West Side Shuffle.jpg

Lakewood resident Christopher Tarr painted this old school bus black and is using it to shuttle customers between bars and restaurants in Lakewood and Ohio City. The service launched Halloween weekend.

(Bruce Geiselman, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

This photo from the West Side Shuffle Facebook page shows company owner Christopher Tarr behind the wheel of the old school bus before he painted it black and converted it for use as a shuttle bus.

LAKEWOOD, Ohio – Lakewood and Ohio City bar patrons looking for a ride Friday and Saturday nights have a new option – a renovated school bus.

The West Side Shuffle, a service launched by Lakewood resident Christopher Tarr, started service over Halloween weekend. The former school bus, now painted black, runs a loop between Detroit Avenue at the Lakewood-Rocky River border to West 25th Street in Cleveland. The shuttle stops at bars and restaurants along the way.

The cost is $4 per rider or $6 with a credit card.

Tarr got the idea last winter when he had trouble finding a cab to take him home from a Lakewood bar.

"I was out last February at 2:30 in the morning, and I couldn't get home," Tarr said. "There was too much snow and it was too cold to walk."

When he called a cab company, the dispatcher told him it would be 4 a.m. before a taxi would arrive. With no place to wait, Tarr and his girlfriend ended up walking home in the snow.

"That's how I came up with the idea to start some sort of a shuttle service running throughout the night," he said.

The shuttle is a two-person operation. Tarr collects fares and keeps track of rider destinations, freeing the driver to concentrate on the road, he said. The bus starts picking up passengers at 9 p.m. and the last pickup is 2:45 a.m.

The bus route starts at Detroit and Bunts Road heading west to the Rocky River border, where it turns around and heads east on Detroit. The bus then turns north on Bunts Road and travels to Clifton Boulevard and then to bars and restaurants on West 25th Street. The bus travels on to West 41st Street and Lorain, for passengers wanting go to go to the Platform Brew House, and then turns around and retraces the route.

Tarr estimates the longest a rider would wait for the bus would be an hour. Riders can call 216-673-4222 to inquire about pickup times and make a reservation. They also can Tweet @WestSideShuffle to schedule pickups and dropoffs.

Tarr says his school bus passed inspection by the Ohio Highway Patrol before being put into service, and he has a vendor's license from Cuyahoga County. He said no local approvals were necessary.

Lakewood Law Director Kevin Butler said he was unaware of the service until contacted by a reporter, but he was not aware of any local licensing requirements.

Ridership over the Halloween weekend was light, but Tarr just began publicizing the service on social media, including a Facebook page. He and girlfriend Laura Kuenzel are visiting area bars to tell them about the service and distribute fliers.

Lakewood City councilman Shawn Juris, working with several local bar and restaurant owners, attempted to launch a shuttle service for Lakewood this summer. That Saturday night service would have been free for riders, with participating businesses paying for RTA trollies. However, the group failed to raise enough money to launch this year.

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