Blog Category

Duval Street – We See the Future and it Could Start Now

By Chris Hamilton, June 24, 2020 This is a follow-up to our May 25 article “Can We Pedestrianize Duval Street AND Still Allow Vehicles?” The short answer was yes and we discussed the concept of a “Woonerf” or “Shared Street” that is designed for people but allows some cars at very slow speeds. In an article […]

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Key West #115 in Best Cities for Bikes List

By Chris Hamilton, June 10, 2020 On June 9 People for Bikes released their ranking of 575 communities in North America (567 in the USA) in their Annual 2020 City Ratings for Best Cities for Bikes and Key West came in at #115 with an Overall Score of 1.9 out of 5 and received one out […]

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Duval Street Revitalization Moves Forward

By Chris Hamilton, June 10, 2020 The Good Duval Street Revitalization Moves Forward blared the headline at the top of the page in this morning’s Key West Citizen news story by By Pru Sowers. THIS IS GOOD NEWS. We’ve been talking about the Duval Street Revitalization Study since last fall as the next step after the […]

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Does Duval Street/Downtown Need a Business Improvement District?

By Chris Hamilton, June 4, 2020 We’ve recently been making the case and seen lots of public support for putting in parklets to widen the sidewalks, for restaurants and retailers to “take the streets” or even for some semblance of the return of Mall-on-Duval-like activities. It seems a missing element is someone to organize and help […]

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Can We Pedestrianize Duval and Still Allow Vehicles?

By Chris Hamilton, May 28, 2020 Back in April we shared an article Reimagining Key West – 3 Quick Wins for Revitalizing Duval Street that suggested to get a start on pedestrianizing Duval Street, now during the Coronavirus slowdown, we could install parklets, put in more bike parking and “Slow the Cars Down and Let People Take […]

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Is Staples Bike Bridge Safe?

Is the Staples Avenue Bike Bridge safe? June 12 UPDATE: We received a nice call today from Steven McAlearney the City’s Director of the Department of Engineering about this story. He assured us that they wouldn’t let people ride on the bridge if it was unsafe. He rides the bridge often himself. He said the bridge […]

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Shhhhh… Key West Transit Has Quietly Changed Their Routes

By Chris Hamilton, May 20, 2020 Why this information is so hard to come by, we don’t know. But Key West Transit has ditched the old, meandering, hard to understand Red, Orange, Blue and Green Routes (Yay!) and replaced them with two simplified North and South routes that intersect with the “Free and Frequent” Duval Loop. […]

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Key West, Let’s Radically Speed Up the Implementation of Our Bike/Ped Plan

By Chris Hamilton, May 20, 2020 More People Are Bicycling at the Moment If you’ve been on a bike during the last two months you know how easy and safe it is to get around our beautiful little island without all those cars clogging things up. Bike shops report upticks in new bike purchases and people […]

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The City Raised Bus Fares. Time to Tackle Parking

…Or why reforming our parking practices will lead to less congestion and more open streets that can be used by people instead of just cars… By Chris Hamilton, April 30, 2020 In instituting a new fare for visitors using the “Free and Frequent” Duval Loop bus service, the Mayor said “We’re in some very strange and […]

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City of Key West – Let Our Restaurants Take the Streets!

Photo Credit KONK Life By Chris Hamilton, May 6, 2020 With indoor seating for restaurants limited to 25% of capacity, it is time to let our struggling local restaurants take to the sidewalks and streets for customer seating. A 50 seat restaurant is now limited to 13 seats indoors. Who can survive on that? We have […]

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