Will Travis: I think we’ll look at this in five years and we will look at that statistic and say, "Why in the world would 60% of the people not take the ferry?" This is where the Water Transit Authority is going to be just a fantastic asset. Looking at the statistics on ferry ridership, it’s important to understand the Vallejo example: when the ferry was running two trips and added another trip ridership went up 105%. The reason is because once people know that if they miss the 5:00, there is a 6:00 and a 7:00, they’ll use it everyday. Once we get to that critical mass on all ferry lines I promise that we will look back and ask, "Why in the world did it take so long to do this?"

Jack Bair: And 50% of the people that come to the games do not drive. They take transportation means other than car, which exceeds our expectations. I believe that if public transportation is reliable and convenient, that people will choose to use it.

Will Travis: I think the F line and the Vallejo ferry do something for public transportation that we don’t normally do in this country and that is we try to get people to use public transportation by making driving such a miserable experience that they’ll reluctantly use public transportation. And both the F line and the Vallejo ferry, they’ve taken the approach, "We’re going to design this and operate in such a fashion that even if it isn’t as convenient as driving, you’re still going to use it because it is such a pleasant experience."

Jim Chappell: It’s clear that we’re not going to build any more urban freeways. We’re not going to build any more automobile lanes across the Bay. We’re not going to widen city streets and narrow sidewalks and take out street trees and if the economy is going to continue to grow, there’s only one way that people are going to get around and that is on transit. The one opportunity that is least developed is water transit. We don’t have to build tubes and it’s infinitely flexible. It can go anywhere you want it to go between various points. You have to develop landing points but it’s a tremendous untapped opportunity. I’ve been terribly disappointed to see some factions of the environmental community take issue with ferries

Will Travis: Well, some of those concerns are very legitimate. When you look at the actual ridership, it isn’t that people are switching from cars to ferries, they’re switching from buses to ferries and the buses are cleaner than the ferries. Ferries, depending on where they are operating, can have impacts on wetlands and cause erosion. They can have significant impacts on wildlife. All of that has to be taken into account. But I keep looking at it from the big picture and I think we should do an overall regional analysis of the environmental impacts of operating a ferry system. You would find the overall environmental impacts of not operating a ferry would be greater than of operating one. If it’s designed to use clean fuels, minimize wakes, avoid wetlands in siting the terminals, it can be done.

Peter Victor: I came here 13 years ago downtown was not really happening, especially on weekends. Now you have the Farmers Market drawing people on Saturday mornings and the development of the Ferry Building and I think it’s going to benefit the entire feeling of the downtown, urban environment.

Will Travis: For a period of time, every community was closing their main street and making it a pedestrian mall. They found that didn’t work. Then every community had to have an aquarium. Then every community had to have a farmer’s market and one of the people said, "I think every community’s going to want to have a waterfront."

Boris Dramov: Once the Ferry building is renovated and activity comes to the area I think it will ripple back to the Embarcadero Center because it’s still a bit isolated out there. One does come down but not that often. If there were more things that would attract residents…for example the Music Concourse that is proposed.

Jim Chappell: Look at the Metreon…I go down there on a Friday or a Saturday night and it really is like Times Square. It’s really unbelievable. I think Boris is right, we haven’t quite hit that density of development that we need around Embarcadero Center. I think the Ferry Building will help. I think we need even more.

Diane Oshima: Particularly on the Port’s properties, how do you do more 24 hour oriented kinds of development that is not tourist oriented that engages San Franciscans. You have to do something that not only is acceptable to all of those people who live around it but something that attracts the locals because then the tourists will come along with it.

The Bay Area Perspective

Boris Dramov: I think that whole Embarcadero Center area is still waiting for the synergy to happen between the Ferry Building. One Market Plaza is not done. Pier One is not done. The hotel on MUNI is not done. The Music Concourse is still being planned. In order to really enjoy the synergy for all of that, it’s going to take all those things being done. One of the things that we’re lucky here is that we have a very attractive area that people are willing to come to. Other places in the Bay area are tougher to sell. When we work with different cities, we urge them to think of their proximity to the Bay, and the advantages this could present.