For the Walker family, it has been all about providing a means of transportation for students seeking to participate in downtown nightlife since 2003.
At the time, Lee Walker III, who is responsible for the company’s communications and public relations efforts, among other roles, had just graduated high school.
“I had always been the kid that answered the phone and collected money from the students,” Walker said.
When the bus first started driving students in 2003, the Walker family asked those students to come up with a creative name for the bus.
In turn, students named it ‘The Drunk Bus,’ Walker recalled. The family then shortened that to its current name.
When they first started, drunk driving cases went down by about 40%, he said.
“It’s got a slogan for it, which is ‘Here comes D’ Bus,’” Walker said. “We don’t acknowledge that name; we’ve always been very adamant. You don’t have to be drunk to ride the bus.”
On a normal night prior to the pandemic, Walker said four buses would usually run simultaneously serving nightlife.
This year when they resumed, however, the Walker family was able to put only two buses on the road.
“The idea of wanting it to go back to normal, honestly, isn’t there,” Walker said. “We’re kind of happy being a smaller company because it makes it easier to manage. We’re doing what we can with what we have right now, and it’s been alright.”
A big part of their business relies on bars being open, according to Walker. That caused the family to only drive for two nights last year.
“The two nights we ran last year no one gave an issue about masks and I would expect the same thing this year,” Walker said. “If you can wear a mask on Halloween for five or six hours, you can wear a mask for a five-minute ride.”
At the moment their fleet consists of two trolleys and three buses, although when they resumed operations last weekend, they only drove two of the buses, Walker said.
Initially, it cost patrons $1 for a ride, but that increased to $2 back in 2010, Walker said.
A ride now costs $3, although Walker said this had already been the plan since prior to the pandemic.
But the economic impact to the family extends beyond the number of buses they are able to operate at once.
Prior to the pandemic, the family had considered launching a mobile app for the bus similar to Uber’s where students could track their vehicles and request rides but COVID-19 forced them to reverse, he said.
That would have cost the family $40,000, Walker said.
“We’re kind of happy being a smaller company because it makes it easier to manage,” Walker said. “We’re doing what we can with what we have right now, and it’s been alright.”
Their buses are sanitized frequently and now offer hand sanitizer for riders who may need to use it, Walker said.
“I really want this to go well because I do want to be back. We’ve had a lot of students reach out on social media,” Walker said. “When I was out on the bus, I would tell everybody who got off the bus, ‘watch your step and have a good night.’”
Photo provided by the Walker Family
