Making the Duval Loop Free and Easy Helps Downtown Prosper
On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 8 U.S. Radio One Evening Edition’s Nick Wright interviewed Chris Hamilton after reading the article “The $1 Mistake: How Key West Is Undermining the Duval Loop, Again,” published July 6, 2025 where it was generating buzz on Facebook. What follows is a transcript of that conversation. You can listen to that conversation here.
NICK WRIGHT:
“Welcome back to Evening Edition. In just a couple of minutes, we’re going to talk with Rhonda Lopez. She’s the chairman of the Monroe County Republican Party.
But first, we’ll talk with Chris Hamilton. He’s the editor at the Friends of Car-Free Key West blog and Facebook page. Hey there, Chris. Thanks for checking in with us on Evening Edition.”
CHRIS HAMILTON:
“Hey, Nick. How are you doing? I’m doing fantastic today.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“Busy day. So, like many of us, you wear a lot of hats here in the island community. But I’ve got you here today in your capacity with the group Friends of Car Free Key West, where you edit the Facebook page and blog. Can you take us back and tell us about Friends of Car Free Key West, what you guys do, and how long you’ve been around?”
CHRIS HAMILTON:
“We’ve been around since, I guess, COVID. And we started Friends of Car-Free Key West because we wanted to support the efforts of city staff and the transit department and the bike coordinator in promoting a more walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly downtown.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“OK, I called today because there’s recently been changes in the Duval Loop south of White Street in downtown Key West. First, can you go back to your COVID beginnings and tell us about the Duval Loop when it was first imagined and started?”
CHRIS HAMILTON:
“The cool thing about the Duval Loop was that the City envisioned that downtown, the whole Duval Street area, the Seaport, all the attractions, the restaurants, the shops, that they could function better if there were fewer cars. And 77% of our visitors who stay overnight get here by car. And the research told the City that if people have a car once they’re here, they tend to use it.
The survey research also told the city that if they offered alternatives that were easy, intuitive, simple, free, that people would use that and leave their car at the local hotel or the local parking lot. The whole idea of doing a Duval Loop circulator in the first place was economic development. It was supporting the downtown business community.
Think about it, if you visited any big city or small tourist town around the world, you’ll note most cities do have some sort of circulator bus that gets people around.
So, the city started this in 2017. It had wonderfully colorful buses. It had an easy-to-understand route that just went around Duval Street and went around the Seaport. It had long hours, and it came by every 15 minutes. People loved it.
The first couple of years, over 330,000 people rode it each year. And it took cars off the downtown streets. It made downtown more friendly.
It helped local mom-and-pop businesses because a lot of times, if people are at one end of Duval, they might not want to walk all the way to the other end. I mean, think about all the times you stop and see a tourist, and they’re schvitzing and sweating, and they’re like, oh, how do you guys stand the weather here? And I’ve got to walk up around here. And so, they might not walk to the other end of Duval.
They might not walk up to the Seaport and see all the wonderful restaurants and venues there. But by having the Duval Loop coming by every 15 minutes, you hop on, you hop off, it’s fun, it’s free. People took to it immediately. The business community especially took to it. It was very successful.
I guess if you fast-forward to COVID, COVID put a kibosh on a lot of stuff. And the city made some mistakes when the Duval Loop came back after COVID. They halved the number of buses on it. They shortened the hours. They took off the branded buses. They forgot about the bus stops. And as a result, ridership just really plummeted.
After COVID, the first couple of years, there was only like 70,000 people riding the bus, a long shot from 330,000. But the last couple of years, every year the ridership has slowly inched back.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“There’s been a comeback, right?”
CHRIS HAMILTON:
“It has. It has comeback. And so slowly, city staff has been making the bus stops nicer, putting up a QR code on the bus stops so people could pull up when the next bus is coming, putting maps on the bus stops so people could say, oh, all right, this is where it goes. I see that.
And it started coming back. And then on June 4th with little explanation why, the City Commission said yes to a staff request to start charging a dollar fare.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“Okay, so what does that dollar fare mean to the Duval Loop, and what’s its impact on all of us down here?”
CHRIS HAMILTON:
“Well, you know what? They tried this five years ago, and the business community revolted.
The people who own all the local hotels and inns downtown, people who own the shops, they went to the City Commission, and they said, our visitors love this. Do not charge a dollar because they’re just not going to ride it, and then they won’t come to our shop, or they won’t get to our end of Duval Street. And when the City did a COVID Recovery Plan, one of the items that was in that recovery plan was to rescind that dollar fare.
So, they rescinded it, and it has been free since then. Taking away something that was advertised as FREE and frequent and charging a dollar just makes it like any other bus route now. It’s not a special amenity for downtown anymore.
And that likely means ridership will start to go down again.
Now, a lot of people will say, well, it’s just a dollar. Come on, pay the dollar.
But think about when you get on a bus and you have to make exact change, or you have to deal with a card reader that is going to charge your credit card, or you don’t know how much it costs. So, people queue up. There’s a line. It slows everything down. It makes it a hassle.
If you’ve got a family and you’ve got kids and you’re trying to figure it out, it just is like the next time they won’t get on the bus. So, ridership is likely to go down.
And one of the ironic things is that a lot of the City funding for public transit in Key West comes from federal and state dollars that are hinged on ridership.
If anything, you’d want to goose the ridership upward so you could get more state and federal money. But charging a $1 will drive ridership in the opposite direction.
Again, let’s bring it back to the business community.
If there’s less riders and there’s less people getting around to see all the different points of downtown, then that’s not good for our local mom-and-pop shops.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“Okay, so in your perspective, what should be addressed and what should be done by our city in terms of the Duval Loop?”
CHRIS HAMILTON:
“They should rescind the dollar fare as soon as they can. Make it free again.
Perhaps simplify the route.
Right now, I live on Fleming Street, and the bus just went by. It was a big, blank, white bus. They’ve got to repaint or rewrap the buses in the colorful Duval Loop brand that was originally done. In fact, the city put out a Facebook post today, and it showed the old Duval Loop that was nice and colorful, but they haven’t had one of those buses on the route in 2 or 3 years.
So, they need to get back to some basics and work with the business community to market better.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“Okay, so for like-minded people, how do they get in touch with you and or get more information on the cause?”
CHRIS AHMILTON
“You can always follow us at Friends of Car-Free Key West on Facebook and at the friendsofcarfreekeywest.org blog.
And talk to your commissioners. Tell them that you support public transit downtown, and especially the Duval Loop. It’s not like any other transit around the city.
It’s special. It’s supposed to help our downtown prosper, thrive, and be walk-friendly. We don’t want all those visitors that come down here with cars to get in their car to drive 8 blocks to the other end of Duval.
That’s just silly and stupid. Making the Duval Loop free and easy to use helps downtown prosper.”
“NICK WRIGHT
Okay, well, thanks for catching us up, Chris. We appreciate you keeping us up to date on the issue.”
CHRIS HAMILTON
“All right, thanks, Nick.”
NICK WRIGHT:
“That was Chris Hamilton, editor at the Friends of Carfree Key West blog and Facebook page, giving his perspective on the changes to the Duval Loop in downtown Key West.
Coming up, we’ll look at our local, state, and national politics with Rhonda Lopez, chairman of the Monroe County Republican Party. That’s up next on this Tuesday, July 8th evening edition, brought to you by Two Friends Patio Restaurant in Keys Auto Center. Stick with us on U.S. 1 Radio.”
♪ She told me to walk this way, ♪ Drive this way ♪ Walk this way, drive this way
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
Chris Hamilton is the founder of Friends of Car-Free Key West & Duval Street/Historic Downtown, a local advocacy group championing sustainable mobility and vibrant public spaces. Subscribe to the blog and follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Substack for updates. All stories are cross posted at KONK Life News. Originally from Washington, D.C., Chris spent over two decades leading nationally acclaimed initiatives in transit, biking, walking, and smart growth for Arlington County, VA’s DOT. Since moving to Key West in 2015, he has embraced a car-free lifestyle downtown, dedicating his time to non-profits and community projects. Explore all Streets for People column articles here.