Savannah City Council approved a 3-year renewal of the DOT shuttle, the fare-free transportation through the city’s downtown provided by Chatham Area Transit.
The contract is for $7.9 million over the 3-year term, with new fines tied to performance standards. The renewal was approved by CAT’s Board in August.
While council renewed the approval, discussion centered on aspirations to grow fare-free service to the Savannah's south side. District 6 Alderman Kurtis Purtee, who represents the city’s southernmost neighborhoods, asked city staff to explore cost estimates for a DOT extension south.
Purtee specifically asked for a transit option from Georgia Southern’s Armstrong Campus through the mid-city to downtown. The alderman added he has requested
such an expansion for years but still hasn’t received a solid cost estimate.
“There has to be a start, and we got to bring that forward and not just sit on it for a couple of years,” he said.
The DOT shuttle runs from Johnson Square south to Victory Drive with an east-west line through downtown to Eastern Wharf. There is also an additional DOT route through west side neighborhoods Carver Village and Cloverdale into downtown.
Savannah City Manager Jay Melder said the city’s nearing budget season is a good time to have expansion-related discussions. But the city manager also noted that while more fare-free transit is a great aspiration, it would come with more costs.
The contract extension bills the DOT service at roughly $2.5 million per year, which Melder said could be a reference point for potential costs of an expansion. Still, expanding south would increase the existing service area “exponentially,” he added.
“If we expand the DOT shuttle to more stops and to service the southside, which is a longer mileage radius to cover, it might require more buses as well,” Melder said. “That’s going to have a cost to it.”
Council approved the contract renewal on a 6-2 vote, with District 1 Alderwoman Bernetta Lanier and Post 2, At-Large Alderwoman Alicia Miller Blakely opposed. Blakely expressed concern about CAT’s existing service quality and proposed adjusting the contract to a year-by-year basis.
Lanier questioned the equity of existing DOT routes, arguing they don’t serve the communities most in need. Lanier said she could support the DOT service if the routes prioritized the low-income areas of the city, where, she argued, the need for free transportation is higher.
“We probably have the highest income, highest wealth (census) tracts receiving free transportation,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
In response to quality concerns, Melder highlighted the new fines for performance failures. The contract requires two active vehicles on DOT routes with no-more than a 15-minute headway between them.
Six failures in a 90-day window will result in a $1,500 fine. If failures reach more than six, that fine increases to $6,000.
Purtee’s calls for expansion had backing by multiple council members, including District 4’s Nick Palumbo and District 3 Alderwoman Linda Wilder-Bryan.
Palumbo pointed to looming expansion of paid parking through the city’s latest Parking Matter initiative as a potential source of revenues. The new parking measures will face final approval at council’s next meeting and propose adding about 2,000 new metered parking spots.
The city’s DOT funding already comes from its parking and mobility services enterprise fund. Revenues in the fund, which include paid parking, must be used for other mobility-related projects.
The new proposed paid parking measures are expected to produce around $1 million in new revenues.
“(The DOT) works, and I hear a lot of increased demand for it,” Palumbo said.
Evan Lasseter is the City of Savannah and Chatham County government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@savannahnow.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah renews downtown shuttle contract, with calls for expansion
