An ingenuous idea to come out of Texas. The City of Austin came up with a "Drive Alive Austin" campaign that features a waiver of a parking ticket if you make the right decision to leave your car behind and not drive home drunk, reports KVUE.

Too often, individuals will make the fatal mistake of driving home intoxicated simply because it is more convenient. You may have driven to a bar or restaurant intending to only have a drink or two. But as you have a good time, that one drink may quickly become four or five, putting you in the precarious position of choosing to drive home drunk or leaving your car behind to be ticketed.

To help deal with this, the Austin Transportation Department is voiding parking tickets that were issued downtown so long as you can prove that you took a cab, bus, or other form of transportation home. Additionally, authorities in Austin do not start looking for illegally parked cars until 11AM on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. This gives drivers plenty of opportunity to recover their cars the next day after having a night out.

Contact a King County DUI Attorney

There are many clever ways to help curb drunk driving. Sometimes the government can take positive proactive steps to dissuade drunk driving such as taking away the sting of a parking ticket.

However, even without these programs, drivers should know that the costs of a parking ticket will never equal the cost of a DUI. On one hand, a parking ticket can generally cost $50-100. On the other hand, the costs of a DUI can easily run into the thousands as you deal with the criminal penalties and fees as well as the legal costs to defend your case. So regardless of government incentives, you are always better off taking a parking ticket over potentially getting arrested for a DUI.

If you have any questions about a DUI charge in the King County area, contact an attorney at Cowan Kirk Gaston Wolff by calling 1-866-822-1230 today.