The women and men who drive the residents and students of Ames everyday don’t just start out behind the wheel.

Chris Anderson, senior operations assistant for Cy-Ride, said in order to become a Cy-Ride driver, aspiring men and women must go to the human resource department for the city of Ames to fill out an application.

The application is studied for evaluation. The applicant must then take a test. If successful, they become eligible for an interview. If all goes well, the applicant is put on a waiting list until an opening is found to drive on a route.

When there is an opening, the real work begins. Anderson said everyone is trained to drive a bus even if they have driven one before.

The two-part training includes out-service training and in-service training. The out-service training, which lasts about a week, teaches trainees to properly drive the bus, use the radio and handle the passengers. During this training the driver follows routes but does not pick up passengers. The out-service training also includes classroom instruction.

The second part of training, in-service, involves driving a route and picking up passengers. A new driver is required to do in-service training for 65-85 hours. Every new driver is assigned a trainer who rides and instructs them how to become a better driver.

Student opinion varies concerning the training of Cy-Ride drivers. Most students do not mind, yet others feel inconvenienced.

Tia Rhinehart, a sophomore in psychology rides the brown route to class everyday. The brown route is packed each morning on the hour.

Rhinehart said, “My experience with the training of the Cy-Ride drivers wasn’t all that bad. I did arrive to my destination later, but what’s a couple of minutes anyway? They need to learn sometime.”

She suggested training new drivers in the afternoon when the buses are not as full.

Butler said drivers can be trained on ‘Not in Service’ buses, but this would not allow the experience of dealing with passengers.

Albert Farr began his Cy-Ride training in early August and now drives the brown route in the morning.

Concerning the difficulty of his training, Farr said, “It was pretty easy going. We were concentrating mostly on safety.”

Farr said he had about 10 trainers who each gave him advice on how to do his job effectively.