CyRide Brown Route History - 1998

The north end of the Brown route developed as Ames developed. The Somerset area was the first area in Ames that was designed to be transportation friendly with design to enhance bus, bike, and pedestrian transportation.
On Feb. 28, 1998, the Transit Board discussed eliminating the remnants of the Blue route that operated on Eisenhower and Buchanan and re-allocating those trips to improve the north end of the Brown route with additional service.
Transit Board members were Warren Madden, ISU vice-president of Finance; Judie Hoffman, City Council member; Steve Schainker, City Manager; Barb Gwiasda, resident; Carrisa Wall and Jillene Hamill-Wilson, ISU students.
Tom Davenport and Bob Bourne were CyRide staff that made the presentation. Tom was a driver in late 70's and early 80's; worked in accounting in the private sector; and came back as Transit Analyst from mid 90's through 2015. He was instrumental in CyRide's success with his incredible analytical skills and insight into the effects of proposed changes in service. He also developed the yearly budgets; analyzed system performance; and provided several creative suggestions for route and service changes. His many years as a Dial-A-Ride and fixed route driver were key influences in his empathy for the passengers and he was always able to advocate for a reasonable solution that balanced system needs, passenger needs, and budget constraints. We were able to keep the tax rate near $.54/$1,000 for many years and expand service.
The quality of this video is poor due to VHS tape deterioration. The actual discussion was about 20 minutes and I edited to about 10 minutes, eliminating some of the board discussion. The video was originally made by Channel 12, the City cable network.