Bus routes will run their regularly scheduled service on Dec. 31, and operate on a Sunday schedule for Jan. 1. on Jan. 1 so people celebrating the new year have a little extra time to get home after 2013 starts, according to a Metro news release.

There’s a method behind Metro’s offer, with the switch to a new year being one of the deadliest days on the road, as Henry Grabar pointed out on the Atlantic Cities blog:

New Year’s Day is consistently one of the most dangerous days of the year for drivers. Not surprisingly, a unusually large percentage of car accidents tomorrow will involve alcohol in 2009, alcohol played a role in40 percent of fatal crashes, as opposed to 32 the rest of the year.

And in Houston, drunk driving seems to be a bigger problem than other metro areas, according to some recent research.