Ghoul bus

The ghoul bus this Halloween Day was deadened up by 62 and 80. That's a lot of work, and they did a horrifying job!

Potluck at the (funeral) parlor

Many ghouls made their way to the bus ... er, funeral parlor for hideous treats ...

Zombies, witches, cops, clerks, pirates, cats & vampires

Truly horrible sights invaded our bus barn, haunted as it is this time of year.


Looks as if this cop from Reno was bringing in a clerk caught red-handed.The barn's resident witch.

Pirate loves her cat.

Vampire strikes a pose ... see the teeth?

Zombie behind the wheel.

How many lumps?

So sorry, I've gotten bogged (blogged?) down and so posts have become rather sporadic. Anyone else not also blogged down (can u say homewerk?) feel free to be a contributor to this blog.

In the meantime, I will use this 28-second clip to segue into the interesting bus picture following.

A whole lotta lumps!

Wow! Some important stuff

TIME CARDS NOW!

Time cards are due absolutely no later than 8:00 am Friday, 04 September 2009. It is necessary to turn them in by this time in order to facilitate processing due to the Monday holiday upcoming. Those whose time cards have not been received in the office by 8:00 am Friday will not be paid for the current pay period until later.

Open Enrollment

There are some FTEs who have not yet completed the online enrollment benefits package. The deadline to complete this is Friday 04 September 2009. Failing to complete the benefits package will result in a loss of coverage. Reenrollment is required by all FTEs this year. Don't miss out!

From the HR website:
Enroll online.
To enroll in your benefits, log in to LOUIE using the link above and select Self Service > Benefits > Benefits Enrollment. An enrollment summary page will show your current coverage options and will show ‘no coverage’ or ‘waive’ for the new plan year.


Driver schedule posted

Friday, 04 September 2009
Click on image to enlarge.

Into the groove
88 says she LOOOVES driving a bus.

Route blues

Record enrollment means the University is scrambling not only for housing for its residents but also for classroom space. The library is maxxed out with classes there all day long. The bulging at the seams is evident with every class change when traffic at several intersections on campus gridlocks with pedestrians and bikes. Transit then isn't quite as "rapid" as we'd like.

Driveway closure

The extension of San Francisco street that becomes the east driveway up to the barn is going to be closed soon for two weeks due to construction.

The closure is indicated by the huge red 'x' on the map below.

50 says that our access to the bus barn will be the west driveway as indicated by the yellow arrows on the map below.

Under no circumstances, says 50, will the Skydome bus stop be missed, and our route will be as follows by yellow arrows on the map below.

Click on the image below to enlarge (sorry about the extra white space):

1905 Wagonette ad

Here is an interesting ad for what was called a wagonette. It was a Detroit-built bus from 1905.

Bus Rapid Transit comes to NAU

New to NAU on a year-round basis, the University has implemented its first ever stretch of one critical element of Bus Rapid Transit.

Bus Rapid Transit is a transit modality using buses as the transport vehicle but incorporating many of the advantages of a Light Rail transit system.

The feature most often associated with Bus Rapid Transit is either a busway completely segregated from and having little contact with other roadways, or a lane on existing roadway dedicated only to buses.

Today, NAU got the latter.

Open for the first time is a dedicated Bus Lane running westbound on Pine Knoll from the Forestry entrance driveway to McConnell drive.

Now when traffic congests along this stretch, our transit bus schedule will not be impinged. Riders upstream will get to their destinations faster; those downstream will see a bus arrive at their bus stop sooner.

These Bus Rapid Transit features, in combination with traffic police at key intersections, the implementation of Bus Staging at key bus stops, and the additional buses and vans now in service, will hopefully translate into greater service levels for our customers.

If this Bus Lane proves to be an asset to transit and NAU in general, a goal after traffic patterns and demographic futures can be assessed might be sectional expansion of Bus Rapid Transit in other areas of campus where needed.

MCT recognizes and thanks Project Manager D.H., the Grounds Crew who erected the signage, the Paint Crew who striped the roadway, and all others who contributed to this exciting development for University transit.

If you are interested in learning more about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), please click on the appropriate links in the right column under "Connections."

BBQ & potluck

Time slips due today by 10:00 am. Contact 50 if you cannot meet this deadline.

The new Bus Only lane is now open and operational on Pine Knoll between Forestry and McConnell drive. I'm sure there will be some confusion for awhile among other motorists, but this should help us greatly during our rounds. Please note: The bus lane is exclusively for buses and bicycles, except as the lane approaches an intersection where it can be used by other vehicles for making right turns. Please be watchful for vehicles moving in to the bus lane at those locations.

Tomorrow, 21 August 2009, we will hold our final summer BBQ by also including potluck dishes. Please bring something. We will also have the barby fired up so bring your appetite. Should be cookin' sometime around 11:30 am.

Finally, looks like our staging rehearsals are giving us some hope of its success. We are finding some of the kinks and working to minimize troubles. What we have yet to see is how all our drills and planning will be affected by the traffic that is yet to show up. We'll know on Monday.

Thanks again to everyone for the good jobs we did throughout the summer! Best of luck to everyone in school and work for this coming semester.

Fulltimers return

Mandatory meeting: SATURDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, is a MANDATORY meeting for all department employees. Those who have a conflict and cannot attend must contact Erin. Time and location TBA.

Friday, 21 August, we'll have a POTLUCK and BBQ, celebrating the return of all our friends and fellow employees, and concluding a very busy and profitable summer. Bring what you can and maybe a buck or two to help pay for the BBQ essentials, and have a grand time! We'll be setting up about 11:30 am Friday.

Point Of Our Policy: Clean the washbay after washing any of our vehicles. If you don't have the time to rinse out the floor and put all equipment back after washing a vehicle, then schedule the wash for another time. Under no circumstances should we leave the washbay dirty.

Van driver certification training will be taking place during all of next week (first week of school) as well as 31 August and 01 September. This means the south portion of the Dome parking lot will be coned off during that time. Please respect those who will be van training and leave them plenty of room to maneuver around that parking lot.

Those van drivers working for MCT who do not yet have a University van certification card will be expected to complete the course themselves as soon as possible. You can sign up for that class by going online to nau dot edu, looking up Transportation Services Center, and clicking on "Van Training."

Major detour: A major detour is coming to Route 2 when San Francisco will be completely closed off to traffic at the Rec Center beginning 14 September and extending for the next several weeks. Transit plans regarding Route 2 buses and Route 2 Express Vans will be discussed soon.

We have been practicing the new Staging departure scheme under 50's direction the past few days. More drills will be taking place with the new hires and returning FTEs this week.

Time cards are due Thursday, 20 August, no later than 10:00 am.

If you have any items for The Slack Adjuster, please submit them to 61.

We finally got the last major striping and curb painting job finished last Friday. Tinsley pullout got the white exclusion line painted after the resurfacing of Knoles adjacent to Tinsley Hall was completed. The final line at Tinsley is dedicated to 77, who loved painting and really misses it.

This offset driveway entrance will be the Communications bus stop for our transit when all the construction is done with the Comm building extension.

In driver news, we've had two more former bus drivers tie the knot. Drivers formerly known as 79C and 84 (was it??) were married over the past weekend. Pictures to come.

In other news, 67 was injured while unicycling last Friday. Luckily, the injury was to her left foot, so she still hasta drive haha. Close one, 67.

Also, current driver and newlywed 84 (pictured below) had surgery to remove some malignancies on his forehead. He is doing fine, and boasted of receiving (how many was it now?) something like 26 stitches during the operation. Ahh, war wounds!

All of our returning summer workers and drivers and our newly returning FTEs, plus the new hires, met with our department manager Erin on Monday. She welcomed us all back and encouraged us to emphasize good customer service as we go about our routes. Thanks for stopping by, Erin!

Finally, driver 96 made a chilling discovery when a massively monster beetle decided to take a hike on him on Monday.

Panicking slightly, he quickly decided to remain calm and to provide the best customer service possible, recalling what our department leader had encouraged us to do earlier this morning.

Nevertheless, 83 found the challenging situation for our slighly panicking driver highly amusing.

In the end, 96 realized it was nearing lunch time, and decided to dispatch the critter in Rambo fashion.

Skillz course in full swing

Skillz course training continues in full swing at the Dome lot. We encourage everyone who has or is training for a CDL to practice in the course as much as possible. The course will be torn down Friday or Saturday.
Our beloved 79 introduced two new very difficult maneuvers in the Skillz course, events which will prove helpful to anyone driving a big vehicle over the lifetime of their CDL. Thanks, 79!!

On this event, a Right Turn is attempted. It is a tight right in which it is impossible simply to complete the maneuver in one forward motion.

Likewise, the new Left Turn cannot be completed in one forward motion. This teaches the driver how to successfully complete a turn as extremely tight as what one might find in any real situation.

Also introduced this year is the Lane Offset, which is nothing more than a simple lane change. However, it is extremely tight and must be done both forwards and backwards.

Coach 96 (left below) trains 78 in the Alley Dock, an event that duplicated on a more extreme level the old Alley Dock of the former CDL test event.