City: Savannah, GA

Category: Getting Here, Getting Around

Telephone: (912) 233-5767 (TDD)

Address: 900 East Gwinnett St.

Description: If you hear someone say they are going to “catch a CAT,” they are referring to a ride on Chatham County’s public bus system. Chatham Area Transit (CAT) has a fleet of buses, including nine green buses that arrived this year and travel on 22 routes throughout the county. CAT offers three free services, two of which are of particular interest to tourists. There’s a free CAT shuttle making its way around the Historic District to some 30 stops, including hotels and prime shopping locations and historic squares. The shuttle bus looks like a well-groomed pseudo-trolley and is wheelchair accessible. Shuttle hours are from roughly 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day but Sunday, when they start just after 9:30 a.m. and run to about 5 p.m. CAT also operates a passenger ferry to Hutchinson Island, which is also free (more on that later). The third free service is a shuttle originating from the city’s Liberty Street parking garage, designed to make that new facility on the edge of the business district more appealing to daily downtown workers—but anyone’s welcome to ride it. As far as the regular bus service goes, you can get just about anywhere you want by catching a CAT, including the city’s two malls, the Historic Downtown area, and the Islands (except Tybee). CAT buses do not, however, go to much of West Chatham. All are wheelchair accessible. There are bicycle racks with a capacity of two bikes on the front of the buses. Fare is $1.50 but you can purchase an all-day pass for $3 and literally ride any bus all day. The day pass can be purchased on the bus from the fare box. Children shorter than 40 inches tall—the height of the fare box—get to ride free (limit two free children’s fares per adult), and the fare for riders age 65 and older and persons with disabilities is half price. If you plan on doing a lot of traveling around Savannah on CAT, there is a weekly CAT Card—good for unlimited rides—available for $16. You can buy tickets at the Gwinnett Street office (although you’ll never find it or get there without a car), a satellite office at 124 Bull Street, and in the Bull Street (main), Oglethorpe Mall, Carnegie, and Port City branches of the Live Oak Public Library. Passes can also be purchased in west Chatham County at Walgreen’s on SR 21 in Garden City. Regular CAT buses run each day from 6 a.m. to midnight. Bus stops are marked with bright orange signs throughout the city. Some stops have a rain shelter, some have benches, and some are just standing points. There is no service on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Day. Its website, www.catchacat.org, is unusually well designed and informative for a government site.CAT also operates a Links Paratransit van system for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)–eligible riders. ADA-eligible visitors are welcome to use the Teleride service. In order to use the door-to-door service, visitors must present an ID card from their hometown transit system that proves their eligibility. The one-way fare for Teleride costs $1.80, and they have discontinued the use of tokens. Senior citizens and disabled persons may now purchase fare passes that provide 20 rides for $15. For more information, call (912) 354-6900.If you are in the Historic Downtown and want to purchase tokens, passes, or talk to someone about a route, stop in at CAT Central, 124 Bull St., in the county’s historic courthouse.