Let the good times roll

January 20, 2008

By Stephen J. Lee
Herald Staff Writer - 01/20/2008

B ob Sweeney is exactly the kind of customer Michael Rocks-Macqueen is targeting.

Friday night, Sweeney celebrated his 21st birthday by riding Rocks-Macqueen's new Club Express shuttle bus from the Sigma Chi fraternity on UND's campus to downtown Grand Forks bars.

It was part of a regular route the Club Express followed all night, into the first two hours of Saturday, ringing UND's campus, including apartments and Greek houses, then making drops and pickups downtown at several Grand Forks bars.

Sweeney got on at least twice outside Joe Black's on Third Street, walked to several other bars in the 15 degrees below zero January night, and ended up back home, safe and mostly sound, hours later.

“It was awesome,” Sweeney said about noon Saturday in a tired, still-not-quite-right voice, about the bus service, as well as his long night of imbibing.

He used the Club Express as a way of making sure he didn't drive while under the influence, said Sweeney, who is from Devils Lake.

As he was walking down Third Street between bars Friday, his cell phone rang.

“My mom called me. I told her I was hammered,” Sweeney said, the phone still at his ear. “But she was really happy I wasn't driving.”

Launching a business

Rocks-Macqueen, a UND aviation student, started the Club Express service last semester, trying it out on several weekends.

He saw a business opportunity that also would help his fellow students.

“People are going to drink,” Rocks-Macqueen said. “This is a way to make sure they don't drive when they have had too much to drink.”

In a UND-subsidized program several years old, Nodak Radio Cab offers students taxi rides at night for a buck. But the wait for such a ride often is long, Rocks-Macqueen said. Which gives him a market niche, he said.

A similar service, Sober Guy, that started in Fargo last fall, plans to begin in Grand Forks next month, offering to drive customers home in their own cars. Another Sober Guy employee picks up the first Sober Guy employee at the patron's home.

Rocks-Macqueen thinks his bus's regular route will get better service, all night long.

Bouncers, music Mike Ebanks is the bouncer and sound man, sending the thumping music of Snoop Dog shaking the bus windows as colored lights strobe around the roof, changing hues, giving the bus's interior the look and feel of a club. A UND football lineman, Ebanks clearly can handle whatever comes up. “Only a couple of times,” has he had to play the bouncer role, he said. Mostly, he keeps the music going.

Macqueen said he's hired four bus drivers and two bouncers for part-time work.

Late Friday into Saturday, UND student Andrew Jensen was driving the former 65-passenger school bus. “Actually, I drive school bus for East Grand Forks,” Jensen said, only taking his eyes off the street for a moment to look up into his wide-angle rear-view mirror at his passengers.

A bus for all Rocks-Macqueen bought the low-mileage 1987 International bus in Albuquerque, N.M., his hometown, and did most of the customizing himself, including installing a chrome pole in the middle of the bus's interior. It's just for holding on, as well as dancing, as he demonstrates. A full bus is about 35 people in his customized configuration, he said.

He also rents the shuttle as a party bus to groups who can legally drink while riding around.

But during his shuttle trips, he discourages on-bus drinking, he said. For one thing, underage students use the shuttle, too, to go from home to home, instead to bars.

“We love this bus,” screamed Hayley Messner. “We just LOVE it!”

Messner, Kelsey Mulhern and Kalyn Horsch, all 20 years old, grew up together in Rosemount, Minn., and are students at UND.

“We're just riding to other houses,” Messner said. “This is the best thing ever.”

Before they carefully stepped off the bus outside the Sigma Chi house, they kept raving about the Club Express.

“Kids don't have to worry about driving drunk,” Mulhern said.

“It's such a great idea,” Messner said.

Subsidized shuttle That's what some bar owners think, too.

Rocks-Macqueen persuaded several downtown bars to subsidize his shuttle, to the tune of $350 per month each, based on service each weekend, he said. Bar owners say it just makes it safer for students.

Not all the bars downtown have signed on, though.

Brad Beauchamp, an owner of Crosstown Lounge in the old Griffiths department store building at 308 DeMers Ave., said it didn't quite work for him.

“Because of our location, he can't stop on the street out in front,” Beauchamp said of the front door access to DeMers Avenue. “It's too busy.”

“But I support the idea. Anything to reduce drunk driving,” Beauchamp said.

Another concern he had, too, was whether buying into such a service might increase a bar owner's liability for what happens on or near the bus. Rocks-Macqueen said insurance ended up being much more expensive than he first expected. But he now has $5 million in liability coverage, he said.

He and his employees take care, too, to make sure everyone gets on and off the bus safely, he said. That means his schedule slows the later the night gets, as patrons move with more difficulty, he said.

On Friday night, he sold 60 to 70 all-night passes - worn as wristbands - at $5 a pop. He charges $3 per trip.

“I'm breaking even, which is fantastic,” said the confident young businessman. “In a month or so, I should be making money.”

“But it's all about having fun,” he said.

He obtained a $15,000 start-up loan through UND's Center for Innovation and uses office space at the center, Rocks-Macqueen said. Busy finishing up his degree and getting his license for piloting helicopters, Rocks-Macqueen obviously has time and energy for other interests.

“I'm putting ads up on the outside of the bus,” he said. “Once I put my cell phone number on the outside - (701) 777-4837 - it just exploded.”

As if on cue, his phone rings as the bus bounces along, nearing the closing time rush. “Where you at?” Rocks-Macqueen asks in a voice loud enough to get over the music. “OK, we will be there in five minutes.”

Some people have questioned if such a convenient service encourages heavier drinking by students, Rocks-Macqueen acknowledges.

Sweeney said that he felt more freedom to over-indulge Friday night because he didn't have to worry about driving.

Gary Wentz, a licensed addiction counselor in Grand Forks, wants to see how it works.

“You have to have a balance here. You are talking about the safety of these people,” Wentz said. “It depends on how this guy does it. If he promotes high-risk drinking behavior, I would have a problem with that.”

He would like to see UND do more to discourage students from over-drinking, Wentz said.

“But if kids are going to binge drink anyway, you're damn right I'd rather see them riding on a bus than driving themselves.”

Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237 or at slee@gfherald.com.

This origional article can be found at http://www.grandforksherald.com
/articles/index.cfm?id=64431&section=homepage.