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| August 1, 2003 |
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| August 1, 2003 |
ADMINISTRATION:
Bus Dedication: A statewide dedication ceremony for new buses will be on August 19 at the Iowa DOT. Buses purchased with statewide grants will arrive in Ames for the ceremony. The entire Iowa Congressional delegation has been invited. We will send one new Orion and one of the new minibuses. (Bob).
CyRide Picnic Everyone is invited to attend the CyRide picnic, Saturday, August 23, from 12:00 4:00 pm at the Maple shelter in Brookside Park. CyRide will provide the burgers, brats and hotdogs. You will need to bring a side dish or dessert to share and a beverage. Friends and family are welcome to attend. (Jenny)
Parking: We will be trying a few different parking schemes for buses and cars in the next month to work out the most efficient parking and servicing plan. Please check the bulletin board for any changes. For now, anyone can park in the new parking area across from the office, but you must be out of the spaces by 4:00pm or your vehicle may be blocked in by buses waiting to be serviced. (Bob)
OPERATIONS:
Fall service changes: There will be many service changes occurring when the new schedule starts on August 22.
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To keep buses on time, some weekday times have been adjusted slightly (#2 Green East Ontario to State Gym, #3 Blue South Mall to Kildee, #3 Blue North Bessey to Schilletter, #23 Orange Vet Med to ISC, #6 Brown South Mall to Aspen).§
#1 Red and #7 Purple routes will use Dickenson and Steinbeck on inbound trips until 1000am on weekdays. This is an important safety issue and will reduce the number of people crossing South Dakota to get to the bus stop.§
There will be a 5:51pm #2 Green West trip added from Kildee Hall (ISU class days only)§
# 3 Blue route will have a 10 minute interval southbound in the early morning and northbound in the late afternoon to and from campus. The Express buses serving the south end of the route will operate more frequently. All northbound buses will use 30th directly to the Mall instead of using Wheeler.§
The afternoon #5 Yellow route will run every 40 minutes instead of the current 30 minutes. To help the passengers leaving ISU at 4:00pm, there will be a 4:20pm trip on ISU class days only.§
# 6 Brown route will go to Wessex southbound only when passengers need the detour.§
# 21 Cardinal will have a slight schedule change with one 12-minute gap each hour in the morning to create a memory headway and also give drivers an extra four-minute break each hour.§
#22 Gold route will have a new evening route serving Parks Library. The schedule will be adjusted so that there is either a #22 or #23 every 10 minutes in the evening from the Library to RCA.§
#23 Orange ISC Shuttle will have a 25-minute cycle time at certain times and a 20-minute cycle time at other times so that drivers will have an extra five-minute break after every third trip. There will be no public timetable on the Parking Lot Shuttle so that we can vary the intervals between 3 and 6 minutes depending on demand.§
All routes except for the #23 Orange ISC shuttles and some Cardinal trips will be wheelchair accessible.§
The Saturday and Sunday #1 Red and #3 Blue evening trips will continue to run.§
Sunday morning #1 Red and #3 Blue routes will have 35 minutes per trip instead of the current 30 minutes.§
Fares for the Des Moines Airport shuttle buses will return to $10 per trip for all passengers and all trips between Christmas and January 8 will be discontinued. (Bob and Tom D)
C.I.T.: We have parked several buses at Central Iowa Transit for storage for the summer after our lease was cancelled at 637 Lincoln Way. When school starts, we will have some buses at C.I.T. and will operate out of there as we did at the Lincoln Way site until the garage is completed. (Bob)
Record Ridership: CyRide carried 4,678,548 passengers in the fiscal year that ended June 30, shattering the old record set just last year by 36.9%. Below are some comparisons with other Iowa transit systems:
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Busiest Bus Routes in Iowa |
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Iowa Urban Bus Systems |
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City |
Route |
Passengers |
City |
Passengers |
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Ames |
Orange |
1,555,519 |
Ames |
4,678,548 |
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Cambus |
Hawkeye |
855,000 |
Des Moines |
4,029,434 |
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Ames |
Blue |
792,930 |
Cambus |
3,353,065 |
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Des Moines |
University Ave. |
700,000 |
Iowa City |
1,449,129 |
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Ames |
Cardinal |
662,695 |
Sioux City |
1,220,945 |
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Ames |
Red |
623,660 |
Cedar Rapids |
1,194,055 |
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Cambus |
Interdorm |
580,000 |
Davenport |
958,661 |
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Cambus |
Red |
571,000 |
Waterloo |
490,510 |
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Cambus |
Blue |
570,000 |
Coralville |
399,553 |
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Ames |
Green |
454,430 |
Dubuque |
365,116 |
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Council Bluffs |
157,292 |
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Bettendorf |
139,392 |
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Accident, Attendance & Complaint Statistics
For the months of April, May, and June our statistics in these areas are as follows:Accidents 8 preventable, 7 non-preventable, 2 unreported
Attendance 25 lates, 12 no shows
Complaints 17 complaints, 2 compliments
Accidents and complaints have improved since the previous quarter, however, our attendance has not. As we get busier with the fall schedule approaching its important that we know when our shifts are and we are here on time. (Karen)
Monthly License Checks It was suggested by a driver that we conduct license checks more often so that we could help remind employees when they need to renew their license. Therefore, starting August 1, 2003 we will be conducting monthly license checks. Each month we will check only those employees whose birthday is in that month and the dispatcher will give you a friendly reminder if it is time for you to renew.
We will continue to do unannounced license checks a couple of times a year to assure that everyone is reporting to work with their license. (Karen)
HIRING AND TRAINING:
Wheelchair testing Just a reminder, we will be testing all drivers, dispatchers, and supervisors on their knowledge of wheelchair securement at the end of each fall meeting. If you would like a refresher on how to properly secure a wheelchair before your fall meeting, please see Brent or Jenny. If you would like to take the test now to get it over with, see Brent or Jenny. We would actually prefer to get as many done BEFORE the fall meetings as possible. We will be using Orion Vs. (Brenny)
MLX Training: We are looking for (paid) volunteers to help train new drivers on MLX. If you have Moonlight Express experience and you would like to help out, please talk to Jen, Jenny or Brent. You do not have to be an instructor to train on MLX. Full timers are also welcome to help out, however overtime will not be offered for this so we would need to cover another part of your shift to ensure you dont go over 40 hours. We need the majority of the help for Friday, August 22 and Saturday, August 23 as well as the following weekend, Friday, August 29 and Saturday, August 30. (Brenny)
MARKETING:
Yellow Route: When Barb returns, she will be working on marketing the Yellow route. We evaluate our services based on the number of passengers that ride per vehicle hour assigned to the route and the Yellow route is the weakest in the entire system. (Bob)
SHOP:
Garage: Construction is continuing slightly ahead of schedule. The dry summer has been a great assist in keeping everything moving well. Almost all of the concrete work is done. Interior wiring and plumbing are next. The bus washer installation should start during the last week of August and will take about five weeks. We hope to be able to fuel buses in the new lane when school starts. Final completion is scheduled for the first week in November. (Bob)
Buses for Sale: 905 was sold for $406 and 963 brought in $2,800 (we only paid $2,000 for it!). No one was interested in 882 or 883. We will try to sell 882 and 883 as well as one minibus in September. Tell your friends who might want a great tailgate vehicle or the ultimate SUV. (Bob)
Buses in Storage: With the arrival of the new buses, we will be putting several buses in storage, ready to be brought back to life quickly if necessary. 884, 903, 904, 908, 951 will be stored at Central Iowa Transit or the City Warehouse this fall. Their spirits are willing, but their bodies are tired. They will be used if we need to send any buses out for repairs for a long time. (Bob)
Maintenance Supervisor: 12 applications were received for the Maintenance Supervisor position. Interviews will be conducted in August and we hope to have a new person in the position by the end of September. (Bob)