THE GEOGRAPHY OF AVAILABILITY AND DRIVING AFTER DRINKING

This paper reports on an analysis of geographically based data from fo ur communities conducted to evaluate relationships between measures of the physical availability of alcohol and rates of driving after drink ing From a review of the literature, it was expected that rates of dri ving after drinking would be directly related to the availability of a lcohol at on-premise establishments. Based on theoretical arguments re garding the life activities which underlie drinking and driving it was expected that the effects of availability upon these outcomes would e xtend significantly beyond the local areas of outlets. Taking into acc ount the geographic variations in environmental characteristics (road network density, traffic flow, population density), and socioeconomic (age, gender, race, marital status, income, employment) and drinking c haracteristics (rates of abstention, frequency and quantity of use) of resident populations, a spatial analysis of drinking driving and alco hol-related crashes was conducted. The results Of the analysis showed that physical availability war unrelated to self-reports of driving af ter drinking and driving while intoxicated and significantly related t o rates of single vehicle night-time crashes. In the latter case, phys ical availability affected both local and adjacent area rates of crash ing.