Some minor changes will be implemented during the summer and fall for CyRide bus routes.

Beginning May 6, the eastbound Red route will no longer follow Todd Drive or Lincoln Swing. Instead, buses will stop along South Dakota Avenue near Todd Drive, then travel directly to Lincoln Way.

CyRide Director Bob Bourne said the change “speeds the trip up.”

“We extended the route to [Ames] Middle School to give it a little time,” he said. “One to two minutes doesn’t sound like a big deal to most people, but on the schedule it is.”

Beginning Aug. 18, the Red, Green and Blue routes will stop service at 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights instead of around midnight. Riders will have to use Moonlight Express routes, which stop about every 18 minutes.

Bourne said few people used the routes that late at night, especially after the Moonlight Express adopted a fixed route system during the past few years.

“The ridership is very low on those routes, and moonlight routes provide better service,” he said. “That’s part of an evolution over the past few years. It’s kind of completing that transition to a better level of service.”

Also beginning in August, the #4 Orange route will be extended from Duff Avenue to Dayton Avenue.

The extension will help people who work at the motels located near U.S. Highway 30, Bourne said.

“There’s a lot of jobs for low- and moderate-income people out there at the motels,” he said. “We are trying to link up these opportunities for people who may not be able to afford an automobile.”

The Orange route extension will also allow people staying at the motels to easily travel to campus, Bourne said.

“This will provide a nice connection into campus for anyone staying out there,” he said.

The Brown route will also begin service on Saturdays from the ISU campus to North Grand Mall, 2801 Grand Ave.

“We have had a lot of requests for that in the past few years,” he said. “We will try it for a year and see if it generates riders or not.”

Bourne said minor route changes occur on an annual basis, and there should be minimal budget impact.

CyRide has also been operating its buses with 10 percent biodiesel fuel, rather than the 5 percent blend it has used in the past. Bourne said whenever biodiesel prices are within 2 cents per gallon of traditional diesel fuel, CyRide will choose to use the renewable fuel.

“With the high fuel prices, everyone is trying to buy soy and the producers can’t keep up,” he said.