The City of Prince Albert has declared the 2016 Ding in the New Year program a success.

The program provides free bus transportation on New Year’s Eve to provide residents with another way home so they don’t drink and drive.

It is funded in part by SGI.

The 2016 Ding in the New Year took 417 people home, a significant increase from the 199 riders served in 2015.

The peak, though, was in 2014, when 426 people used the service.

The program was started in Prince Albert in 1989 and has since provided more than 10,000 safe and free rides home.

“I’m very pleased with the ridership,” Mayor Greg Dionne said. “I was talking to other groups like Operation Red Nose, and they all had a great year. That’s great because that’s more people of the road, less people drinking and driving. It mean’s there’s less of a chance of an accident.”

For more on this story, please see the Jan. 5 print or e-edition of the Daily Herald.