A chimera will be creeping through the thoroughfares of our region for one purpose: to educate Virginia and, eventually, the District and Maryland, about the perils of drunken driving.

The “Chooser Cruiser” is painted to be half-cab and half-cop car — and all mobile billboard.

The cab-cop car will be parked at the corner of heavy drinking parts of town to remind partyers or those drowning their sorrows that they always have a choice. The drunkards can chose to go home in a cab or they can chose to go to the drunk tank in the back seat of a police cruiser.

The “Chooser Cruiser” is the perfect example of Washington Regional Alcohol Program’s public/private partnership philosophy, WRAP’s president Kurt Gregory Erickson says.

Red Top cab donated an old Crown Victoria with 396,000 miles on it, while the Arlington County Police Department donated the lights that crown the Vic. Not one taxpayer dime was spent.

Word to the tipsy, however: Don’t try to flag the half-cab/half-cop if you need a ride. One super lucky police officer will be tasked with moving the car from one location to another.