Does the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Save Lives?

The answer is no, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (abstract only, visit your local university library to find this journal article). Standard story says that raising the minimum drinking age to 21 in all states prevent teenagers from being able to drive to another state to party and drive home. But the overall reduction in traffic deaths is more likely due to safer cars and better medical treatments than with policies handed down from a big government.

I still support letting each state decide its minimum legal drinking age (bringing it down to 18), but I realize that this sort of policy would be good only in a country that isn't so tied to car culture, because rather than driving home, teenagers should be walking or riding the bus home.

Perhaps in a city like New York or Los Angeles, the drinking age can be 18 as long as teenagers are provided public transportation for going home.

In San Francisco, when BART was open overnight on Labor Day weekend, many of the BART riders happened to be young men and women who went to San Francisco to party and were going home by BART.

Clearly, there is much to be gained from providing viable public transportation to reduce car accidents and fatalities.