COLUMBUS, Ohio — Franklin County residents heading out for Halloween can claim a $15 Uber or Lyft credit this weekend under a state program aimed at keeping impaired drivers off the road, the Ohio Traffic Safety Office announced on Wednesday, October 28, according to reporting by The Columbus Dispatch.
The credit applies to any ride that starts or ends in Franklin County or in six other urban Ohio counties — Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Montgomery, Lucas, Summit and Butler. Riders can redeem credits starting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, through 3 a.m. on Monday, November 2, and rides cannot be scheduled in advance, according to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. The office said the next round of credit codes will be released on Friday, October 30, at 10 a.m.
The offer is part of Project Plan Ahead, the safety office’s effort to give Ohioans a practical way home without driving under the influence. Halloween is a busy weekend for parties, costume events and trick-or-treat traffic across Columbus neighborhoods, and officials are urging anyone who plans to drink to line up a sober ride before the night begins rather than making that decision afterward.
The numbers behind the push are stark for Franklin County. There have been 83 OVI-related fatal crashes in the county over the past five years, according to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office figures cited by The Columbus Dispatch. Statewide, the five-day Halloween period in 2025 saw 19 fatal crashes that killed 19 people, and 13 of those crashes involved a driver operating a vehicle under the influence, the safety office said.
Project Plan Ahead is not new, and the state says earlier rounds were heavily used. The program was first used over Memorial Day weekend this year, when 2,000 credits were claimed and more than 1,200 rides were taken statewide, according to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office. For Labor Day weekend, Ohio gave out 5,502 credits and 4,226 of them were redeemed in the Uber or Lyft apps, the office said.
The safety office also linked the Labor Day round to a sharp drop in deaths, reporting a 55 percent decrease in traffic fatalities that weekend compared with Labor Day weekend in 2025, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s reporting of the office’s figures. Officials are hoping a similar Halloween turnout — people choosing a rideshare, a designated driver or another sober option — will keep this weekend’s celebrations from ending in a crash.
For Columbus-area residents, the practical steps are simple: claim the credit when the code is available, use it for a ride that starts or ends in one of the seven eligible counties during the redemption window, and do not try to schedule the ride in advance. Anyone hosting or attending a Halloween gathering this weekend can help by checking that guests have a plan to get home before the first drink is poured.