Dedication
and camaraderie fuel 33 years of UI transit
If you need to know
the time, duck into a Cambus and ask the driver.
Most Cambus drivers set their
watches by the master clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Just don’t make the driver late.
To Cambus drivers, every second counts. When they
delay leaving a stop to answer questions from riders
or let stragglers catch up, there’s a ripple
effect that leaves riders waiting at stops all down
the line. And the late start can deprive the drivers
from taking a breather at the Cambus office, where,
if they’re on time, they can take a three-minute
break every half hour to go to the bathroom, drink
a pop, talk to the dispatcher, and even grab a bite
to eat.
“If the driver’s not happy, nobody’s
happy,” says Tracy Lewis, graduate student
in the College of Public Health and dispatcher with
Cambus for three years. “Cambus is like one
big family, and I try my best to keep drivers on
schedule so they’re not stressed. But drivers
also are devoted to safe driving and courtesy, so
delays are sometimes unavoidable.”
That combination of camaraderie among employees
and devotion to customers has made the University’s
free, on-campus transit service tick for more than
33 years, according to Brian McClatchey, Cambus manager.
The people creating that powerful combination, he
says, have been students, whose involvement as drivers,
dispatchers, maintenance workers, trainers, and supervisors
has been key to the endurance of Cambus as one of
the largest and longest-running campus transit systems
in history.
 “Students have made Cambus what it is,” says
McClatchey, who supervises 160 students but only
four full-time UI workers—a maintenance supervisor
and a crew of three maintenance technicians. “When
people hear that we have all these students running
everything, the common reaction is, ‘Oh, that
must be chaos!’ Nothing could be further from
the truth. We owe everything to the hard work and
creativity of students on this campus.”
A group of students created the framework for Cambus
in 1972. It was an experiment modeled on a system
in place at Kent State and fueled by complaints from
west-side residence hall students about the need
to get to the Pentacrest area more quickly. Administrators
listened, especially then-President Sandy Boyd, who
helped the students procure several old school buses
and set up a trailer in the Hancher parking lot to
house the bus organization’s offices.
“We were playing it pretty loose back then,” says
David Ricketts, director of parking and transportation
services—who knows whereof he speaks, since
he was one of the first students to drive a Cambus. “It
was like a sandlot baseball game. There wasn’t
much adult supervision but there was tremendous passion.
It’s safe to say now we’re securely in
the major leagues of transit. We’ve become
professional and efficient.”
A few years ago, Cambus had the highest number of
riders in Iowa, surpassing Des Moines’ transit
system with 3.9 million riders. More recently, that
number has slipped a little to around 3.5 million
riders on the Iowa campus, but regardless of its
size, Cambus has had a resounding impact on many
people and organizations on campus, according to
Phil Haddy, sports information director. He says
Cambus keeps Hawkeye fans coming back.
“We’re one of those schools with a shortage
of parking space, so the ability to transport large
numbers of fans from around campus is invaluable,” Haddy
says. “The benefit the Cambuses provide on
game days is incredible.”
At 40 feet long and 16 tons, the yellow-and-black
Cambuses are impossible to miss on campus, especially
to the students, staff, and faculty members who have
been depending on them for transportation since Jan.
24, 1972, the day the unnamed campus bus system began
its service to the University community. The
name Cambus was bestowed in fall 1972, after a student—whose
own name is now long forgotten—won a pizza
in a bus-naming contest.
Back in 1972, if you wanted to get around campus
on a Cambus, you had three choices: the Red Route,
the Blue Route, or the Interdorm Route. Nowadays,
of course, you have more options; there are ten routes,
in addition to curbside service offered with the
bionic buses. McClatchey and Ricketts say a growing
campus will warrant continued expansion.
Cassie Ruby, a senior music major and veteran of
three years with Cambus, says Cambus is a model for
other campuses.
“There are many student-run transit organizations,
but I’d like to think we set the example,” says
Ruby, a driving trainer who notes schools such as
the University of New Mexico and Indiana University
have called for advice on how to set up a student-run
bus system. “It all depends on well-trained
drivers. I was intimidated at first about the size
of the bus. You have to learn to trust those side-
and rear-view mirrors. And I tell people, look at
me—if I can do it, you can. We’re all
in this together.”
The friendly atmosphere at Cambus assists in what
Cambus manager McClatchey says is his most effective
method of recruiting drivers: word of mouth. He also
advises students that Cambus experience can boost
careers after graduation, because Cambus allows students
to gain supervisory experience to add to their résumés.
After six months, drivers can apply for positions
in dispatch, training, or maintenance; after another
six months, they can apply for one of six supervisory
positions.
Something about the complexity of running Cambus’s
32-vehicle fleet got under the skin of recent religious
studies graduate Daniel Andrlik, who has accepted
an offer from Madison (Wis.) Metro to start as a
transit operations supervisor.
“I enjoy the management challenges of running
a large transit organization,” says Andrlik,
who worked as a training supervisor for Cambus. “And
mass transit is important to the community. If just
one in ten Americans took the bus, we could reduce
our dependency on oil.”
Andrlik will miss the camaraderie he enjoyed as
a bus driver on the Iowa campus. You can see it,
he says, when drivers wave at each other as they
pass on the street. His old boss, McClatchey, even
thinks that because of the large number of students
working for Cambus, the organization is something
of the student organizational equivalent of a singles
bar.
“I can’t tell you how many marriages
have resulted from Cambus,” McClatchey says.
by Gary Kuhlmann
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