The Cleveland Area Rapid Transit (CART) busing system is a program that gives free rides. This semester CART is encouraging students at the University of Oklahoma to take a chance on a bus and get a ride.

CART has a particular driver who is a veteran of transporting people around. Edmond Dowling has been a bus driver since 1978.

Dowling began his career not on OU’s campus but rather across the sea. In Leicester, England Dowling started to drive around double-decker buses.

Now in Oklahoma, he has four years under his belt at CART. Over these few years, he has made an impact on his riders.

“He very formally was my bus driver but I see him very much as a friend,” said McKenzie Cowlbeck, a student at OU.

Cowlbeck and Dowling started chatting on his bus routes after Cowlbeck noticed his accent.

He wants to each one of his riders to feel loved. But most importantly he takes pride in being a bus driver.

“The first thing in the morning when I am driving up Asp Ave on my first trip when the sun is coming up and you have this dappled light coming through the leaves and the trees I’m thinking wow they are paying me to do this… I am actually getting paid to do this and I guess it just doesn’t get much better,” said Dowling.

Instead of looking for a parking spot in the crowded garages catch a CART bus and meet a friend.