Ride-hail services join limos, party buses at proms

NEW YORK -- Prom is as much about the journey as it is the dance, so how will all those teens heading into the annual rite of spring handle their wheels?

Limos and charter party buses may still be kings for prom, at least in some areas, but they don't have a stranglehold on transport considering the rise of Uber and similar hail services.

Other high schoolers looking to save money plan to ditch rentals and drive themselves.

Prom has morphed into multiple activities at multiple locations, complicating logistics in getting around, a particularly thorny issue for teens who will drink and drug.

According to research, more than 90 percent of teens believe their fellow classmates likely will drink and drive on prom night, and only 29 percent believe driving on prom night comes with a high degree of danger.

Nearly 1 out of 10 teens in one survey reported being a passenger of someone under the influence on prom night.

Jillian Frisch, an 18-year-old in Voorhees, New Jersey, has no intention of being one of them when she and her friends drive themselves -- two or three to a car -- to their May 13 prom, along with a trip to the shore for an overnight after-party in a rented house.

"Drinking and driving is stupid. Most kids wait until they safely get to the shore house or wherever they go after prom to celebrate," she said.

Jillian's dad, Gary Frisch, is fine with the transportation arrangements but fully acknowledged some students will drink once they get to the "prom house" despite a legal drinking age of 21.

"I'm actually trusting that there will be no illicit alcohol during the prom itself and do trust that my daughter won't get in a vehicle with an impaired driver," he said.

Some towns have gotten around that risk entirely by taking the issue of transportation into their own hands.

In Glen Rock, New Jersey, along with many others, teens must take chaperoned charter buses to and from prom.

The cost often is built into the price of prom tickets.

"They can drive themselves to school, and then the bus takes them to the prom location," said mom Angela Crawford, whose 18-year-old son will attend senior prom in Glen Rock on June 3.

It works about the same at Anna Schiferl's large suburban Chicago high school, which requires teens to take the sanctioned luxury charter buses not only to prom, but also to approved post-prom events.

Her prom is May 31 on Navy Pier, an attraction in Chicago about 20 miles from the school in La Grange.

"I haven't personally experienced the bus ride to prom yet since my school has only a senior prom, but I haven't heard any complaints," said Schiferl, 17.