Rod Delostrinos, Director of Transportation for Key West Transit, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about traffic.
Key West Rides has had more than 50,000 completed rides.
Delostrinos said, “We’re very proud of that and we’re constantly trying to improve the service. Those are just some of the things that I think the public can try. I think that’ll definitely be a better way than sitting in traffic, driving behind the wheel. Let us do the driving.”
The Duvall loop is the highest performing route.
Delostrinos said, “Thousands of people every month. It’s really, it was a great idea, it still is a great idea. If you could imagine just the amount of people if they were actually in cars, or scooters or anything like that, just to get around in that really tight corridor. It alleviates some of the need for the parking that when you when you have to constantly move from place to place and park, you can park at a number of places along, jump right up on the Duvall loop and get to all those places in the in some of the most beautiful parts of the city.”
The Duvall loop goes through Old Town and stops at some of the most popular spots.
Delostrinos said, “It’s from eight in the morning till 10 o’clock at night. It’s the time when you need it. Some people early in the day use it for work. We see a lot of visitors. It’s great to connect with the people that that live here.”
What is the wait time for the Duvall loop?
Delostrinos said, “It’s really looking to 20 to 30 minutes. What we really need to do is probably get more vehicles out there. But that’s such a delicate balance when you’re talking about I mean, do you really want 10 buses in that area? So we’re looking at that all the time, to service the thing but also to be sensitive for everybody.”
The Duvall loop is free of charge.
The on demand service is another option for people.
Delostrinos said, “It’s best if you download the Key West Rides app. It’s just like an Uber or any type of service like that. Once you get your profile, you put where you want to go, and then it’ll give you a ride proposal. From there you either say yes, or you say no, and then it’ll tell you where to go to your location. It tries to get you to a near stop, but of course it’s trying to aggregate riders. So it might not be what you might think, but it’s trying to get everybody to pick up in the least amount of time possible. I think we’re looking at although some people don’t like this, sometimes it’s about 40 minutes to wait but it still beats our hour and a half that we have previously. But really, again, with the 40 minute wait, you don’t have to wait at the bus stop. The app is going to tell you where to go or when the bus is coming, kind of gives you alerts. But if you’re not using the app, you could always call in at 305-809-3910 and we’ll absolutely be willing to help you trip plan, that type of thing. So give it a try.”
The app will have an update soon.
Delostrinos said, “In the next week or so, it’s really for the user interface. Previously, there are multiple screens. I think everybody can understand that that’s kind of confusing at times. So now you’ll be able to put your destination, how many people are going and that type of thing all on one screen. It’s just really one of those invisible things that I think is going to make a difference when it comes to accessing the app.”
Will there be more routes for Fantasy Fest?
Delostrinos said, “The biggest night, the parade night, of course, is when we do all hands on deck. We’ll provide kind of a schedule just for that day where we’ll be doing multiple runs outside of the normal schedule to Marathon and back. Because we have a lot of folks that use the service from the Middle Keys down to Key West. Then we’re going to run some other things in the evening. Key West Rides is going to stop the normal time at eight. But we’re going to start having some other shuttles and we consolidate our bus stops in the downtown area. The goal there is for everyone to have a good time, but at the same time to be safe.”
A website update is also on the horizon.
Delostrinos said, “We get a lot of feedback. The City Commission also, they say, in general, they want the city staff to be able to communicate with the public a lot better. I think, a long overdue update, I think we’ve had the same website look for 15 years now. We’re upgrading some of our GPS on the buses, which is also going to provide a lot better real time look where you can find your bus and you could you can see any alerts, bus routes, all that type of thing. As we’re moving forward with a lot of great initiatives, we can’t leave that piece behind.”