Fiesta is underway in San Antonio, and that means revelers who’ve had a few drinks too many will be looking for ways to get back home. 

Drinking and driving in the Alamo City usually increases during Fiesta, according to the San Antonio Police Department. Officers typically make more arrests for DWIs during Fiesta than in your average week, an SAPD spokesperson said this week.

The nonprofit Free Rides program is ready to make sure people are able to get home safe from their favorite Fiesta events. Azeza Salama, the executive director, said Fiesta is one of its busiest times each year.

“Free Rides is an option,” Salama said. “And it’s a better option than drinking and driving and going home.”

Salama lost her fiancé in a drunk driving accident in 2016, and she sees the nonprofit as a way of making sure other people don’t have to go through what she did. 

The process is simple: you call the Free Rides program’s phone line and someone will call an Uber for you. The phone number is (210) 281-1121. 

The person on the other end of the line will ask you four questions: What’s your name? Where are you? Where are you going? What’s your phone number? What vehicle did you drive?

From there, the nonprofit will call an Uber, and the rider will get a text message with information about the ride, like the driver’s name, the car’s make and model and the license plate. People who don’t have the Uber app can still call for rides. 

Salama emphasized that the program is for people who drove to an event and realized that they’re too drunk to drive home. It’s not just for anybody who wants a free ride. That’s why, she said, they ask for information about what car people drove to the event. 

“The whole purpose of the Free Rides program is to eliminate another drunk driver on the road,” Salama said. “So, we have to ensure that people that are getting the free Uber ride home are actually leaving a vehicle behind.”

Salama said Uber charges the nonprofit the full price for the rides. It relies only on private donations for funding. The nonprofit is holding a fundraiser Monday night at Hard Rock Cafe to raise money for the program.