Recent articles in the Daily about students with disabilities were informative and interesting. However, there may be some misunderstanding about the services that CyRide provides.

CyRide offers a citywide door-to-door service for all people in Ames who have physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from using the regular fixed route service. Very few ISU students qualify for this service. Many ISU students with disabilities use our regular scheduled route service.

Drivers have been trained to assist passengers who have various levels of difficulty in using the fixed route buses. The assistance may entail helping with packages while boarding or announcing stops for passengers who are blind or providing other necessary assistance.

The most noticeable mobility assistance is for passengers in wheelchairs. Currently, all evening and weekend fixed-route buses are equipped with wheelchair lifts or ramps. During the daytime on weekdays, approximately 80 percent of the scheduled service on citywide routes (#1-#7) are accessible.

On the campus circulator routes, the Gold route (#22) and Silver route (#24) are completely accessible. On the Orange route (#23), all buses to and from Vet Med are accessible. Approximately 25 percent of the service on the Cardinal route (#21) is accessible.

Eight new buses are scheduled for delivery this summer. These new buses will allow CyRide to schedule an accessible bus on all trips on the citywide routes. On the Cardinal route, accessible buses will operate at 16-minute intervals. On the Orange route, accessible service will be provided at six to 13-minute intervals during the day.

After the new buses are delivered, CyRide will continue to operate 21 buses that are not wheelchair accessible. These buses will be used when two or three buses operate on the same schedule as an accessible bus. With our current level of federal capital funding, it will be seven to 10 years before all buses will be accessible.

Cyride is firmly committed to providing service to students with disabilities and we encourage people who need additional information to call us at 292-1100.

Robert T. Bourne

Director of Transit

CyRide