324A.1  Definitions.
  For purposes of this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
  1.  “Department” means the state department of transportation.
  2.  “Federal aid” means any federal grants, loans, or other federal assistance whether or not state or local funds are required to match or contribute toward the costs of the program for which the aid is available.
  3.  “Private aid” means any grants, loans, or other assistance available from nonprofit corporations, foundations, and all private or nongovernmental sources, whether or not state or local funds are required to match or contribute toward the costs of the program for which the aid is available.
  4.  “Public transit system” means an urban or regional transit system providing transit services accessible to the general public and receiving federal, state or local tax support.
  5.  “Regional transit system” means a public transit system serving one county or all or part of a multicounty area whose boundaries correspond to the same boundaries as those of the regional planning areas designated by the governor except as agreed upon by the county and the department. Each county, through the county board of supervisors, within the region shall be responsible for determining the service and funding within its own county. However, the administration and overhead support services for the regional transit system shall be consolidated into one existing or new agency to be mutually agreed upon by the participating members.
  6.  “Transportation” means the movement of individuals in a four or more wheeled motorized vehicle designed to carry passengers, including a car, van, or bus, between one geographic point and another geographic point. “Transportation” does not include emergency or incidental transportation or transportation conducted by the department of human services at its institutions.
  7.  “Transportation disadvantaged persons” means persons with physical or mental disabilities, persons who are determined by the department to be economically disadvantaged and other persons or groups determined by the department to be disadvantaged in terms of the transportation services that are available to them.
  8.  “Urban transit system” means a system designated by the department in which motor buses are operated primarily upon the streets of cities for the transportation of passengers who present themselves for transportation without discrimination up to the limit of the capacity of each motor bus. “Urban transit system” also includes motor buses operated upon the streets of adjoining cities, whether interstate or intrastate for the transportation of passengers without discrimination up to the limit of the capacity of each motor bus. A privately chartered bus service or interurban carrier subject to the jurisdiction of the state department of transportation is not an urban transit system.
[C77, 79, 81, §601J.1]
84 Acts, ch 1200, §1
C93, §324A.1
96 Acts, ch 1129, §80