Richard Clark, executive director of Monroe County Transit, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on with travel in the county.
While school is out and school busses are no longer on the roads, traffic and transportation still continues to be a topic of discussion.
Clark said, “We’ve obviously had some successes, with our Conch Connect service in the Lower Keys. That’s why we’re looking toward next July, not this one, but then the next fiscal year of the state, to look at possibly offering the same service in Key Largo and helping Islamorada. It’s really nice to be able to say we were planning on 17,800 riders annually and we aren’t even through the first year, and we’re at 62,000, 350% above of what we were hoping for to be successful. There was a bump in December, January, February, March, a little bit of a bump where there are more people here, but not as much as people would think. We never, ever dipped below 5000 riders in a month. So what we find is so many people are looking for alternative ways to get to and from work, and it’s dominated by people using it in their daily lives, of getting to the grocery store, getting to their place of employment, or what have you. So that’s really our primary goal, along with working with all of our partners. It is not as simple as just adding a service or adding an additional bus. There’s a role for Key West transit, Miami Dade transit, the South Florida regional transit, along with the county. Then you’ve got to work with your state and federal partners. It’s a dance we all have to get together and figure out the best way to solve our solutions, to get people, not just in and out of the Keys, but once you’re here, or you live here, to and from where you need to get.”
There is an opportunity to try the Dade Monroe Express for free.
Clark said, “I highly encourage people to try it. They are already moving, I think the last number we saw was 400,000 people on an annualized basis. Nobody realizes how many people they really bring in every year. It’s amazing, and that’s part of putting all the pieces together. It’s how do we help Key West transit with its on demand service and encourage people to come connect and allow those larger busses to get on the Overseas Highway, to reduce wait times, those are things. The transit system, what people want is safe and secure, but they also want very timely. I know it’s coming at this time. I can’t count on it. Those are the things that really drive ridership and encourage people. We’ve been working with Miami Dade closely, trying to figure out how we help for the long term, getting people to that commuter system. So our gap historically has been local service throughout the Keys, which is why we’ve started with our local effort trying to build a system that works for everybody.”
The Miami Dade route is 301 and 302 with the Dade Monroe Express.
Clark said, “The 301 service comes from Florida City, and to make it really easy, stops about mile marker 50. There’s a little overlap between Key West transit and Miami Dade, where you transfer if you want to come all the way into the Lower Keys. Then the 302 turns up and runs up Card Sound Road towards Ocean Reef and in the mornings when everybody’s coming in to get to work, they are literally standing remotely in the mornings, which is great. We just need to continue to add service. That service started in 2003. I think it was $100,000 from Miami Dade and $100,000 from FDOT and here we are, 20 years later, I think they’re pushing four and a half million dollars a year. There’s a dozen busses and they are certainly carrying a significant amount of people.”
Where do things stand with the state budget and transportation?
Clark said, “The amount of additional work that the county budget office and our County Administrator, the additional work that they had to do this year was just unbelievable. You had to think best and worst case scenario. You had to build budgets based on those because it’s not like you get a whole bunch of time after they approve their budget. You have to be prepared. So being prepared for three entirely different scenarios and building budgets was just an amazing effort on all of their parts, which, I think is why we’re going to land in a very good place. Are we going to have to make some cuts? I’m certain that we will. I think most would probably have been looked at regardless. Anytime you get a new set of eyes looking at how we run things holistically, you’re going to make some change, and you’re going to make some change for the better, things that haven’t been looked at in a while are going to be looked at and scrutinized. So I think obviously, we will be doing that, regardless of what happens. I’m sure there will be some level that you’re going to feel it. You’re looking at a few million dollars annualized, year over year, that you’re not otherwise going to get. From transit perspective, which is what I focus on, this is the time, believe it or not, when things get lean and tough. More people look for alternatives. So you find certain areas where there’s more focus. Typically the trend even across the country, would be, you’re going to look more at public transit than less. It’s a little counterintuitive, but people are looking for other ways to save, so typically, that’s how it works, from a county, any government perspective, that’s how it works. Anytime there’s something difficult, it takes a few years. So they didn’t do catastrophic damage to anybody that I’m aware of and so it allowed everybody to kind of take a deep breath and look at what they could and couldn’t do. So I don’t think you’ll see any kind of dramatic shift in service offerings. I think from the outside looking in, the county is going to just run more efficiently, and with the new aim at focus, and new aim at making sure we do it right. I think our county administrator, she’s going to have that goal every year, regardless of what happens with the budget. Part of the way that we’re all thinking now is, how do we make sure that this is running as efficiently as possible, so that we can offer the most and the best service we can?”
What about upcoming projects?
Clark said, “We did get notice that Long Key had been turned into a major rehab project. They have a quarter of a billion dollars, a $250 million project to do a substantial rehabilitation project on Long Key, as opposed to rebuilding Long Key. The good news is, they have it funded. The good news is that they’ll be able to push the timetable up because it’s a rehab project, not a rebuild. So both of those good news for Long Key, good news for traffic. Obviously, we’re going to see impacts anytime there’s construction on Overseas or any of our bridges. We have already started the process with the Seven Mile Bridge. We’ve had a meeting of stakeholders that FDOT brought together probably five or six months ago. Typically, those meetings happen once a year in the first three years, because they’re doing them all over and really trying to understand, trying to make sure they don’t miss anything as they start preparing for doing a bridge like that. The reason Long Key wound up becoming a rehab project, when they started that whole project, they thought it would cost $200 million. I think the final number I saw was way north of $600 million to build a new bridge. So you have to imagine Seven Mile will be a billion dollar undertaking by the time they do it. Is it in the future? Yes, but those bridges were originally slated for 2030 and then Seven Mile was 2040 in the time frame. Then Snake Creek was 2050. You don’t want them all going at once, and they do take years to build.”
Transportation is a big part of any kind of hurricane preparedness.
Clark said, “We just did a formal exercise a week ago Friday. Normally when you think of exercise, people think of evacuation, and then they the next thing you think of is return. But it was a really interesting exercise this year where we really focused on the storm has come, so we didn’t look at evacuation. That had happened. We were saying, okay, between the storm hitting and before we open the roads back up, what does transit have to do? From my perspective, that was my role, obviously, so it was a really good exercise to look at okay, how do we behave? There are people who probably wouldn’t have left. How do we get those people to a safe shelter, and where would we open a shelter? So it was a really interesting exercise this year. They just do such a great job at preparing everyone, at understanding where you may need to focus a little more, and how you plan for those events. It was really, really well done. Not that we ever want to use any of that knowledge ever, but it was really helpful. It is one heck of a logistics exercise, and they are really, really good at what they do.”
If you haven’t tried the Monroe County transit, give it a chance.
Clark said, “I would encourage anyone to try transit throughout the Keys, Key West rides, Conch Connect, any of the services that we offer, give it a try. Things are a little slower now. It’s easier to try. It would certainly help us for the long term and we really want to do everything we can to encourage people to get out of their own vehicles, find an alternative way to get to and from where you need to go and feel free to reach out and give us ideas. We’d love to hear them. This is our time where we really start planning and looking at how we can best serve people.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/1295/Transit