offered on the Hill, University of Colorado student IDs give students free access to local buses which link Crossroads, Pearl Street and Hill locations. Residents living in the Hill Parking Zone can purchase a parking permit for the Hill from city of Boulder Parking Services at (303) 413-7300.
CU-Boulder is one of 10 AMOD campuses participating in grant-supported research that addresses drinking problems at American colleges and universities. The university is in its last year of the Robert Wood Johnson grant.