Free is one of Key West’s favorite words — especially when it is painted across the side of a bus.
The Duval Loop may be free to ride, but moving people around an island this crowded is anything but free. Drivers, fuel, maintenance, equipment and the rest of the transit system all have to be paid for somehow.
That is where a simple question comes in: What if the millions of visitors who help create Key West’s transportation crunch chipped in a dollar or two a night to help solve it?
For most tourists, it would barely register on a hotel or vacation-rental bill. For the city, spread across thousands of occupied rooms night after night, it could become a significant source of dedicated transit funding — and potentially help Key West put more people on buses and fewer cars on the street.
Chris Hamilton takes a look:
