I highly recommend Chris Hamilton’s latest Streets for People report on the looming loss of transit service for Stock Island workers.
As the first passenger aboard both the award-winning Key West Rides service and Monroe County’s innovative Conch Connect program, I am a fan of mass and micro transit.
Key West is one of the few American cities almost perfectly suited for mass/micro transit, yet the city repeatedly refuses to adequately fund it, relying instead on grants.
They had a winner with Key West Rides; an on-demand service that provided point-to-point service. The program garnered both state and national acclaim under former KWTA Director Rod Delistrinos.
Maintaining Key West Rides — and studying whether Conch Connect could be revived under a Key West Transit Authority — is well worth exploring, along with restoring and strengthening the Duval Loop.
Unfortunately a short-sighted city manager and several commissioners that have never even availed themselves of these services appear to ultimately want to dismantle the KWTA all together, seeing it as an unnecessary expense.
Public transit is not a luxury. It is a critical lifeline for those that keep the Island City running and fuel its tourism-based eccconomy.
It is essential infrastructure for our workers, residents and economy that should be supported by not only the City of Key West, but also Monroe County — which has all but abandoned transit services for its residents.