Taking the safe route home

Dec. 27, 2006

Every weekend, John O’Brien presides over a regular party on wheels.
Well, not really, but close enough: John is virtually the “life of the party” by helping tipsy bar patrons get home safely with his Celtic Shuttle & Tours service.
At 2 a.m. every Friday and Saturday, you’ll find his big green bus parked in the alley next to Union Street Station in downtown Traverse City. From there, he makes a pickup at the U&I Lounge a block away, and then a big loop of stops to deliver merrymakers to their homes, safe and sound.
“I have contracts with both of these bars and they’ve been incredibly responsible in terms of getting people home in a safe manner,” says O’Brien, 50, who launched his shuttle service last St. Patrick’s Day. “Sometimes people who’ve been drinking make poor decisions and get tired of waiting for a cab, so this is helpful, having a ride waiting for them. People recognize that Traverse City is a difficult place for people who drink and drive, and they want to get home safely.”
With 26 seats on his shamrock green shuttle, O’Brien has had some wild rides over the past nine months of service. “At 2 o’clock in the morning it’s incredibly entertaining. Most of the time the coach is full... It becomes a social event that takes on a life of its own.”

YOUNGER CROWD
Curiously, many of O’Brien’s riders are younger people; he notes that many older bar patrons tend to be more inclined to drink and drive. “It seems like a lot of my customers are younger and they plan ahead to take the shuttle.”
Some of the patrons are seriously smashed. “I’ve had times where I’ve had to ask for a customer’s driver’s license because he couldn’t remember where he lived,” he recalls.
And there have been times when he’s had to employ the same disciplinary skills he uses as a school bus driver to keep riders in line. Like the time a customer stripped off all his clothes on the bus on a dare and ran up and down the aisle; or the occasional cat-fight between women arguing over some guy.
“I find very little difference between drunks and grade school kids on a bus,”
he says with a laugh. “I’ve had two occasions when guys got out of control on my coach... Then I use some fatherly skills and some things I learned from owning my own bar years ago to tell them to sit down and be quiet.”
A resident of Kingsley, O’Brien’s father was killed in a car crash when he was two years old. “He never drank, but he always drove people home who did; maybe I’m an extension of him,” he says.
Tragically, his stepfather also died behind the wheel. That brought O’Brien back home to Northern Michigan after living for years in places as diverse as the West Coast and Ireland, where he has dual citizenship.
He’s had a career in transportation, first as a semi-truck driver and then as a corporate transportation manager with a chemical company in Portland, Oregon.
When he and his wife Leveda moved to Northern Michigan in 2004, O’Brien found few opportunities in the transportation industry; thus, he decided to start his own shuttle service.

$6 PER RIDE
Business has been brisk. Besides receiving a retainer from the U&I and Union Street, O’Brien charges customers $6 per ride in town (or $10 per couple), with a bit more to head as far as Grand Traverse Resort or Interlochen. Plus, add in $20 if you puke on the bus.
His service has become popular with local hotels and with persons who are planning bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, winery tours, outings to Wuerfel Stadium, and even trips to the Detroit area to catch concerts and sporting events. He’s also done some Celtic-themed runs in a kilt and Prince Charles jacket, with plenty of Irish jokes to keep ‘em laughing on wine tours and such.
For shuttle outings, the charge runs $100 for the first hour and $85 for each hour thereafter. O’Brien is also considering charging a cleaning fee, since some folks can get pretty messy on a party cruise.
Those charges aren’t making O’Brien rich: he pays $600 per month for insurance and his coach gets just 8 mpg. But a big part of the payoff for O’Brien is the satisfaction of providing a service similar to those which are widely offered in Europe.
“To me it’s a service we really need here, and the most important thing is to get people home safe,” he says. “The bartenders at Union Street and the U&I are incredibly supportive, and to some degree it’s an extension of the bars’ service.”

For info on Celtic Shuttle & Tours,
call 231-313-1760.

Alert Cab
back in action
The Alert Cab program returns for the holidays in Grand Traverse County and Cadillac to help bar patrons get home safely.
Launched by H. Cox and Son distributors in cooperation with T.C. Cab, Cadillac Cab and local bars and restaurants, the service offers a free ride home for those who’ve gone over their limit with alcohol.
Offered since 1986, Alert Cab is in service from Dec. 22-31 (excepting Christmas Day) from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. with a run until 4 a.m. on New Years Eve. Need a lift? Ask your friendly bartender or restaurateur to make the call.