Streets for People / Conch Connect – A New County Sponsored On-Demand Micro-Transit Begins Serving Key West and Stock Island July 15

On Monday, July 15 Monroe County is rolling out a new on-demand, Uber-like micro-transit service called “Conch Connect” on the islands of Key West and Stock Island with the hope of relieving some pressure on the City’s family of Key West Transit services. It will be run by the Freebee company which operates in 40 cities, mostly across mainland Florida, including a just expanded 2-year-old service in downtown Islamorada.

Yes, you read that right. Micro-transit. You see these aren’t your father’s transit buses. To begin with there will be five 4-passenger electric Tesla vehicles + 1 wheel chair accessible lift van, whisking people, often sharing the ride, anywhere within the two islands for $2 per ride between the hours of 5 am to 9 pm seven days a week. Let’s get into the details, discuss what brought this about and talk about what may be coming in the future…

How Conch Connect Works

Just like with Uber and the City’s Key West Rides on-demand service, the County’s Conch Connect operated by Freebee works via an app you download onto your smart phone. With Conch Connect you can pay by using the same app or pay by cash or with credit card once in the vehicle. The hours of 5 am to 9 am, seven days a week, should accommodate lots of riders.

Conch Connect isn’t exactly Uber because, depending upon how busy they are, it could take up to 15-20 minutes for your ride to arrive. It could be faster. It may direct you to a nearby bus stop or landmark for pick up or drop off, so it isn’t exactly door-to-door. And you also may be paired up with one or more passengers traveling in the same direction. Then again, you are only paying $2 per ride.

Why Conch Connect

Traffic studies and surveys of residents show traffic congestion is a problem residents and workers want addressed up and down the Keys as well as in Key West. And while the City has operated transit for decades, other than a required ADA-paratransit service and contributing money towards the City’s Lower Keys Shuttle, the County hasn’t been in the transit business. Acknowledging this need, about two years ago Monroe County hired a brand new Executive Director of Transit, Richard Clark to get them into the game. Since then, he and the County have been putting together long-range plans to provide neighborhood level transit, similar to Conch Connect, up and down the Keys as well as frequent trunk-line transit along the entire length of the Overseas Highway. We go into detail about these plans here: A New Transit Service Is Coming This Summer. Our Workforce Needs It and Much More Transit Up and Down the Keys May 24, 2024.

So, while there are indeed long-term goals, Mr. Clark explains they’ve got to start somewhere, and Stock Island and Key West are underserved, and the City’s Key West Transit is struggling to meet demand. We agree as we’ve written about here,  here, here and here. That and it is easier for the County to hire Freebee to provide the service as a turnkey project and they can park and utilize the electric car charging stations at the County’s Gato building downtown. So, this was just a good and quick way for the County to begin their own transit service.

City’s Key West Transit Should Benefit

As Mr. Clark explained, there’s more demand for transit than the City’s Key West Transit family of services (Key West Rides, Work Force Express, Lower Keys Shuttle and Duval Loop) can provide. Especially as they are using larger vehicles. So, if Conch Connect can relieve some of the burden by picking up some trips, then perhaps, Key West Transit in turn can utilize its vehicles differently in the future. We’d suggest maybe by adding trips or a second Work Force Express route instead of the new meandering route as we’ve discussed here. Richard says that all data is going to be shared with Key West Transit and that after 30 to 90 days patterns may begin to emerge from the trip making that are helpful.

Future Expansion of Conch Connect

Richard Clark also told us that they are awaiting word on a U.S. DOT grant to acquire 30 full-electric 13-passenger Ford Transit Vans (5 of which would be wheelchair accessible) that includes 30 low speed and 10 high speed charging stations. If and when received, these could be added to the Conch Connect fleet here on Key West and Stock Island and/or the County could then begin neighborhood service in other areas such as the Lower Keys, Marathon, Islamorada (which already has a City of Islamorada sponsored service), Key Colony and Key Largo.

Let’s Encourage the County and City to Work Together and Provide More and Better Transit

As more of our Key West workforce lives up the Keys it is good news the County is willing to do more with public transit and the new Conch Connect service is a nice little start. Our workers in particular need frequent, easy and reliable options to the high costs of owning and operating a vehicle because our rents are so high. The County and City need to work together on a vision that includes seamless, frequent, easy-to-understand and well-coordinated transit throughout the entire Keys and Key West.

Accomplishing this vision will ease our workforce’s burden, take cars off our congested main road, reduce parking conflicts downtown, help clean our environment, assist our local Mom and Pop shops be more prosperous and make our island chain a healthier and happier paradise.

Good luck to Conch Connect and let’s hope it’s the start of better transit services to come.

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For more information on all of Key West Transit’s bus service visit our Getting Around Key West by Bus page. We also have a bike, walk and parking page too.

Chris Hamilton is founder of the local advocacy group Friends of Car-Free Key West & Duval Street/Historic Downtown. Subscribe to the blog. Follow on Facebook and Twitter. A native of the District of Columbia, where for a couple decades+ he led nationally renowned efforts promoting transit, bike, walk and smart growth for Arlington County, VA’s DOT. Chris has lived in Key West since 2015. He lives car-free downtown and works and volunteers for a few non-profits. You can find all of KONK Life Streets for People column articles here and here.

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