If we can’t stop drunken drivers from getting behind the wheel, maybe we can stop their cars from going on the road?

We developed the very first parking barrier that doesn’t work with a ticket or chip, but with an alcohol test. You have to blow safe for it to open. If you drank too much alcohol the barrier stays closed.

The mechanic of the alcohol barrier is based on the technology BePark created for ‘smart’ barriers: fully integrated, intelligent parking barriers that are directly connected to a central management system. Inside the parking barrier, the engineers installed an alcohol ignition lock, an electronic breath testing device connected to the ‘OPEN/CLOSE’ signal of the barrier.

So before the clubbers can open the parking barrier and drive home, the alcohol ignition lock in the barrier requires the driver to blow an adult volume of air into the device. A microcomputer analyses the breath sample for alcohol concentration. If the breath sample is below the pre-set alcohol limit, the parking barrier opens.

The alcohol barrier stunt at Carré outperformed classical ‘don’t drink and drive’ campaigns. This time it wasn’t about warning only, the campaign aimed to effectively engage and activate party people. And that’s 100% relevant if we want to reduce road deaths.

People were committed to stay sober because they knew they wouldn’t be able to leave the parking otherwise. And to those who drank too much, Responsible Young Drivers and Carré offered some non-alcoholic drinks to sober up.

The free parking lot with the alcohol barrier was fully booked. For 90% of the drivers the barrier opened immediately, 10% switched seats or sobered up.

ROI: 100% of participants acted as responsible young drivers.

More than 15.000 party people at Carré were involved in this drunk driving prevention event on the parking. The alcohol barrier was covered by Flemish news channels; it reached 1 out of 3 Flemish people via TV, newspapers, blogs, radio (340.000€ advertising value). The best covered public awareness message from Responsible Young Drivers ever.

And this is only the beginning: the coming months other clubs and music and sports events are hosting the barrier too, reaching precisely those youngsters who like to go out and have a drink. Responsible Young Drivers and BePark are also planning to integrate the alcohol barrier in city parkings.