Streets for People / Come on Man! Wrap and Brand the Duval Loop Buses!

We love the campy, colorful Patti the Plumber vans branded and wrapped with the Rosie the Riveter head-banded rubber ducky as their symbol. The vans are instantly recognizable and memorable. Brilliantly we’d add. So, if the Patti the Plumber company can wrap all their vehicles, and they aren’t the only good example in town, why in the world do we still see white bread box vans or blank or generic buses instead of branded and wrapped buses on our downtown circulator the Duval Loop? Don’t we want it to be recognized and promoted too? Didn’t they use to have a fun wrap and brand? And shouldn’t the bus stops also be branded with more basic information? Come on man! We’ve got to do better.

Companies and Hotels Wrap and Brand Their Vehicles

Every company on the island seems to be doing this. Dominos Pizza. Key West Spice Company. Last Key Realty. Kermit’s. Key West Fisheries. Love In Bloom. Fishbusterz. One Call Construction. Frtitas Cuban Burgers. Just to name a few nicely wrapped commercial vehicles that we were able to snap pictures of.

Oh, and let’s not forget some of the other transit vehicles: Oceans Edge Resort & Marina; The Perry Hotel; Havana Cabana; The Hop On! (24 North, Fairfield, The Gates and Hilton Garden Inn hotels); not to mention the iconic Trolley Tours buses. And we couldn’t seem to catch the chocolate chip cookie Double Tree Resort by Hilton van, but we know it’s out there. And UPS’ iconic brown vans and FedEx vans are instantly recognizable all over town too.

We’ll bet you’ve already likely seen and recognized the cute little Conch Connect on-demand transit 4-passenger Tesla vehicles the County rolled out on July 15. With so many companies doing it and doing it nicely, this obviously isn’t rocket science. So how about it Key West Transit?

Vehicles Are Moving Billboards – Why Wouldn’t You Use It?

Imagine being able to advertise your company or service on a 15 or 30 foot moving billboard all over town. For 12 hours a day. Then multiply this by two or more. It would be worth a lot of advertising dollars. And this is why all of the companies above, use whatever space on their vehicles they have to advertise their services by branding and wrapping them. And in the case of the hotels and Trolley – so their customers can find the bus. So why is the City sending out blank or generic vehicles instead of advertising the Duval Loop? Especially when they spend nearly zero dollars on any marketing of this service.

Once Upon A Time the Duval Loop Buses Were Wrapped and Branded

Once upon a time the Duval Loop was awesome. When it debuted in the summer of 2017 the buses were branded and wrapped in the pink and blue colors of Key West. “Ride Free and Frequent” was emblazoned across the top. And a route map took up much of the side of the bus. Instantly recognizable. And the branding told you what the bus did and where it went. It was a bus AND it advertised the Loop’s story all in one. Visitors could quickly understand. Oh, this is the free and frequent bus, and this is where it goes.

And then when the buses returned after Covid we didn’t see these buses anymore.

Bus Stops as Branding Opportunities Too

The current Duval Loop bus stops do have a cute pink and round Duval Loop logo atop the poles. Of course, that cute pink Duval Loop logo would make more sense if it was also on the bus. Or on advertising all over the island. The pole sign also says, “Ride Free and Frequent.” Good but not enough as it doesn’t share the hours, nor where the bus goes, nor really what “frequent” means. So, unless a passerby or visitor takes the time to think about it and snap onto the QR code on the sign, then there isn’t much information. And again, it doesn’t seem to relate to any vehicles on the street.

Every bus stop should have a map, the hours, cost and the frequency of the service. The bus stop, like the side of the bus, is a branding and marketing opportunity to tell the novice about what’s going on. With 18 Duval Loop bus stops, Key West Transit has 18 physical places to advertise and entice people to use the service. To tell a good story.

Like the outside of the buses, this is currently a wasted opportunity.

And for Goodness Sakes, Please Do Some Marketing

Wrapping the buses and upgrading the bus stops are musts. And the City should also spend some money marketing the Duval Loop as well as the Work Force Express, Key West Rides and Lower Keys Shuttle. Here’s some stories on how they can and should do that.

What the City Says About the Blank Buses

We asked Key West Transit a couple months ago about why the buses weren’t wrapped and here is their response:

“Initially the Duval Loop buses were wrapped; however, this has had a negative effect on bus replacement. All buses must reach their useful life before replacements can be procured.

Current FDOT release of lien standards require buses to have 12 years of service and been driven 500,000 miles. Given that mileage requirement, using exclusive branded Duval Loop buses would prolong the service of the buses, thus increasing maintenance costs as well as experiencing aesthetic degradation. The Transit Department has adopted a practice where all buses are routinely rotated into other routes such as the Lower Keys Shuttle.”

I’m not sure we understand what they are saying and certainly don’t buy it. I can’t think of a transit company worth its salt anywhere in the world that doesn’t brand their buses. Whatever they are saying, it simply sounds like an excuse for not trying harder.

Some Progress, But We Can and Should Do Better

Since the transit system came back online from Covid, they’ve mostly run one bus on the Duval Loop, making a mockery of the “frequent” in their Free and Frequent motto. But over the last half year or so we’ve noticed that now there are, at least for most of the time, two buses at a time on the route, providing 20-30 minute headways. Progress. We’d also heard from a lot of riders that the real-time bus tracker at kwtransit.com never seemed to work. A couple of months ago they fixed that too by installing a brand new system. It now works very well. So good on our friends at Key West Transit for making some progress.

To build on that progress the City should wrap and brand the Duval Loop buses and upgrade all of the bus stops too. The appearance of the buses and stops tell visitors, workers and residents about our community’s attitude towards public transit and its customers. And I’m afraid the current state of those facilities telegraphs an attitude that we’d just as soon you take your car because we don’t seem to be trying very hard.

Public transit is a basic city service. No excuses. We should do better. And our downtown circulator, the Duval Loop, which is something tens of thousands of visitors see, needs to be a star. Making transit service better will ease our workforce’s burden of needing a car to get around, take cars off our congested streets, reduce parking conflicts downtown, help clean our environment, assist local retail be more prosperous and make our little island healthier and happier. That’s as it should be.

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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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