The year was 1980, and a familiar beast terrorized the OU campus.

The Oklahoma Daily that year dubbed it the “Parking Menace, a beast that plagues students and administrators alike.”

The beast prompted the creation of Cleveland Area Rapid Transit.

The Daily called the $360,000 bus and trolley system that debuted Aug. 25, 1980 the “Knight in Shining Armor” with one mission: “destroy the parking menace and make OU safe once again for the auto-bound commuter.”

Now in its 30th year, CART is expanding its role beyond the OU campus and extending routes into Norman and outlying areas.

Expanding goals

The 1980 campaign for CART was almost entirely focused alleviating the campus parking problems, said Kris Glenn, CART spokesman.

That year, Glenn said, hundreds of new parking spaces were added near the Lloyd Noble Center, where many students parked to catch one of the two trolleys or five buses.

Today, CART aims to become the entire community’s public transportation system, Glenn said.

“Our biggest reach is to the community,” he said. “CART has a lot of routes that are student-centered but we also want it to be part of Norman.”

The system that began by running a loop between the Lloyd Noble Center and just north of the Bizzell Memorial Library now has five city routes, three campus routes and service to Moore, Noble, Lexington and Oklahoma City.

It currently operates 15 transit buses, four trolleys and 12 paratransit vans that provide service to the elderly and to people with disabilities.

“People still consider Norman a small town but it’s an urban area of 110,000 people with a very viable public transportation system,” Glenn said.

Future growth

CART has been able to form a number of partnerships that have allowed it to continue to expand, even in the midst of a national recession, said Cody Ponder, CART planning and growth manager.

The system has partnerships with the university, the City of Norman and has been able to receive grants from the federal and state transportation departments,

“We have been able to take advantage of this,” Ponder said.

Ten new CART routes are planned through the Norman Long-Range Public Transportation Plan (in partnership with the City of Norman) for whenever funding is available. The new routes will expand service in Norman and make more links between existing routes.

In October, CART introduced the West Norman Link, its first new route in more than 16 years. The 30-minute route — which serves northwest Norman — is the first route that does not begin on the OU campus.

“It’s really allowing regular riders to go places they’ve never been and it’s attracting new riders,” Glenn said.

The 30th year

This fall, CART will introduce five new transit buses that will operate on compressed natural gas, adding to the three CNG buses CART already operates.

The buses, which will cost $1.8 million, will be purchased with funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — the national stimulus package. CART qualified for the funding because the stimulus package designated money for public transportation.

“Our fleets are getting older,” Glenn said. “It’s time to get these newer buses in.”

The buses have not yet been purchased but are under contract and being manufactured, Glenn said.

In about a month, CART will unveil another new initiative: GPS tracking on its buses.

The $126,000 implementation is being paid for through a Federal Transit Administration grant.

When the GPS systems are in place, potential riders will be able to see on CART’s Web site (cart.ou.edu) where the buses are moving in real time and subscribe to text messages and e-mail alerts that can inform them when the buses arrive.

“I think it’s important for the university community and the community as a whole to be informed about the buses,” Glenn said. “If they know how easy it is to use, they’ll ride it.”

Kayla Spaulding, multidisciplinary studies and science senior, said she always enjoys riding the CART buses, which she sometimes catches at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Spaulding said she enjoys the ease with which she can get to campus without finding parking and she likes the atmosphere on the buses.

“When I ride the bus they are amazing and really nice,” Spaulding said.

“They wanted to be efficient and be on time but they would also wait for that student who was running for the bus. A lot of times that is me.”