Maecenas ipsum ALIQUAM
Moving to Des MOines
GETTING AROUND BY CAR (from the kitchen of Christopher Hogue)
As most of you probably know already, there is an international airport conveniently located in downtown Des Moines. It is about 10-15 minutes from DMU, if that, so cab fares are reasonable. Once you are here, getting around Des Moines in your own car is really simple. Traffic is almost never a problem, unless at “rush hour” which is kind of laughable if you are from a bigger city and have experienced real traffic jams. There is plenty of parking on campus. DMU does require you to buy a parking pass, if you plan on parking on campus, which is a one-time fee of around $200.00 that is good for all four years of school. This is a bargain if you have ever had to pay for a parking pass at any other major university. On the weekends, downtown or at any of the event centers around Des Moines, there is always plenty of free parking. Again, Des Moines as a whole is a pretty simple city to get around, and if you are bad with directions you can always rely on the personal navigator in your pocket, aka your cell phone. During the winter, major roads are paved pretty frequently, so road conditions are safe to drive.
GETTING AROUND W/O A CAR (from the kitchen of Christine Cho)
If you don’t live within four blocks of school and don’t have a car, it’s a good idea to become very familiar with the basics: the nearest grocery store, pharmacy/drugstore, hospital, and neighboring classmate. Dahl’s and Walgreens (both on Ingersoll Ave, within sneezing distance of the Caribou Coffee* nearest DMU’s campus) are great examples.
If you choose to commute to school using the Des Moines public transit system (DART), don’t buy a bus pass! You can simply present your DMU student ID badge to the bus drivers to travel for free. That being said, don’t ever forget your ID (or lose it). I mean it (you’ll need it to swipe in for attendance for Anatomy lab, Clinical Medicine lab, and access the side entrances to school after normal business hours). Route 60 travels in a loop that begins from the DART Central Station downtown and wraps around the Ingersoll Ave—42nd Ave—University Ave area of West Des Moines. Unlike Route 11, which also shuttles down Ingersoll Ave, Route 60 runs frequently during school hours (every 15 minutes; in the evening, every 30 minutes) and in two directions (Ingersoll/Univ travels to DMU first, then Drake University; University/Ingsl travels to Drake University first, then DMU). The buses run on-schedule except on days of exceptionally heavy rains and snowfall, commonly referred to as “white-out” weather conditions. Buses run from about 6:30am to 11:30pm.
*As a heavy coffee consumer, I would also recommend getting to know the coffee shops on your daily commute route of choice. For the Route 60 Ingersoll/Univ ride, the following are within half a block of their nearest respective bus stops (in order): Java Joe’s at the DART Central Station, Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure on Ingersoll, Caribou Coffee on Ingersoll, La Mie Bakery on 42nd Ave, and Mars Café on University Ave.