The story
Cambus was founded by University of Iowa students and has been in operation since March 1972. The name "Cambus" was the result of a naming contest. It started with seven vehicles dating from 1955 and 1956. By 1975, the fleet had grown to 11 vehicles. Twelve new buses were purchased the following year. In 2004, the fleet had 32 vehicles. The University of Iowa campus is divided into east and west halves by the Iowa River. Most Liberal Arts and Sciences classes take place on the east side of the river; thus the purpose of the new bus service was to facilitate easier transportation between the west-side dormitories and the east-side classrooms. At first there was no name for this service, so the founding students created a contest open to all UI students to select one. "Cambus" was the name eventually chosen, and the winner, Rod Speidel, a junior graphic design student, was awarded two free pizzas.
The first Cambus buses were used school buses, repainted by Cambus employees. There were three different bus routes; Red Route, Blue Route, and the Interdorm Shuttle. Cambus also acquired a trailer, which was used as their main office; this was located in the Hancher Auditorium parking lot.
Cambus moved its administrative and dispatch operations to the newly opened West Campus Transportation Center on November 16, 2012. The facility serves as the headquarters for the University of Iowa Department of Parking and Transportation, which includes Cambus among its operating units.
In the 2013 financial year, ridership reached 4.5 million.
In October, 2018, Cambus routes and schedules were integrated with Google Maps.
Following a recommendation from the Iowa City Area Transit Study (ICATS), Cambus began using route numbers in July 2021.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cambus, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4