Richard Clark, executive director of Monroe County Transit, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Conch Connect has been incredibly successful for transportation in the county.
Clark said, “We have effectively, a three year grant. It’s a year over year, but typically it lasts three years, and that also locks us into a rate. We’ve been year one, so year two and year three will most likely happen, as long as things continue. It’s been a huge success in Islamorada as well as Freebee and they’ve asked us to look at taking over the management of that service. The board also said we should do that as well and look at expansion and some of our other areas. So we’ll take a much deeper dive in what it looks like for not just Islamorada that has the service, but Key Largo, looking at Marathon, Key Colony and then another Big Pine to Summerlin, Cudjoe-ish area.”
What other issues were discussed?
Clark said, “The county commission discussed road capacity. It was originally a discussion about four laning bridges in the future, so that a bridge lasts 50 to 75 years, so even if it operates as a two lane having not hamstringing, the generations in the future to not have that option if they see fit, was really what the discussion was about. Any kind of process like that where you would have to change your comprehensive plan, that’s probably a year long process, and you have to go into the public and you have to have open meetings, and it’s a process. So I wouldn’t want anybody to concern themselves like something’s going to happen tomorrow, but it’s certainly a worthy discussion to have every five, ten tears to see where we are. Our growth is what it is. It’s more about allowing people to safely get out of out of the Keys when there’s an emergency, as well as, frankly, just getting home or getting to the grocery store. There’s some really tough ways people have to get in and out of their neighborhoods. It’s not just Key Largo or Key West, it’s everywhere where everybody knows those times today, especially during peak season, that you really don’t want to be on the roads. It’s really good for not just discussion, but the municipalities have their own comprehensive plan. We would never, as a county, tell a city or a municipality, how they had to operate, that wouldn’t be something we would do or have the ability to do. So I wouldn’t want anybody to worry about that either.”
FDOT has a lot of say in what happens to the roads.
Clark said, “FDOT, it is their road, has a lot of leverage, and they can do what they feel is right especially when it comes to safety. They’re going to put safety first no matter what. If there are five things you look at, the first three are safety, but if they see a need or deem it as safety or hazardous, they’re going to do what they feel is necessary. But 99% of the time, you’re always going to take into account the long term, comprehensive plans that and transportation plans that counties and municipalities have in place.”
Is ferry service still a possibility?
Clark said, “We’re working through our efforts with FDOT, trying to find the right methodology to look at Inter Island ferry service. Is it something that’s going to be managed at a central office in Tallahassee, or something managed under the district? At the end of the day, we’ll do a very open public procurement here locally for that. But we’re still very interested in Inter Island ferry service. Everybody I’ve talked to as I go up and down the Keys is very excited about that.”
Transportation will always be an issue.
Clark said, “We’re at a tipping point where you start seeing more vehicles, more busses, vans on Overseas to pick up commuter service, make it a little more robust. We have a lot of collaboration behind the scenes, both with Key West Transit and Miami Dade. So it’s ongoing every day, and every day it gets a little closer and a little more exciting. Our goal is to make everybody’s life here better, and that’s our goal, and so we try never to lose sight of that.”
With the change over in the federal administration, what changes are we seeing?
Clark said, “We’ve already seen it. It came out pretty quick. This administration had four years to prepare, and as you can tell, they are going really fast. So we’ve already seen it. The larger grants that were discretionary, where extra points to win such an award were given to DEI initiatives were required then, and electrification and a litany of things that they wanted for their projects to focus on what their goals were and the new goals, those will go further down the list. I don’t know that they’ll go away, but they’ll certainly go way down the list. You’re going to have to talk more as a business case. This is why we need these improvements, and this is how it helps our economy, which it certainly does. We’re going to see a little more emphasis on traditional fuels. So there’s going to be changes. But a clean diesel bus emits water, so it’s not that we would do any damage or harm the environment in any way. Frankly, without traditional fuels, you’re not going to be able to get in an electric transportation style bus. Those don’t have enough power to get from Florida City to Key West, you wouldn’t make it. Same with evacuations, the traditional fuels are what you would want to do to make sure that you can get out of here safely.”
There is also a lack of infrastructure to implement electric transportation county wide.
Clark said, “It is a wonderful service locally, which is why we use electric for Conch Connect and local service. It’s why Key West is doing their bus. It’s not just electrification for environmental reasons, it’s the noise pollution. It is amazing how quiet those vehicles are, and you don’t hear the busses come flying. But there are places where they put sound in them so that you could hear the bus coming.”