Key West is two miles by four. You do not need a car, and increasingly you should not want one. But the route map changed underneath the city’s own website, which now contradicts itself in three places, so here is what is actually running.
Do you need a car in Key West?
No, not for Key West itself. The island is about two miles by four, Old Town is walkable end to end, and the city bus is $2 a ride. A car is the expensive part of the trip here: the city’s Old Town garage is $48 a day, and parking is scarce everywhere you would want to go. Rent one only if you are doing the Keys as well, and even then park it once.
Public transportation in Key West: what runs now
- Key West Rides, the on-demand city bus: you book it in an app, $2, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., anywhere on the island and Stock Island. How it works is below.
- The Lower Keys Shuttle, the one fixed route: Old Town to Marathon along US 1, ten trips a day each way, $4. Its stops and times are below.
- Not running: the Duval Loop, suspended since January 2026, and the North and South Lines, which Key West Rides replaced.
- Not the city’s: the Old Town Trolley, a paid hop-on tour, and Key West’s 56 licensed taxis.
The bus in Key West: what it costs
“Effective July 7, 2025, the following full, reduced, and senior fares are:”
| One way | One day | 7-day | 31-day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City routes | $2 | $4 | $8 | $25 |
| Keys routes | $4 | $8 | $25 | $75 |
Plus, under “Other Fees”:
“Duval Loop — $1 · All-Day Pass — $4”
And:
“Children under five (5) or younger are free with a fare-paying adult.”
“One Day Super Pass Valid on City and Lower Keys Routes $12”
The Duval Loop has been suspended
The Duval Loop was free for years, and it is the thing most visitors ask about. The short answer is that it is suspended, and no restart date is set.
The Keys News, reporting the city’s own announcement:
“The city of Key West has announced that the Duval Loop bus route will be suspended beginning Jan. 2, with service replaced by the Key West Rides on-demand transit program… Duval Loop is being suspended due to reductions in federal and state transportation funding. Existing Duval Loop bus stop locations will continue to be served through the on-demand system.”
So the stops survive. You summon a bus to them instead of waiting for a loop.
Its return is not funded. Keys News reported in March 2026 that the city’s annual update of its Transit Development Plan included a restored Duval Loop, with two new fixed routes, for fiscal 2027, which began 1 October 2026. The budget the city commission approved in September did not include money to bring it back. At the 10 September hearing the city manager said the city was unable to use tourist-tax (TDC) money for the Loop, and the finance director has since asked the Monroe County Attorney for a written opinion on whether all or part of its cost could qualify. Restoring just the Loop is the cheaper option; restoring all three planned routes would cost about $1.6 million more than the city expects to have. We re-check this page on 15 November.
The city’s own pages have not caught up, which is why you will find three different answers on one website:
- Its fare table still line-items “Duval Loop — $1”.
- Its Schedules and Route Maps page, last updated 24 October 2025, offers only Workforce and Lower Keys Shuttle. No Duval Loop map.
- Its FAQ titled “Is the Duval Loop still free?” no longer mentions the Duval Loop anywhere on the page. The question is in the title and the answer is gone.
Plan on the on-demand service. If a Duval Loop vehicle does turn up, treat it as a bonus rather than a timetable.
Key West Rides: how the on-demand bus works
Key West Rides On-Demand is the city bus now, and the one you will use. It replaced the North and South Lines:
“Key West Rides On-Demand is an innovative form of transportation that will replace the North and South Lines and get you to your destinations in the community without transfers.”
Key West Rides launched in late 2023, as Keys News reported from the city’s transit plan. The North and South Lines are not routes you can plan around any more.
How to ride it:
- Get the free Key West Rides app, on Google Play or the App Store, and book a ride to where you are going. The app tells you which stop to meet the bus at and shows it coming in real time.
- If no bus is free now, book one for later. The app offers times in 15-minute steps until it finds one.
- It is a shared ride. The app groups riders heading the same way, so the bus may stop for others, and you can bring up to five more people on one booking.
- Pay the city fare, $2, in exact cash or by card through Token Transit.
Once you are aboard the destination cannot be changed; before then you can cancel in the app and book again. Riders with a wheelchair pick the wheelchair icon before booking, and every bus has a rack for two bikes. For help booking, the city’s line is 305-809-3910.
The city’s own words on the zone and the stops:
“Key West Rides On-Demand currently has only one zone in Key West, including Stock Island.”
“This is a bus stop-to-bus stop service, so you will be picked up and dropped off as close as possible to your destination.”
Hours: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Sunday, with no service on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.
So if you have an old map or an old guide with a North Line on it, that route does not exist. You summon a bus instead.
System-wide hours and the fleet
“The earliest route begins operation at 5:40 AM, and the last route is at 10:00 PM. Our fleet consists of 20 handicap-accessible buses that accommodate 24 or 32 passengers.”
“The City of Key West Department of Transportation operates seven days per week except on the following days: Thanksgiving Day / Christmas Day / New Year’s Day”
Note that the on-demand service stops at 8 p.m. while fixed routes run to 10.
The Lower Keys Shuttle
The Lower Keys Shuttle is Key West Transit’s one fixed route, and it runs every day between Whitehead and Eaton Streets in Old Town, Mile Marker 0, and Marathon, at the Sadowski Causeway, Mile Marker 53.5. In Key West it stops at Truman and Simonton and on North Roosevelt by Searstown; up US 1 its timetable lists Stock Island, Boca Chica, Big Coppitt, Sugarloaf, Cudjoe, Summerland, Big Pine Key and Bahia Honda, among other stops.
- Ten trips each way. From Whitehead and Eaton the first leaves at 5:40 a.m. and the last at 7:51 p.m.; from Marathon the first leaves at 5:35 a.m. and the last at 8:04 p.m., reaching Old Town at 9:51.
- About an hour to Bahia Honda, Mile Marker 37, and an hour and a half to two hours to Marathon.
- $4 one way, $8 for a day, or $12 for the One Day Super Pass, which covers the city buses as well.
- The garage pass does not cover it (below).
- At Marathon its Sombrero Road stop, Mile Marker 50, is the transfer to Miami-Dade’s Route 301 bus to Florida City.
So Bahia Honda, the state park beach 37 miles up the highway, is a bus ride. Buses can be tracked live at kwtransit.com, and the city’s questions line for the timetable is 305-809-3911.
Paying
“Transit accepts cash payments and Token Transit. Bus drivers cannot refund cash to riders.”
Exact change, or the app. The on-demand service also takes credit card through Token Transit.
Bikes ride free with a regular fare, which makes a bike plus a bus a genuinely good combination on an island this size.
If you did drive down
The best transit deal in Key West is attached to a parking garage:
“Payment at the Park n’ Ride Garage grants free access to the City Routes of public transportation for you and everyone in your vehicle.”
“Just so you know, the free bus service is only available within Key West and does not extend to the Lower Keys Shuttle service.”
“The Bus stop is located across Caroline Street in front of West Marine.”
Not a discount — included, for everyone in the car.
One thing to confirm: that benefit is worded for “City Routes,” and the fixed routes it named have since been replaced by the on-demand service. The city classes Key West Rides as “a City service, so the fares will remain the same,” and the only service the garage excludes by name is the Lower Keys Shuttle. If your day depends on it, confirm with the Department of Transportation on 305-809-3910 when you book, or the garage on 305-809-3861.
The garage’s rates and restrictions are on the parking page, including the 7-foot-2 height limit that catches people in vans.
Taxis
Key West caps its taxis: 56 vehicles for hire, the maximum the city allows. Their fares are set in the city code as ceilings:
| Ceiling | |
|---|---|
| Meter, first fifth of a mile | $1.75 |
| Each further fifth of a mile | 45 cents |
| Waiting, per 50 seconds | 45 cents |
| Groups of four or more, per person, by zone | $2 in one zone · $2.50 two · $3 three · $3.50 four |
| From or to the airport, per person with bags | $7 Old Town · $6 midtown · $5 uptown · $6 Stock Island and Key Haven |
| Fantasy Fest and New Year’s Eve, per person per trip | $3.50 |
The zones: Old Town is everything west of White Street; midtown runs from White Street to Kennedy Drive; uptown from Kennedy Drive to Cow Key Channel, including South Roosevelt Boulevard; and the fourth is Stock Island and Key Haven. The zone rate only applies if the driver tells you the per-person price before you set off, and the driver must give you a receipt if you ask. For New Year’s Eve, when that cap applies and the buses have stopped, the Christmas and New Year’s page has the rest of the night.
What we would actually do
Do not rent a car for Key West itself. The island is two by four miles, Old Town is walkable end to end, parking is expensive and scarce, and the bus is $2.
Do rent one if you are doing the Keys — the middle keys, or more than one stop up US 1. The Lower Keys Shuttle gets you to Bahia Honda in about an hour for $4, ten times a day, but it is one bus along one road.
Walk Old Town, bike everything else. A bike covers the whole island in twenty minutes, costs less than a day of parking, and rides the bus free if you get tired or wet — renting a bike, with the shops and their rates is on its own page.
Or ride between the sights. The Old Town Trolley works as transport with narration attached: 13 stops and a day of unlimited reboarding, until the last loop leaves Mallory Square at 4:30 p.m. The Conch Tour Train looks similar but is one loop with no getting off — the two are compared here.
And on a cruise ship day, the buses between Mallory Square and Duval are the busiest thing on the island between about 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. — the schedules and how to check them are here.
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