You just need to call 0771 444 5050. Tell the co-driver where you are, where you want to go and how many there are in your group. 

If you are on your own, male or female, and you feel unsafe let them know and they’ll make you a priority. Please do not abuse this system as it means that other people who are alone may not get picked up as quickly. A definition of a lone traveller is someone who is on their own at the time of calling, not someone who is travelling alone but with someone else at the time of calling. 

Occasionally, we are unable to get to people straight away, the co-driver may ask you to stay where you are, if you are in a safe place, or move to a place where we know there are people and you will be safe. This usually happens when the buses are at a different part of the city, and ensures you are safe. 

Similarly if you are disabled and need to be collected as a priority, please let the co-driver know so that they can prioritise you, if you don’t let them know they can’t help you.

Occasionally there is confusion over where you are located and the bus is unable to find you, please be very specific about where you are. Other times the bus arrives outside the pub/club you are at and waits but no-one comes, so they leave, please keep an eye out for the bus if you call it. Please don’t move from the place you said you were, or if you do let the bus know so they can find you at the new place. 

Usually if the bus arrives somewhere and can’t find you, it will continue on it’s route to pick people up/drop people off and come back a little later to find you. If you get the bus or a taxi, we don’t mind, but it’s helpful if you let us know so we don’t wait for you.

So you’ve phoned the bus and they told you they would be there in 15 minutes, but then they don’t arrive. There are many reasons for this, if you’ve been out and about in Oxford lately you’ll see all the road works, this can slow the buses down a lot and they often have to find alternative routes to town and back to get past them. Cowley Road and town are often extremely busy with people and traffic at night and this can cause problems for the buses getting around. 

There may also have been a priority call that would need to be picked up as soon as possible. The drivers try there hardest to get to everyone in the time they’ve said, but this isn’t always possible and they have to obey the rules of the road. Please bear with them, if they are running late they will be with you, but everyone will feel better knowing that people are safe and the bus is being driven safely. If you are really concerned about the bus being late to pick you up or you think you may have missed it, call them back to ask them where they are and their ETA, they won’t mind.

We would prefer it if you weren’t sick on the bus, if you don’t feel well, sit towards the front of the bus. Ask the volunteers to open the windows so you get some air and if you really feel like you need to be sick ask them to pull over. 

If you are sick on the bus we will ask you for your Student Card so that we can contact you. We will usually charge you for the cost of cleaning the inside of the bus, the amount depends on what exactly needs cleaning in the bus.

Of course you can give more than £1, we welcome all the donations we can get for the scheme.

There are many reasons why the bus may not have been able to pick you up. It may be that they are exceptionally busy and you were asked to wait a long time, or you may have been outside the Ring Road. Also if you were on a U1 bus route and the U1 was still running, the bus would have been unable to take you until the bus had stopped running. 

Occasionally the crew will feel that you are too drunk or abusive and will refuse to take you. If this is the case accept the decision, wait until you have sobered up for a while and then call the bus again.

Whilst you are on the bus you are expected to behave in a responsible manner, this means you should remain seated whilst on the bus, keep the noise level to an acceptable manner so as not to distract the driver and not be abusive or threatening to the volunteer or other passengers. If you have any issues with the volunteers, please bring them up in a polite fashion or contact Lucie or Jon in the Activities Office. 

If you are refused a ride you can ask the co-driver the reason why, they will be able to tell you the full reasons. If you still do not get an answer please let the Activities Office know.

The Safety Bus scheme only takes staff, students and guests of Oxford Brookes Students’ Union and Oxford University. 

You may need to show student or staff identification when you board the bus.

The Safety Bus has a long standing agreement with the University which means that the Safety Bus can’t take you to Wheatley or Harcourt whilst the U1 is running. Whilst we can understand how frustrating this can be for people who have to wait a while for the U1 to arrive, it means that those students who do not live on a bus route and have to walk down poorly lit streets to get home, have more possibility of using the Safety Bus and making it home safely. 

As much as we would like to be able to take everyone home, we don’t want to jeopardise the service the U1 offers to a lot of people late at night. It is a very valuable service that would be sorely missed if they lost the custom to the Safety Bus, and the Safety Bus going out to the satellite campuses just duplicates a service that already exists. The buses going out to Harcourt and Wheatley also takes quite a long time and whilst they are out there a lot of jobs to more vulnerable areas are missed or delayed. 

This is an issue that is brought up regularly, and the Students’ Union is aware of the situation and monitors it throughout the year. If there are any changes to any of the services the Students’ Union will look at the policy and let students know of any changes.

The volunteers don’t get paid for the shifts they do. You get to meet a whole host of people from across both Universities, and get involved in a really great scheme that helps other students. We are still developing the scheme in terms of training so there will be changes in the future. 

Incentives include free pizza on shift, safety bus hoodies, guestlist to some OBSU club nights and safety bus team socials throughout the year.

For Students' Union use:

50p/mile plus £5/hour in Safety Bus time (9pm til 3am)

For any other use:

50p/mile plus £5/hour anytime.