On the second day of tough new penalties for drunk driving, some Metro Vancouver residents are wondering why there aren't more late-night public transit options for partiers.

Laurel Middelaer's four-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. She says she's disappointed by how early the SkyTrain stops running -- the last trains leave downtown Vancouver around 1:30 a.m, while downtown bars close at 2 or 3 a.m.

"I actually find it's despicable. I think as a city, we need to enable people to make good choices," Middelaer told CTV News. "It should be easy to make a good decision."

Emergency room physician Dr. Bruce Campana says that it only makes sense to keep the trains running as long as bars are serving alcohol.

"Sure, you can say, ‘Call your friend.' Well, not many friends are thrilled at getting a call at 1:30 or two in the morning, or they may not answer. Having stuff like buses available or SkyTrain available when the bars actually close, I think, is a very logical thing to do," Campana said.

Heather Charlton visits high schools to encourage young people not to drink and drive. She doesn't want them to make the same mistakes she did -- she was drunk when she crashed her car 15 years ago, killing her best friend.

She says the Lower Mainland's transit system doesn't seem to be a viable alternative to driving for many people.

"Obviously it's not working because people are still driving in their vehicles. It's expensive and it's not convenient. If it was, people would be taking it," Charlton said.

Detroit has a similar SkyTrain system to Vancouver's, and it stays open until 2 a.m.

TransLink says its trains could run longer, but B.C. Minister of Public Safety Mike de Jong says the new drunk driving regulations and public transit are two separate issues.

"This is about personal decision making, okay? This is about people planning their evening and how they're going to get home, and not offering some lame excuse that, ‘I drove drunk because I couldn't find a bus,'" he said.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander