RU-Buzzed? or are you going to get a DUI?

There were a lot of new iPhones opened on Christmas Day, and that was a big present for the Colorado Department of Transportation, which created its own iPhone application in November to help people measure whether they are too drunk to drive...

By Jonathan Shikes

December 29, 2009

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There were a lot of new iPhones opened on Christmas Day, and that was a big present for the Colorado Department of Transportation, which created its own iPhone application in November to help people measure whether they are too drunk to drive.

RU-Buzzed?, which Westword profiled in this Off Limits column, is a free app available at the Apple App Store online. It allows users to enter their weight, sex, the number of hours they've been celebrating, and the number and kind of drinks they've knocked back in order to estimate someone's blood-alcohol level.

So far, CDOT says the app has been downloaded 35,898 times, putting it among the top 25 free health care and fitness application available.

"We had over 3,000 downloads on Christmas Day," says CDOT spokeswoman Heather Halpape. "Hopefully people are using it as an educational tool to make themselves self aware."

And hopefully they are not using it as a party game - or at least not entirely as a party game - since the Colorado State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies have been out in force over the past few weeks and will be looking for drunk drivers over New Year's.

Eventually, Halpape says the state will consider asking the app's Denver creator, Danny Newman of ID345, to make RU-Buzzed? available for T-Mobile and Verizon smart phones as well, and may help other states promote the program as well.

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