Unbelievable, you say? Today maybe, but not when the Bay Area’s Water Authority begins ferry service in four or five years as projected by the Water Transit Initiative which grew out of the Bay Area Council’s 52-member Blue Ribbon Council when it delivered its report to the California legislature last year.

And the San Mateo County Peninsula could not be more ready for ferry service. The hard-number projections say, "Ferry Service." Currently, as reported by Jim Bigelow, Vice President of Programs for the San Mateo County Economic and Development Association, otherwise known as Samceda, there is one car for every available space on Highway 101 during the heaviest commute times.

However, the 20-year projection–and it could happen sooner with ongoing real estate development, is that there will be four cars for every available space on 101. That means the current hour-and-a-half commute by car from the City to an internet company in Redwood City will probably easily take two hours in ten years. In twenty years, we could be looking at almost three hours for a one-way commute.

"There’ll be more pressure on transit," Bigelow explains as a reason for ferries, "with eight out of 10 jobs created in San Mateo County, only two of those people will be able to afford to live here in the County."

Bigelow adds to a need for ferries, "By 2004, it’s estimated that 56,000 more jobs will be created in the County." He also states, "In four more years, of commercial office space over 100,000 square feet, it’s estimated that 15,000,000 million square feet will be developed and filled with employees. And that doesn’t even include developments less than 100,000 square feet."

"We’ve made projections out to the year 2010, and it looks like those projected levels will be reached six or seven years earlier than we thought," Bigelow ends. To Bigelow these kind of projections call for pro-active solutions for transit including the quick institution of ferry service.

Although planned electrification for Caltrain and BART to Millbrae will provide more service and help maintain the abysmal, current levels of freeway congestion to what they are now, it will take a new mode of transit like ferry service to help reduce traffic congestion to manageably sane degrees.

According to the Bay Area Council’s study, ferries would be landing at Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco every 30 minutes from ports in San Francisco and the East Bay with the same planned for the Port of Redwood City and Moffett Field. San Francisco Airport ferry passenger service is also included in the study, but most likely, the airport will start ferries with cargo service between San Francisco and Oakland airports.

What makes ferry service from San Francisco to the Peninsula unique, according to Ron Cowan, retired real estate developer and head of the Bay Area Council’s committee on ferries, is the service to freeways that Peninsula ferry service can provide. "Historically, ferry service has spanned bodies of water, as in service from between the East Bay and Redwood City or Moffett Field which will happen," but he adds, "parallel ferry service to roadways, such as service to South San Francisco, San Francisco International Airport, Redwood City and Moffett Field hasn’t been competitive, but 101 traffic congestion makes it competitive and is something original as far as ferries are concerned."

When asked how long a commute from San Francisco to Redwood City would take, Cowan answered, "30 to 40 minutes at most." Cowan explained that new ferry technology would make this possible. While Cowan mentioned new Catamaran technology being developed in Tasmania and new kinds of hovercrafts being tested in England, it is the ferry technology being developed in Florida which excites him most.

Cowan says that a 90-ft. 180-passenger ferry will be available in six months, in the late summer. At that time, Cowan foresees that some kind of testing could be done to get a gauge on commute times and terminal needs. Cowan also stresses, however, that ferry technology is improving in leaps and bounds which will make ferry service even faster when the day finally comes.

Cowan is excited about the technology coming out of Florida for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that these new ferries will combine catamaran bodies with hovercraft-like hulls enabling the boats to travel at speeds of 60-70 knots, or 40 to 50 miles per hour. The other reason for Cowan’s excitement is that these new ferries only require a 12-inch draft, or depth of water, to land at a ferry terminal. This is especially relevant to Peninsula ferry service because of the low depth of the Bay at Oyster Point, the Port of Redwood City and for the planned terminal in the South Bay at Moffett Field.

Although the port at Oyster Point has recently been dredged to a level of eight feet, many of the more southern ports planned for ferry terminals are also shallow in depth and expensive dredging would have to be considered, for the sloughs of the Port of Redwood City, for example. Ports can be dredged to 10 feet but must be approved by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC, as it’s called.

While Cowan is impressed with the Tasmanian and English ferry technology, there’s another political reason he’s excited about the technology out of Florida. United States federal legislation has traditionally tried to protect domestic shipbuilding in favor of foreign designed ships coming into the U.S. With a Florida ferry manufacturer there won’t be any new U.S. licenses to be acquired that may slow down upcoming ferry demonstrations on the Bay.

But Cowan tempers his enthusiasm by saying that ferry technologies will have to be examined in detail before a standardized design is approved to go with terminals.

Ferry terminals are an important component of this project. With ferry service on the Peninsula, Cowan agrees with Jim Datzman, South San Francisco Council Member and a member of the Bay Area Council’s ferry committee, that ferry terminals will have to be first-rate to encourage a behavior change for auto-dependent commuters and for accommodating ferry riders willing to make that change.

Datzman envisions terminals like the one he sees for South San Francisco as providing more than just shelter from the winds in that area, but he would also like the terminals to provide amenities like food, magazine kiosks bookstores, even dry-cleaning. When asked how much it would cost to provide sufficient ferry berthing along with customer amenities, Cowan estimates that it will cost in the neighborhood of $10 to $20,000,000 per terminal when a fully-integrated ferry system goes from the planning to the implementation stage.

As Peter Grenell, General Manager of San Mateo County Harbor District, comments, however, "The cost estimate per terminal will depend on many factors, obviously, including the level of ridership and type of service offered such as commuter-only or commuter and recreational, and whether in fact it will be economically feasible to have various retail commercial enterprises within the terminal structure."

Grenell further comments, "In certain cases, this will not be feasible without sufficient ridership and without a surrounding population base to support retail businesses. Also, rider preference will have to be considered, such as quick-in/quick-out to and from the terminals."

"Another thing to consider," says Grenell, "is whether it may prove desirable and feasible to erect what amounts to a comparatively low-cost, interim terminal, that is safe, provides shelter from the weather, direct access, ADA compliant too—to and from the vessels, and with efficient pick-up and drop-off access. The purpose is to get water transit services operating as quickly as possible."

South San Francisco businesses, like Genentech for example, have high hopes for ferries easing their employees’ commutes and helping their businesses to be more productive. Rich Booth, Transportation Manager of Genentech, and one of the Bay Area’s most innovative employee commute managers sees far-reaching effects for mass tranportation, in general, from ferry service.

"From my point of view, I think ferry tickets should be part of a more universal transit pass system in the Bay Area," Booth explains. "People should be able to access ferries from bus systems so we avoid large parking lots at the ferry terminals." That’s a controversy BART is currently facing and which Booth hopes will be avoided when building new ferry terminals.

Because Caltrain and BART shuttles to South San Francisco, and Oyster Point business parks, specifically, are so well established, forming a ferry/shuttle interface to that area will not be like inventing the wheel. General Manager Grenell and Booth both believe it will mean simply extending the shuttle service to provide direct, efficient, and convenient services to the ferries.

One Peninsula real estate developer is already using ferries as part of their marketing strategy to attract new and high-tech business. Pacific Shores Center, Redwood City’s 1.22 million square foot development, significantly mentions ferries as part of the commute and transportation scheme on the development’s website.

K. Peter Brandon, Executive Vice President and project manager for Pacific Shores mentions why ferries are such an important element, along with other convenience at the development like a daycare center, fitness center, multimedia conference and entertainment pavilion and a marine life resource center.

As Brandon says, "If you study the project design, people and their needs are the most important aspect of the project. We tried to create a workplace where it’s enticing to work—and come to work. And that includes ferries as well as the ballfields."

As well as a proponent of ferry service for his development, Brandon is his own best advertisement for ferries as he lives in Marin and makes part of his commute to Redwood City on the Larkspur Ferry and continues on down the Peninsula via Caltrain. "I take my laptop and cellphone every day," and he adds, "the ferry is the most enjoyable part of my commute."

Brandon thinks that Caltrain may be under a misapprehension thinking ferries are competition. "There’s more than enough commuters to go around. Besides," he adds, "there will be a bike path extension, bike parking and shuttle inlets, so we’re encouraging other alternative modes like Caltrain."

Peninsula ports are anxious, however, to begin demonstration projects on their own. Jennifer Kuhn, Business Development Manager of the Port of Redwood City, is looking to partner with a ferry service and begin demonstration projects within the year. "We’re talking to a couple companies about doing demonstration projects up to PacBell Park" Kuhn roughly estimates that it will cost from $300,000 to $500,000 to build a terminal for regular ferry landings and launchings.

Brandon notes another element indicating how important ferries will become to companies already committed to leasing two-thirds of Pacific Shores’s space. "In the future, employees from Excite/At Home, Broadvision, Informatica and Phone.com who are taking business trips or going to business meetings in San Francisco will be able to take the ferry to SFO or up to South of Market, get back down the Peninsula and miss all the traffic."

When asked about ferry service at San Francisco International Airport, John Ballesteros, Governmental Affairs Coordinator, explains, "We are exploring the establishment of a joint operating consortium with Oakland Airport to develop a water transport freight system using hovercraft technology."

Ballesteros explained why ferrying cargo versus passengers was first priority. "We completed a ferry study a few years back which determined the hovercraft service with remote terminals would be attractive to airline passengers. We conducted off-site demonstrations of hovercraft technology, but we found that because of our current runway configuration, airplane takeoffs and landings would be greatly disrupted by passenger hovercraft operations crossing the airfield. When moving cargo via hovercraft, plane operations are not disrupted as the hovercrafts are not required to transverse the runway in order to reach cargo facilities."

Ballesteros further explains, "The cargo would come from Downtown San Francisco and Moffet Field." He adds, "There are two advantages to using ferries: one, it gets trucks off the freeways and two, it increases the handlers’ certainty for delivery times because there is no traffic congestion"

"In the regional freight business, SFO and Oakland complement one another." Ballesteros continues, "SFO handles most of the international and transcontinental cargo, while Oakland handles much of the regional and intercontinental cargo. A water access system would benefit both airports and freight operations throughout the Bay Area."

Not only are companies, ports, and airports excited about ferry service, but residents are too. With comments from two surveys like, "The idea is long overdue. Let’s utilize our waterways," the Port of Redwood City will be sending out its newest newsletter to 27,000 residents and households with the hope of eliciting further discussion.

Diane Howard, immediate past Mayor and Councilwoman for the City of Redwood City, has listened to the community’s comments and is a strong proponent of bringing water transit to the region. She notes, "As responsible people and recognizing the tremendous impact that traffic congestion is having on our quality of life, I feel establishing viable options to the single occupancy vehicle must be made a top priority."

Councilwoman Howard explained that the Port of Redwood City, in partnership with the Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco is making its pitch to the San Mateo County Transportation Authority to include a comprehensive water transit component in its long range plan.

"It’s time to make a commitment," Councilwoman Howard further explains, "Water transit service on the Bay will not only provide viable commuter links to the expanding employment centers along the Peninsula, it has the potential to link the entire region. Water transit was a very viable form of transportation in our past. It is now time to come full circle."

Because of the abundance of marsh in the South Bay, it’s important to note that the Bay Area Council’s initiative recommends in the forefront of its ferry plan that the preservation of the environment must be of utmost consideration.

With all the planning and backing for ferry service arriving in the upcoming planned appointments and staffing for the Bay Area Water Transit Authority that will be made by the Governor, it should not be long before the concept of ferries whistling wind through our hair in the South Bay will be a reality.