New Years Free Ride

Bars, clubs, and restaurants will be taking on a premium for celebrating the coming of the New Year with them. There is, however, a free ride available to get you home. The MBTA has announced that again this year the T will be free for riders from 8 pm to 2 am on New Years Eve and into the early morning of New Year's Day. We could go on for hours about how we miss the Night Owl service or how great it would be if the T regularly offered service until at least bar close, and preferably long enough for us to grab a train – say a 2:30 am last train rather than the last train at 12:30 am. Likely that rant hasn't done much good an probably won't this time around either. At least the service is here for the people who will make it out to downtown for the festivities. Likely they T will avoid some of the immediate issues that will likely plague the new fare structure - giving them a few hours to work out the kinks.

Cambridge is taking the free ride a step further and offering a free Taxi for patrons of the local watering holes. Cambridge is looking to curb drunk driving in city limits. To achieve this goal they'll be offering the SafeRide. The program is a partnership with the City of Cambridge License Commission, the Cambridge Licensee Advisory Board (CLAB), MIT, and Ambassador Brattle cab (one of Bostonist's favorite and most reliable Cambridge cab services). If you're celebrating in Cambridge and need a ride home (capped at $35) call 617-876-2000 between 9 pm and 7 am New Years Eve/Day. You're supposed to be leaving a Cambridge bar to use the service, and they all close at 2 am so the 7 am end time is curious, perhaps when you wake up drunk on Brookline St. you'll be happy to have 876-2000 programmed into your phone.

Photo of cabs rolling down Storrow courtesy of Flickr user Pierre Lascott