With enrollment decreasing at Iowa State, CyRide may be hard-pressed to earn repeat honors as Iowa’s most improved urban transit system.

CyRide was honored with the transit award June 3 by the Department of Transportation for its 2003 fiscal year.

In 2003, CyRide’s cost per ride per person decreased by more than 18 percent. The award was determined by the cost per person per ride and by increase in number of riders.

Bob Bourne, director of CyRide, said the decrease of 1,000 students at Iowa State this fall will challenge the bus system. He said approximately 89 percent of riders are ISU students, so less students on campus could cause CyRide use to decline.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the distribution is. It’s a challenge to get bus service to where the students are,” Bourne said.

ISU students’ CyRide fare is calculated into tuition costs every semester. CyRide began charging students through the university two years ago when it began a program that allowed students to ride for free.

This new program helped CyRide increase its ridership by nearly 37 percent last year.

Bourne said the 2003 cost per semester for each student was $38.40. The cost will be $45.50 for the 2004 school year.

CyRide also receives funding from the federal government, the state government and the city of Ames.

Bourne said CyRide will endure some changes this fall.

“We will be cutting back a lot because of the decrease in students,” he said.

He said buses will run on Saturdays and Sundays every 35 minutes in the evenings. There will also be a Sunday night shuttle added from the stadium parking lots to campus. The Silver route will be eliminated since few people ride it.

New apartments along the Red route have increased CyRide intervals from every 10 minutes to every six to seven minutes during the school year.

“It’s about meeting the supply with the demand,” Bourne said. “When there are more students, we run more buses more often.”