The shuttle service is entirely free.
When Michaela Bateman, a junior studying psychology, sprained her ankle in the spring, she had to rely on the bus services offered by Ohio University to get around the hill-filled campus.
Yet, the three Campus Area Transit Service loops only run from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the limited “late night loop,” which is available from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., can only go between eight stops.
That’s when a friend told Bateman about CATS Late Night Service — formerly known as TapRide — a free service from OU Transportation Services that will transport passengers between any two university-affiliated locations.
Even after her ankle healed, Bateman continued to use the service.
“It’s so much more convenient,” she said. “It comes to your location and drops you off where you want to go. You don’t have to walk to a specific bus stop to go somewhere. If I’m at the library, they pick me up at the library.”
CATS Late Night is available for free to OU faculty, staff and students. The service times are 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Saturday. CATS, a free university shuttle service, and even CATCAB, which is for selected individuals, only run Monday through Friday. Each CATS loop can only run on its designated route, but CATS Late Night is an on-demand service.
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By utilizing CATS and CATS Late Night all day, a student could ride OU transportation vehicles from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
CATS Late Night replaced SAFE-T Patrol, which paid students to walk others home at night, in the fall of 2014.
Marty Paulins, director of Transportation and Parking Services, said SAFE-T Patrol only had about 85 escorts in the fall of 2013. But in CATS Late Night’s first semester of use, he said there were 1,515 rides — a number that increased to 3,598 in the spring.
Paulins attributed CATS Late Night’s success to its vehicular method of transporting students, especially during the colder months. He said the service receives about 70 to 100 calls per night.
“You can follow the DoubleMap GPS tracking and stay inside the building until you know the vehicle is there to pick you up,” he said.
Paulins said the low usage of the TapRide app was probably because of its inconvenient setup and the fact that calling the office was easier. Now, he said, an on-board dispatcher is on the bus with the driver to monitor the calls.
Prospective passengers can call 740-593-4040 and track the shuttle via the DoubleMap app. The workers will ask for the desired pickup and drop off locations and will provide an estimated wait time.
CATS Late Night can only drive to on-campus areas, but it can be a good way to minimize the walk to an off-campus home.
After a long night in The Post newsroom and with a heavy snowfall piling up, CATS Late Night was a warm and much more efficient alternative to get close to my off-campus home. What would have meant a 20-minute walk became a 6-minute one after CATS Late Night.
However, not everyone knows about CATS Late Night. Upon several prompts for interview requests, many students said they had never used or heard of the service. Paulins said that will change with the incoming class, as it is going to be incorporated into Bobcat Student Orientation.
“Incoming freshmen are going to be well acclimated with the service,” he said. “We think over the course of three to four years, I think the service is going to outgrow the one vehicle we’re using right now.”
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