Inside Iowa State

Nov. 3, 2006

CyRide has your number

by Samantha Beres

Most passengers have noticed. As the fleet of CyRide buses becomes modernized, new electronic signs are replacing what used to be a strip of color above the windshield. The new destination signs no longer have color in them, but spell out the color and give the route number.

"The routes have always been marked by color and number, but customers tend to know their routes by color," said director of transportation for CyRide Sheri Kyras. Kyras has asked around to gauge response and said that the customers miss the color.

In the next week, colored placards, squares about 8.5 by 11 inches, will be placed in the lower right corner of windshields. The route number also will be written on the placard and the electronic signs, of course, will be there, too.

When the buses started to become modernized with electronic signs in Des Moines, customers missed the color, and this was the answer that made it easier for riders to see which bus was theirs from a distance, Kyras said.

Of CyRide's 65 buses, about half have been equipped with the electronic signs. Some are brand-new buses and some have been updated with the new signs. It will be a number of years before all buses have the new technology.

"The routes have always been marked by color and number, but customers tend to know their routes by color."

Sheri Kyras, CyRide director of transportation