As you catch a CyRide bus on your way to class, it’s so quiet you could hear the sound of a pin drop as you and 50 different strangers start your commutes for the day.

When it comes time to go home, someone is talking loudly with a friend on the bus, so you put in your earphones and listen to your music.

If it’s a weekend and late at night, you and a bus full of drunk people might start a rendition of “Follow Me” by Uncle Kracker, because why not?

Every experience on CyRide is different, and, when it comes down to it, the drivers are the ones behind the wheel taking it all in.

CyRide driver Grant Olsen said, “You get to know people,” referring to his co-workers and some routine passengers.

Having driven for CyRide the past three years, Olsen may be your driver as you head to your dreaded 8 a.m. class. Being more of a morning person, Olsen enjoys starting his work day at 7 a.m.

As one of CyRide’s approximately 140 drivers, Olsen helps provide transportation to about 6.7 million passengers each year.

CyRide, the city bus system for Ames, offers 12 fixed routes that can take students, staff and city citizens around town, with buses reaching all across Ames.

Beginning with routes as early as 6 a.m. and going until midnight Sunday through Thursday, CyRide caters to the common college kid by extending bus hours during the weekend with the Moonlight Express, which runs until 3 a.m.

Bus drivers’ shifts could last anywhere from two to six hours, when they either drive one of the circulator routes or a more far-reaching bus route such as Red West/East.

“For the most part, I pretty much know what I’m going to do when the day starts,” Olsen said. “But, it’s not as monotonous as I thought it was going to be when I first started. I thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to be the same thing every day,’ but there is quite a bit of variety.”

Olsen remembers a few years ago when there was a snow storm and afternoon classes got cancelled. The buses were loaded with “hundreds, maybe thousands” of students who wanted to go home.

He described the situation as “exciting but hectic,” as the bus drivers and dispatch had to adapt to the new schedule created by the students because of the winter storm.

Before coming to CyRide, Olsen drove for the Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency, a transit system catering to the general public with a focus on those who are older or may have disabilities.

Some differences and similarities between the two agencies that Olsen recognized included seeing a few of the people he used to drive around when he worked for Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency. Olsen said that it’s “good to see” some of his older door-to-door passengers.

One of the major differences, however, is the size in buses.

“Obviously, there is a big size difference between an 18-passenger bus and a 40-footer,” Olsen said.

Offering 40-foot buses and “bendy buses,” which are 60 feet long, CyRide has a current fleet of 93 buses. During the heaviest traffic times, such as when students are trying to get to class, as many as 70 of the buses might be seen en route.

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Sheri Kyras, director of transit at CyRide, discussed some of the ins and outs pertaining to the transit system.

As Iowa State’s student enrollment continues to grow each year — this year reaching a staggering 36,001 students — CyRide must make changes to routes, times and buses to ensure the best possible routes.

“It’s a year-by-year analysis,” Kyras said. “We look at what particularly the student enrollment is going to be for the next year. So, if there’s going to be an increase, we’ll look at that and try to determine what that would mean for service, which then turns into how many buses we’re gonna need for the next year.”

To get these new buses, CyRide looks to a program that began a few years ago.

“What we really rely upon is a program that we’ve started, probably three or four years ago, where we purchase good, used buses from another transit system that is selling them,” Kyras said.

Its main distributor, St. Paul, allows CyRide to purchase these buses, and, from there, it makes sure they are in good operating condition, refurbishes them and turns them into CyRide buses.

“We use those for any expansion we need for the next year, as well as any buses that we believe we can no longer operate in the fleet, and replace those vehicles with them,” Kyras said.

CyRide attempts to purchase at least five used buses each year. Kyras said this is so it can keep its fleet moving with the student enrollment increase.

Another way CyRide works to create the best transit system that it can is by looking at future developments and adapting bus routes to work with the needs created by these new developments.

“With two-thirds of the students living off campus, whatever happens in the development, if there’s a new Copper Beech for example that’s slated to be open the next year, we look at that, and we determine what we need to do to the routes to be able to provide the capacity to provide rides for students,” Kyras said.

With each student creating between 170 to 180 trips a year on CyRide, the need to adapt is essential.

Barb Neal, operations supervisor, said that to get any of the changes for the next year approved, they must be run by the board, which will make its decision in January.

“We look at [changes], and we go to the board, and we provide them with information on what we need to do for the next year, what changes and what that turns into budget-wise,” Kyras said.

Neal added that sometimes the board doesn’t approve the recommendations it believes may be helpful.

All in all, to ensure the best transit system around, CyRide aims to stay true to its community.

“Our policy is that we don’t leave people at the bus stop,” Kyras said.

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Little known to most, CyRide is run by the city of Ames and not the university. This makes it easier for CyRide to train, hire and operate at Iowa State.

“We are employees of the city,” Neal said. “Just because it’s a more efficient way to operate and a less costly way.”

To become a driver, applicants must go through the city’s application process, which means they must have a good driving record with no more than two accidents and no DUIs or OWIs; complete a video test; and pass an oral board interview.

Once training begins, drivers must pass a Department of Transportation physical and drug test, as well as participate in 40 hours of out-of-service training.

Before drivers can begin the out-of-service training, however, per the Department of Transportation, they must obtain their commercial driver’s license.

To do this, drivers must take three tests. Once they obtain their permit, CyRide completes the rest of the training.

“With that CDL permit, we would take you out on the road, and we would basically teach you how to drive,” Neal said. This means that drivers must go back to the basics and relearn how to make right and left turns.

Drivers then must obtain their full commercial driver’s license to move on to the next steps in training.

Neal pointed out a few bumps that CyRide is facing; with a new way of training that it has been doing recently, it is taking drivers longer to pass their tests.

“We used to do training a bit different, and I think people felt more confident in their training the way we [used to do] it,” Neal said.

After the 40 hours of out-service training, drivers move to the in-service portion of the training, where they begin to drive the routes with passengers on the bus.

“We have three phases of that [in-service training]. We have pink sheets, yellow sheets and green sheets,” Neal said.

During the pink sheet portion, trainees drive with a trained CyRide driver and rely heavily on their help. This section mainly develops and enhances trainees’ driving skills.

The second portion, yellow sheets, allows trainees a bit more lenience, as they work on transfers and time skills.

The final stage, green sheets, is when trainees have a chance to smooth out any problems they may have before becoming an official CyRide driver.

At the end of their training, CyRide drivers will have undergone approximately 100 to 150 training hours.

And when it comes to passenger relations, Neal outlined service skills all drivers must have.

“We have four priorities [here] at CyRide,” Neal said. “Our first priority is safety — safety is No. 1. Our second priority is what we say ‘wave to others’ or teamwork. Our third priority is value of service, and the fourth part is schedule.”

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Olsen, when asked what he liked most about CyRide, thought of his co-workers.

Olsen said he has enjoyed getting to know his co-workers because of their personalities and how diverse they all are.

“There are people here who love to cook or who love to play video games,” he said. “I’ve gotten to meet people who grew up in Long Island or New York City — it’s just such a very employee-based [company].”