It’s 10:30 on a Saturday night, and all three phone lines are already flashing. Aaron sits at a small desk in a trailer surrounded by papers, a computer, a phone and a radio. There is barely enough room to walk and with three people inside, the trailer seems packed to capacity. Aaron takes a deep breath and picks up the phone. It’s just the beginning.

“SafeRide,” he says. He winces and holds the receiver away from his ear; the student on the other side must be somewhere loud. He hates when people call from bars or noisy parties because it’s more difficult to hear the caller. He patiently listens and deciphers where the caller is, how many people need a ride and the destination.

 “A car will be there in about 25 minutes. Have a great evening,” he says before hanging up. He logs the information on a sheet of paper, filling in the addresses and the call time. This is just the first ride of the night; by 2:30 a.m. he will have filled in almost 120 rides.

 He picks up the handset and contacts a driver, who will pick up the passengers in a Toyota Prius and take them home. Then the cycle starts over again: Answer the phone, get the necessary information, log it, relay it to the drivers.

 SafeRide is a free service available to all KU students who need a safe way home — whether it’s from campus, a bar, a party, etc. The program operates seven nights a week between 10:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. The average wait time for SafeRide is 30 minutes, but on very busy nights it can be up to an hour. Last year the program had close to 20,000 successful passenger trips. SafeRide won’t take you from party to party; it is strictly enforced that you are getting a ride home and sometimes a proof of residency is required. Though some students oppose this, the drivers must enforce the policy because they are liable for all their passengers.

 The lights continue to flash and Aaron picks up the next call. The student is near 14th and Tennessee streets and is looking to get back to the dorms. Aaron pulls out a map and checks the routes. He explains to the caller that he can take SafeBus, which will pick him up at the nearest stop and drop him on Daisy Hill. When the caller protests, Aaron calmly explains that the bus runs every 20 minutes, making it faster and more convenient for his situation.

 SafeBus is another program designed to provide students a ride home. Three bus routes — yellow, blue and red — cover all of campus and many student neighborhoods. SafeBus operates the same hours, but only Friday and Saturday nights. The program started in 2007, and has significantly lowered call volume for SafeRide. Last year SafeBus had 24,000 passenger trips.

 An hour into his Saturday evening Aaron is joined by Sam Schlageck, his supervisor. They trade off duties — Sam answers calls while Aaron radios the drivers. Tonight four cars are operating, much less than the usual 10.

 “It’s hard to get drivers who want to give up their Saturday to drive around and pick people up,” Aaron says. So they have to work with what they’ve got.

 The phones keep ringing, rides are requested and more students start to argue. They don’t want to take the bus. The wait is too long. It took too long for their call to go through. They don’t understand why SafeRide has to take them home. Their ride isn’t here yet. Why can’t the driver call them when he or she is outside?

 Even when a caller yells, argues or swears, both Aaron and Sam keep their cool. “You have to be polite first,” Aaron says. “I try to keep a level of professionalism. Certain individuals think they’re the only ones calling, and their ride should be there immediately. But that’s not the way it works.”

 Wait time is by far the biggest complaint. With a limited number of drivers and only three phone lines, it’s difficult to accommodate the demand. Derek Meier, Independence junior, works as the liaison between SafeRide and KU on Wheels, which oversees all KU transportation including the campus buses and Park and Ride. He explains that the problem with wait time probably won’t be solved. Spending money to add more lines or have another person answering the calls wouldn’t get the available transportation to riders any faster.

 SafeRide began in 1986 under the name SecureCab. The initial program looked the same as SafeRide today, and had the same goals. KU on Wheels contracted with the City Cab Company, but when the company went bankrupt in 1987, Student Senate changed the program. SecureCab became Secure Shuttle, which was more like a bus route with 11 stops around Lawrence. Because of high costs and low ridership, Senate changed the system again in 1989, resulting in SafeRide in its current form, which has been running ever since.

 The operating costs of the program are completely paid by student fees. Every student at the University pays $10 per semester that goes directly to the SafeRide and SafeBus programs, but Meier says the fees will have to rise in the next few years to keep up with inflation.

 In 2007, SafeRide switched contracting companies from the Lawrence Bus Company to MV Transportation. The new transportation company uses Toyota Prius cars, which get better gas mileage. SafeBus uses the same KU on Wheels buses that run during the day on campus.

 On busy nights Sam often ends up driving either a car or a bus. Halfway through this Saturday evening he takes the car out to pick up students. He gets sick of arguing with people on the phone. He’d much rather be part of the action. Though it’s a stressful job, he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t enjoy it. “I feel like it’s redemption for my college years,” he says laughing as he walks out of the trailer to his Prius.

 Sam graduated from the University last spring with a degree in industrial design and urban planning. He drove the T bus, which covers routes all over Lawrence, for a year and then applied to work with SafeRide. He is now the head supervisor of both SafeRide and SafeBus, even though the students he picks up are often no more than four years younger than he is. Sometimes he picks up someone he knows, which he says is a little awkward, but he shrugs it off. No one should be denied a ride, he says.

 When Sam walks out to his Prius he switches modes, turning into a cautious, defensive driver. Riding with him is like being in driver’s ed again. He sits up straight and keeps his focus. He slows down at stoplights as if anticipating that they will turn yellow at any second. He is wary of slow drivers and people who swerve. When you have a stranger’s life in your hands — or rather your car — you have to be cautious.

 All SafeRide drivers go through two weeks of classroom training where they learn defensive driving. They are taught to anticipate and prepare for sticky situations to avoid accidents. Then they spend two weeks shadowing an older driver, learning the system and the streets. After the month of training, the driver is ready to go it alone. SafeBus drivers go through the same training, but they have to get their commercial driving license. This requires two additional weeks of training on how to drive a bus.

 It’s harder to find people willing to drive the bus, but Sam says he prefers it. While the shift is more intense — usually there are 20 to 30 people on the bus at a time — you get to see a lot more interesting things.

 “Driving the bus is like the ultimate form of people watching,” Sam says. On Halloween he volunteered to drive the bus because he wanted to see all the costumes. Although you get to see more people, it’s also more difficult to control what happens on the bus. With no seatbelts and a lot more passengers, anything can happen. Fights break out and students try to drink or smoke on the bus, all of which is prohibited.

 Driving the cars is more manageable because there are fewer passengers, but both the car and the bus have their drawbacks, such as passengers puking. Two to three times per week, somebody vomits on the bus or in the car. Vomit is a biohazard, and when someone throws up the driver has to take the vehicle back to base — at the corner of 31st Street and Haskell Avenue — and switch it out for a clean one. As supervisor, Sam is in charge of cleaning up the mess, which he says is the worst part of his job.

 Drivers spend a lot of their night waiting on students to claim their ride. Drivers don’t call students when they arrive; it is the students’ responsibility to anticipate the arrival. About half of the callers don’t take their ride for various reasons. They might lose track of time or decide they want to stay longer. The drivers are instructed to wait five minutes, and if the student doesn’t show up they move on to the next call.

 Casey Prohaska, Olathe junior, has developed a system to ensure that she doesn’t miss her ride. Once her request is accepted she listens to how long the wait is and then sets an alarm on her cell phone. If the wait is 30 minutes, she sets her alarm for 25. That way she doesn’t have to keep checking her watch; the alarm reminds her when her ride is almost here. She hasn’t missed a ride yet.

 The person answering the phones often gets calls from students wondering where their rides are. Aaron explains that drunk time seems to go much faster than when you’re sober. Sometimes it feels like you’ve been waiting forever, but only five minutes have passed. With these calls Aaron maintains his calm demeanor, telling callers their rides will be arriving shortly.

 When students accept their ride, Sam writes down their destination and the time on a clipboard. He radios the dispatcher saying the passenger has been picked up, makes sure everyone has a seatbelt on and drives away. He loves when passengers talk with him. It makes the time go by faster. Sometimes they ask him about his night, if he’s seen anything crazy or if it’s been busy.

 There are 20 drivers for SafeBus and SafeRide combined. Some are nontraditional students at the University; others are older. Sam says ideally he wants more students driving, but most don’t want to give up their nights. Most of the current drivers have day jobs and are looking for extra work. That or they like working nights, like Sam, who is a self-proclaimed night owl. He drives most nights of the week.

 Sam says he’s seen some pretty crazy things on the job. Students so drunk they can barely stand. Interesting outfits. Girls in skimpy clothing and heels when it’s snowing outside. Crying. Yelling. People rolling off the seats on the bus. PDA on the bus. People trying to bring odd things such as plywood or signs on the bus. Sam says men are harder to deal with on the bus, while women tend to be more difficult in the cars. On buses men sometimes tend to get aggravated and start fights. But in the privacy of the cars, women tend to be more emotional and angry.

 Sam only intervenes if riders are breaking the rules. Students can’t smoke, drink or fight on the bus or in the car. And PDA has to be kept PG-rated. Sam says he doesn’t want to act like a parent.

 But driving drunk college students is like being a parent. Sam says you have to treat them like they are 4-year-olds. He’s had people throw tantrums over the phone and on the bus countless times. He has to remind them of the rules and talk slowly so they listen, and he has to clean up after them too.

 “It completely boggles my mind how alcohol can turn completely normal people into animals,” Sam says.

 Animals who heckle drivers, yelling and swearing. SafeRide cars no longer drive down Massachusetts Street or near the corner of 14th and Ohio streets because too many people approach the cars. Drivers used to have people hit their car while walking by, walk in front of the moving vehicle, throw drinks on the car or at the driver, and even throw rocks. These areas are now the main routes of SafeBus, making it easier on drivers and the cars.

 Driving for SafeRide isn’t all about transporting drunk college students. During the week a lot of students use SafeRide to get to and from campus at night. Aaron says the callers from campus are often the nicest. They are pleasant, on time and they don’t try to lie to you. Many international students without cars also use SafeRide to get home. A handful use the service on a regular basis. One particular student calls SafeRide to come home after a late shift at his job almost every weekend.

 Derek Meier, KU on Wheels supervisor, says many Big XII universities look to KU’s SafeRide program as a model for their own programs. KU’s program is ahead of the curve, using a professional service and paid drivers. Most other universities are run on a volunteer basis, making it hard to accommodate a high demand. Oklahoma State University recently approached Meier for advice on how to build and promote its program. Other schools are usually impressed by the SafeRide’s driving efficiency, high ridership and how it is integrated into the school transit service.

 Though SafeRide is a model for other universities, the program still has its faults. Meier is always looking for feedback from students so the program can expand and improve. The money paying for the program comes from the students, so they should have the ultimate say in how the program works.

 “We just run the show,” Sam says. “Ultimately it’s about what KU students want.”

Editor’s note: Aaron requested that his last name be withheld due to harassment he received about his involvement with SafeRide following a previous news article.