Shuttle bus operator hopes to cash in on crowd
Owner of The Wave strives to carve out share of business from Super traffic
With so many trips and schedules to keep track of, Lauren Barrash feels sometimes like she’s going in circles, when actually her shuttle bus and jitney services at The Wave usually follow a more complicated route.
Barrash, owner and founder of The Wave, notable for its bright orange jitney buses that operate between Houston hot spots, is one of many Houstonians hoping to cash in on Super Bowl visitors by carrying them to and fro. From pedicabs to taxis, limos and Ubers, local drivers — and even some coming from other Texas cities to fill the need — are working to handle a huge demand in downtown, Midtown and emptying NRG Park on Sunday night after the Super Bowl.
For Barrash, the opportunity is bittersweet, since the emergence of Uber — and what she thinks has been favorable treatment of Uber by city officials — has hurt her jitney business on weekends.
“It’s killed me,” Barrash said of Uber, despite her jitney being often a cheaper option. “I get it. People want it easy. They want it right now and see when it is coming.”
Much of her business lately focuses on scheduled shuttle trips, such as providing the buses for the Midtown shuttle during Super Bowl week and the buses to ferry people to Club Nomadic — a pop-up concert venue here last week — from their off-site parking. She also organizes culinary tours and brewery tours that carry folks between set venues.
The demands put a lot of wear on her eight buses, which she lovingly refers to as her children — though they’re about to be supplanted by her first human child in a few weeks. The vehicles have their own roles, hierarchy and in many ways personalities.
“Lola’s a party girl,” Barrash said, rattling off descriptions for Thor, Marge, Charley and even Cowboy T, who came to her via Dallas.
“That’s why he’s a cowboy,” she said.
Three of her kids are running the Midtown shuttles, with fresh game-related images slapped across their backs. The free shuttles are covered by the city’s host committee.
Barrash also has her drivers primed as ambassadors for the area, a role they relish, she said.
“For my drivers, it is cake,” she said. “They are more like a concierge.”
Meanwhile for her, the juggling act from shuttles to jitney to other tours will last long after the Super Bowl. Not even pregnancy was slowing her much.
“I’m a person who doesn’t like to stop,” she said, acknowledging that’s an odd statement from someone whose business is based on frequent stops. “(The buses) can stop. I can’t.”