Your BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) is a metric commonly used to measure alcohol intoxication, and it can be a little tricky because how alcohol affects your body varies from person to person. Virtual Bar, brought to you by Responsibility.org, can help you better understand your BAC levels and encourage you to drink more responsibly.

Virtual-Bar-Header

As a reliable 21+ year-old driver (go you!), maybe you already know that operating a vehicle with a BAC of 0.08% or higher is illegal, but what exactly does that mean in terms of number of drinks? Depending on your gender, age, weight, and height, Virtual Bar can give you an idea of how you might be feeling after a certain number of drinks and even let you know the time it will take for your BAC to once again reach 0.00%.

I went ahead and downloaded Virtual Bar, because a free app that makes me a smarter driver? Count me in! Let’s play pretend and fast forward to Friday night to see how the app works. I entered in my information and am imagining how a typical night out tends to go. You, dear reader, are my imaginary drinking buddy - first round’s on me! Say we get to the bar and grab a gin and tonic. The app asks how long it takes to consume the drink. I’m gonna say 15 minutes (I feel you judging…but it’s Friday, and it’s been a long week, b!).

GinAndTonic-760x507

Information entered, and my (again, imaginary) BAC jumps to 0.03%. The app lets me know that “You feel a little warm and relaxed. You’re experiencing slight euphoria and loss of shyness, but no loss of coordination.” That sounds great, but hold up! The time it takes to reach a 0.00% BAC is already 2 hours and 15 minutes. Ok ok, I guess we plan on being here for longer than that, so no harm no foul. But then a Rihanna song comes on (and you know I love RiRi), and we’re feeling good, and we’re ready for another drink. Just like that, my peak BAC jumps to 0.06%, and my liver starts to give me some rather serious side eye ?. Just two drinks in, and the time it takes to get back down to 0.00% is 4 hours and 35 minutes. I’m closing out the tab, girl. Grab the Lyft. It’s been real. ✌️

P.S. Virtual Bar is an educational tool and shouldn’t be used as a deciding factor in determining whether or not to drive. Remember that the best decision is to avoid drinking and driving altogether. Be smart and remember drunk driving is never ok! There’s also an option to enter information for multiple people (like the friends you’re drinking with), so help educate others and keep intoxicated individuals out of the driver’s seat.

P.P.S. This was fun. Let’s do it again sometime!