Heroes and Goats

What to say about a Bay Area transportation system that gets you to San Diego – over 500 miles away — faster than it can get you to Santa Rosa – just over 50 miles away (centerfold story "What’s Closer – San Diego or Santa Rosa)? About a system that was faster, more reliable and far more convenient 50 years ago than it is today?

Everyone who lives, works or plays on the waterfront or, for that matter, cares at all about the Bay Area’s quality of life should rue the absurdity of a set-up that makes it easier and faster to get to San Diego than to Santa Rosa.

There are Heroes and there are Goats making up this tale and here’s who we think they are:

Granted, getting to Santa Rosa from San Francisco isn’t fast or easy, but if it weren’t for the GGBHTD you couldn’t do it all except by car. These folks run a surprisingly clean and efficient network of interconnected ferries and buses that is one of the greatly under appreciated assets of the Bay Area. And they do it despite the carping of some car drivers who would rather do away with the whole shebang rather than pay a small extra bridge toll (see "Goats" below).

Some nimbyists ("Not In My Back Yard-ists) in Alameda complain about noise. But say what you will about Oakland International Airport, it manages to provide ever-better air travel connections without paving over San Francisco Bay or spending billions on BART connections. Indeed, in preparing this story we were particularly impressed with the AirBart shuttle connecting the Oakland Coliseum BART station and Oakland International. And voters recently approved plans for a new people mover that will make it even better.

This is one very well operated airline, run with Texas charm and Germanic efficiency, strange though that combination may seem. We think of it as the Bay Area’s "Subway in the Sky".

We cheerfully acknowledge a total lack of objectivity here – this writer worked to help found the WTA and currently serves the Agency as a paid public relations consultant. Yet it is inarguably true that plans for a comprehensive regional ferry service represent a golden opportunity of greatly improving the Bay Area’s quality of life and long-term economic prospects.

The auto and gas industry worked proactively to dismantle the Bay Area’s ferry and rail network and replace it with a bridge and road system for the purpose of increasing profits. The result was vast environmental despoliation and a looming economic crisis. It will cost countless billions to recreate what was lost. Are the lawyers that held tobacco companies to account listening?

Each of us holds the Bay Area in trust for coming generations. Who can deny that lasting damage to the environment, economy and quality of life of the Bay Area will result from failure to act decisively to fix the transportation nightmare? Very few will deny this, yet very many to think it is someone else’s problem. A dramatic change is called for in the way we live and work and the sooner we deal with it the better it will be.

When Golden Gate Ferry recently proposed a long-range study to examine the possibility of adding ferry service to Port Sonoma, some environmental activists responded like Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table at the United Nations shouting "No, No, No!"

For the record, let us restate our strongly held belief that significant environmental issues remain to be worked out before ferry service can be expanded including, but hardly limited to, emissions, wakes and potential harm to marine life. After an initial reaction of indignant denial, the maritime industry and policymakers now take this issue very seriously. While there is reason for optimism that environmentally responsible ferry service is very much possible, this page proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with the environmental community in opposition to any expansion of ferry service until conclusive solutions are agreed upon.

Yet to oppose even considering ferry service to Port Sonoma is unreasonable and shortsighted. Ferry service to the North Bay, ideally linked to a rail connection with Santa Rosa, deserves careful study as anyone who has suffered through the Novato Narrows will attest.

San Francisco International Airport says it has to pave two square miles of San Francisco Bay to deal with customer demand. What if Oakland International Airport could handle the extra traffic without having to fill in the Bay? What if the only thing that stood in the way of saving two square miles of San Francisco Bay were complaints about airport noise from a relatively small number of Harbor Bay homes?

In that case we’d argue that that Harbor Bay residents should set aside their opposition as an act of civic responsibility. There’s little chance of that in today’s litigious climate. In a future issue of Bay Crossings we’ll examine opposition to Oakland International’s expansion plans. We’ll also look at the very different way that the French balance regional versus local concerns when deciding where to site airports.

While putting together our coverage of ferry service to Pac Bell Park it occurred to us to ask, why not ferry service to Oakland A’s games?

A ferry terminal is close by the Oakland Coliseum, the East Alameda/Harbor Bay stop. A shuttle could have fans to the Coliseum in just minutes.

Some suggest that with BART serving the Coliseum there isn’t a compelling need for ferry service to A’s games. But what about fans who live on the Peninsula or the North Bay?

Ferry operators, already hard pressed to cope with soaring demand, were stretched to the limit when called upon to begin ferry service to Pac Bell Park. And they had to do it on their own: the Giants do not directly subsidize the service, though the Port of San Francisco paid to install the ferry terminal with an eye to its eventual use serving the new Mission Bay development.

Ferry service to A’s games won’t happen anytime soon but regional ferry system planners – as well as Oakland city officials eyeing plans for a new downtown ballpark for the A’s – should keep the grand success of ferry service to Pac Bell park very much in mind.