The Ohio Traffic Safety Office (OTSO), a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, will activate its Project Plan Ahead program over Halloween weekend, offering thousands of Ohioans up to $15 in free Uber or Lyft rideshare credits to stop them driving impaired during what the office calls one of the highest-risk holiday travel periods in the state. The credits can be redeemed from 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, to 3 a.m. on Monday, November 2, 2026.
Source: Ohio Traffic Safety Office release via 96.3 XKE
The rules are simple, and they matter. A ride qualifies if it originates in, or has a destination within, one of seven participating counties. Credits are available while supplies last, the rider is responsible for any balance beyond the $15 credit, and an eligible ride must be requested at the time of travel rather than scheduled ahead. WKYC, Cleveland's NBC affiliate, independently reported the same activation window, the $15 credit and the seven-county eligibility on Wednesday, October 28, when the office announced the Halloween activation. Ohioans can check eligibility, ride codes and participating partners through the program site the office links from its release.
Source: WKYC (NBC Cleveland)
Why Halloween is treated as a high-risk weekend
The office's case rests on last year's numbers. In 2025, 19 people were killed in 19 fatal crashes in Ohio over the five-day Halloween reporting period, and 13 of those crashes were OVI-related — OVI being Ohio's term for operating a vehicle while impaired. Put plainly: more than two-thirds of the fatal crashes in that window involved an impaired driver, on a weekend when costumed children are on residential streets after dark and parties run late.
The drug side of the picture is worsening faster than the alcohol side. Crash data cited by the office shows 12 fatal crashes last Halloween involved drugs or a combination of alcohol and drugs — a 33 percent increase from the year before and a 200 percent increase from 2021. Over the past five years, the counties with the highest numbers of OVI-related crashes over the Halloween reporting period were Cuyahoga (95), Franklin (83), Hamilton (65) and Montgomery (52), which is why the program targets the state's big metro counties rather than spreading the credits thinly statewide.
The seven counties covered
The seven participating counties are Butler, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Franklin (Columbus), Hamilton (Cincinnati), Lucas (Toledo), Montgomery (Dayton) and Summit (Akron). A ride must start in one of those counties or end in one of them. For Punjabi families in Ohio's metro areas — and for Punjabi truck drivers crossing the state on Interstates 70, 71 and 75 over the Halloween weekend — the practical point is the same one the office is making to everyone: the cheapest safe ride home this weekend is the one planned before the party, not after it.
The program's first two runs, in the office's own numbers
OTSO first launched Project Plan Ahead over Memorial Day weekend 2026. A total of 2,000 ride vouchers were claimed across Ohio and more than 1,200 rides were taken. Provisional crash data from the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported the lowest number of traffic fatalities over a Memorial Day weekend in 18 years: six fatalities, none of them believed to be OVI-related, the office said.
The second activation, over Labor Day weekend, was bigger. A total of 5,502 rideshare vouchers were claimed in the seven participating counties, and 77 percent of them were redeemed through Uber or Lyft — 4,226 safe rides, in the office's count. Highway Patrol crash data showed a 55.6 percent decrease in fatalities compared with Labor Day weekend in 2025; of the 12 fatal crashes recorded over that weekend, at least one was OVI-related.
Credits run only while supplies last, and a ride must be requested at the time of travel — it cannot be scheduled ahead. Anyone in the seven counties planning a Halloween night out should load the program details before going out, not from the parking lot afterward.
What happens next
The Halloween window closes at 3 a.m. on Monday, November 2, or earlier if the credits run out, and the office will judge this activation the same way it judged the first two: vouchers claimed, rides actually taken, and the Highway Patrol's crash count for the Halloween reporting period against last year's 19 deaths. For drivers — including the truckers who will share Ohio's interstates with Halloween traffic all weekend — the enforcement message behind the free rides has not changed: impaired driving is the one part of the Halloween toll that the state says is entirely preventable, and this weekend it is paying for the alternative.