There are many ways colleges can provide public transportation. But the one thing all systems have in common is that someone has to pay for it.

With the addition of the free bus service from the Towers to campus, many people are thinking about different ways bus service can be delivered. To get ideas, one only has to look to neighboring universities.

The University of Iowa’s Cambus has no fare for students boarding their buses, according to Brian McClatchey, Cambus operations manager.

The difference between Cambus and Cy-Ride is that Cambus serves only U of I campus facilities, while Cy-Ride covers all of Ames.

And U of I students aren’t riding for free. U of I students pay for Cambus through a $9.64 per semester transportation fee.

Cy-Ride Director Bob Bourne notes that in Ames there is a “different land use compared to Iowa City.” U of I’s campus is more integrated into the surrounding city than Iowa State. Since ISU’s buildings are connected by green space rather than cityscape, there is less need for a free campus-wide shuttle, said McClatchey.

For off-campus buses, Iowa City and adjoining Coralville have separate bus services for which students pay a $.50 fare.

The University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana, with 36,000 students and a city-integrated campus, has only 2,200 metered parking spaces for students, said Rod Weihs, transportation and parking director. A yearly parking permit costs $235 and is available only to staff.

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) is an “extensive route system, very similar to Ames,” said Weihs, an ISU graduate and former Cy-Ride employee. Cy-Ride and MTD are similar in that they are both city-wide services, rather than university-only.

Weihs said he thought Cy-Ride was well-run.

According to Weihs, students at Illinois pay $18 per semester to ride any of five university routes for free. The demand at U of Ill. is much greater because of the campus’ location. There is currently no move to subsidize entire city routes for students, which has a flat $.75 rate for all riders.

At some schools there are no public transit wheels at all.

The University of Northern Iowa has little demand for a student bus service. UNI, with 12,000 students, has such low demand that there is no bus system in place at all, according to Alvin Kyhl, campus services manager. “[UNI] is small enough, it’s not quite as big a problem,” said Kyhl.

Attempts have been made in the past, said Kyhl, but none have been successful.

Cy-Ride gave approximately 2.4 million rides in the year ending July 1, Bourne said. Cambus and the two neighboring municipal services totaled nearly 6 million rides. The University of Illinois service gave about 9 million rides.