You live in Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, or Solano County and you work in Oakland, San Francisco, Redwood City, or San Jose. Or you live in the South Bay and work in the East Bay, North Bay, or West Bay. In the morning a clean, modern shuttle bus or local light rail train picks you up at a convenient neighborhood location and carries you to a Bayside ferry terminal. Or, perhaps you are picked up at your front door by a subscription service.
Published: January 2000
You live in Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, or Solano County and you work in Oakland, San Francisco, Redwood City, or San Jose. Or you live in the South Bay and work in the East Bay, North Bay, or West Bay.
In the morning a clean, modern shuttle bus or local light rail train picks you up at a convenient neighborhood location and carries you to a Bayside ferry terminal. Or, perhaps you are picked up at your front door by a subscription service.
The operators of the buses and trains are courteous and professional. Other passengers arrive at the terminal by bicycle or walk from the nearby neighborhood. The terminals have quiet, comfortable seating areas protecting you from wind and rain.
An advanced high-speed ferry soon whisks you away to one of dozens of Bayside destinations. You sip a warm beverage on the way, work on your portable computer or catch up on the sports page, all against the magnificent backdrop of the Bay.
At your destination, you transfer to other public transit systems, meet dedicated shuttle buses coordinated with your ferry, or enjoy a short walk. There is no need to buy a separate ticket. Using a single prepaid fare card purchased at a neighborhood kiosk or over the Internet, you can travel on any transit system in the Bay. You arrive at your destination calm and refreshed. And, your trip was more convenient and faster than driving, about the same cost, and free of delays and frustration caused by traffic congestion.
The return trip is equally enjoyable. Retailers in the same safe, clean, well-lighted ferry terminals offer books, magazines and other amenities as you easily board the ferry. On board, you use the time to reflect on the day’s work or to socialize with fellow passengers. As you exit the ferry, concessionaires offer gourmet meals to go, cut flowers, videos, and other conveniences. You arrive home free of driving stress and fatigue.
Perhaps you work a flexible schedule or have several destinations to reach during a given day. This same frequent and efficient service is available throughout the day around the Bay. And, you are able to catch a water taxi or pickup at the terminal or a nonpolluting car that you share from time to time-thus affording you the flexibility and mobility you need for your work or life-style.
On other days or on weekends your family and friend are able to use the same fast, convenient service to go to a ball game, visit a regional park, or enjoy one of the Bay Area’s endless places of interest and entertainment. Residents of San Jose and the South Bay can travel by water to PacBell Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, Treasure Island, Jack London Square, Oakland Coliseum, Marine World, Candlestick Park, and the Wine Country. Residents of the North and East Bay can easily reach NASA Ames Research Center, Great America in Santa Clara, the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, the Opera in San Francisco, Coyote Point in San Mateo County, and Golden Gate National Recreation Area in the West Bay. And, in addition to the convenience of the trip, the sights and sounds of wildlife comfort you, knowing that this system is compatible with the ecology of the Bay and more environmentally-friendly than driving.
If you are an airline passenger and need to fly out of the Bay Area, you proceed from your home to a remote airport terminal. There, you can leave your car in secure long-term parking facilities, handle ticketing, check luggage, and clear security. You then board an amphibious hovercraft which zips across the Bay, taxis onto the airport, and delivers you directly to your final terminal for departure.
In every case, your travel has been a convenient, pleasant experience, another of many reasons to live and work in one of the most vibrant, innovative, and scenic regions in the world.
The New Vision
Is such a bold vision realistic? Certainly. An extensive, high-speed water transit system in the Bay Area is entirely within the realm of possibility. This is especially true in light of what has happened historically in this region and what now happens in other regions around the world. Furthermore, in the face of mounting traffic congestion, it also is emerging as an urgent imperative to promote economic vitality and quality of life in the Bay Area.
Although assuredly bold, this vision is far from being an impossible dream—it is anchored in bedrock reality. And while the vision seeks to add significant new capacity to the Bay Area transportation system, in this regard it does not demand anything beyond what has already been done in the past in the Bay Area and achieved elsewhere in the world. The possible is known.
There was a time, before construction of the great bridges, when ferries dotted the Bay, carrying goods and people across an impressive network of routes that were integrated with landside facilities. People made as many as 50 million trips annually until regulations related to construction of the bridges and rapidly-growing vehicle use essentially grounded the operations. That was at a time when the population of the Bay Area was less than 2 million. Today, with a population of over 6.6 million, there are fewer than 4 million trips per year. In other comparable regions around the world, water transportation systems carry the equivalent of more than 7 to 10 times this volume. And while there are notable geographic and demographic differences between those regions and the Bay Area, disciplined analysis shows that increasing the volume of annual water transit trips by at least 4 to 5 times the current levels is definitely reasonable and achievable. Thus, the historical experience in the Bay Area and the contemporary success in other regions should make us ask: Why not today? And why not here?
Further, traffic congestion—and frustration about it—are at an all-time high. In the 1998 Bay Area Poll, transportation problems and traffic congestion were rated the Number One problem by a greater percentage of respondents than ever before in the 19 years this survey has been conducted. To exacerbate matters, without dramatic concerted intervention to alter current trends, conditions are projected to get much worse. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Regional Transportation Plan forecasts a staggering 249 percent increase in traffic congestion by the year 2020.
The opportunity to take vehicles off the highways is a great benefit of a water transit system. The opportunities for commuter, airport and recreational travel as well as cargo transit are extremely compelling.
Mayor Willie Brown
Thus, there is a deep and pervasive need in the Bay Area for bold action to address the growing transportation problems. Policy-makers and civic leaders alike must confront this challenge and answer this overriding persistent question: What actions will add significant capacity to the regional transportation system, improve mobility, relieve congestion, provide a viable alternative to driving alone, and at the same time avoid or minimize impacts on the environment and enhance the quality of life in the Bay Area?
In responding to this mobility challenge and answering this question, some conclusions are emerging among civic leaders that also are reflected in public sentiment:
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The freeway grid is essentially defined and is being completed. |
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Plans to improve and expand existing public transportation systems have been developed and are being pursued. |
The Bay, therefore, presents the last, best alternative remaining, the single most promising source of untapped mobility.
Further, as a centerpiece component of a comprehensive regional transportation network, an extensive high-speed water transit system in the Bay Area would have three distinct advantages:
Water transit is the most economically-feasible and environmentally-compatible capital investment in transportation that can significantly reduce congestion and improve mobility.
Water transit has greater flexibility than other components of the transportation system because new routes and destinations can be established more easily by redeploying vessels.
Water transit has the ability to serve as a primary transportation mode in times of emergency and can assist in disaster recovery, unlike other systems that are more likely to be severely damaged or substantially disrupted.
Thus, there is one common-sense compelling conclusion in the face of the mounting traffic gridlock and in light of all the available data and analysis: The time has come to build the world’s best high-speed water transit system in the Bay Area.
This new high-speed water transit system will incorporate the essential factors characteristic of successful water transportation systems in other regions—improving on the best experiences from around the world and tailoring the design to embrace the unique features of the Bay Area. It will replace incremental planning and expansion efforts that have characterized recent development of ferry services in the Bay Area. In contrast to existing ferry services primarily serving singular-purpose routes, a true water transit system will serve the needs and life-style of Bay Area residents. It will involve a comprehensive network of modern efficient terminals ringing the waterfront, a fleet of specially-designed high-speed vessels crisscrossing the Bay to connect existing major urban areas, and dedicated intermodal ground transportation linking points South with the far Northern reaches and East with West, and making multi-destination travel easy and convenient. And, the new high-speed water transit system will respect and protect the environmental quality and ecological integrity of San Francisco Bay—celebrating the majesty of the Bay in all dimensions.
The service, including ticketing, will be fully integrated with other modes of transportation, facilitating transfers in the most seamless fashion possible. It will match or exceed the frequency and reliability of the region’s best-performing bus and rail systems with headways as frequent as 15 minutes during peak demand periods, and the hours of operation will be sufficient to make riders confident they can travel where they need, whenever they need. The fleet of vessels, including water taxis, will be built and sized to best match demand and travel patterns. The boarding and unloading capabilities will use and advance state-of-the-art efficiency, making travel times competitive with overland transportation.
On board, the rider will have easy access to the full range of information-age amenities, including designated cell phone areas and power and modem hookups. The concessionaires will be issued a challenge to match the culinary accomplishments of the on-board chefs during the 1930s, when ferries were a vital part of the social scene. Larger vessels with sufficient deck space will continue and expand the tradition of live music, which has proven so popular on the Golden Gate system.
The Port is extremely positive about the Water Transit Study. We are currently looking to double the number of berths at the San Francisco Ferry Building, with terminal modifications beginning as early as next spring.
Doug Wong, Director Port of San Francisco
The terminals will be appealing: clean, safe, dry, well-lit, offering a broad array of amenities and conveniences, featuring architectural design that is interesting and compatible with the local landscape, and fully accessible to the disabled. Walkways and boarding ramps will be covered and protected from the elements. Development of these terminals will stimulate future land uses consistent with a more sustainable growth pattern regionally, including various forms of joint and mixed-use development.
The new water transit system will serve more than the needs of traditional weekday commuters. In the 21st century economy the workforce will have flexible hours, often traveling midday and off-peak. For this reason, the new system will be fully operational during hours outside of the traditional peak, operating from early morning to late night, weekdays and weekends alike. Evening workers, sports fans, and patrons of the symphony, theater, ballet and opera will be assured of water transportation for their return trips. Lovers of the diverse cultural centers and arts institutions will take to the water to visit these attractions. Visitors will utilize dedicated shuttles that meet the high-speed boats, in this way opening up the great cultural assets around the Bay to the entire region. And, the fleet will be deployed as needed to facilitate travel to periodically-scheduled large entertainment, sports and other recreational events, eliminating traffic backups and avoiding costly parking.
The new water transit system also will greatly enhance the Bay Area’s tourism and visitor industry by expanding operations serving numerous intriguing and spectacular destinations.
These include the various sites of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods, Fisherman’s Wharf, Marine World, East Bay Regional Park District, Jack London Square, Coyote Point, NASA Ames Research Center, San Jose Tech Museum, historical buildings and ships on the former military bases, wildlife refuges, and connections to the wine country–to name only a few.
The high-speed water transportation service also will revolutionize the way passengers access Bay Area airports. Officials at the San Francisco International Airport have already documented the feasibility of a system in which air passengers clear security and check luggage at remote satellite locations and travel directly to their final terminals using amphibious hovercraft. Additionally, the airports will be linked by water transit, allowing the smooth passage of both passengers and airfreight across the Bay. This will allow the airports to integrate service in ways that will provide the customer a broader range of travel alternatives and a degree of flexibility that is not currently possible.
I’m optimistic that ferry service will soon be a viable alternative. What we envision is something looking very much like the passenger terminal at the airport facility where people could park at a reduced rate, have flight information displayed and have check-in counters right there at the ferry terminal so that passengers can go right to the gate.
John Martin, Director San Francisco International Airport
Transporting cargo is a major component of traffic, and the degree to which this segment of activity can be removed from the roadway system is an important element of the investigation we need to conduct. This holds an equal importance with the passenger side of congestion and concentration of traffic to airport routes would offer a real opportunity for the Bay Area community, with reliability being the watch word for the system.
Chuck Foster, Executive Director Port of Oakland
I am supportive of a ferry terminal that would offer access for our employees commuting from locations through the Bay Area. Additionally, there are about 2,000-acres at Moffet Field and a ferry terminal could fit in well with development plans for the base.
William Berry, Deputy Director
The system also will capitalize on a major opportunity to redevelop the dozen closed military bases currently being converted to civilian uses, all but one of which are located on the Bay. These facilities are prime locations for new housing and job centers with supporting commercial and community services.
Further, this new world-class system will not be limited solely to the movement of people. The express mail and light freight industry (DHL Airways, United Parcel Service, Federal Express, U.S. Postal Service and others) will use this opportunity to remove many of their trucks from the overcrowded roads and bridges, replacing them with specialized vessels carrying packages and containers. Currently, the routine operations of these overnight delivery business involves scores of trucks traveling each day during afternoon commutes across bridges to reach the airports. A new water transit system would include a fleet of cargo ferries servicing the airports from strategic staging locations. The removal of so many trucks from the roads and bridges during peak commute times will have a positive effect. It will also make later deadlines possible for just-in-time manufacturers and businesses using express delivery services because overnight mail and light airfreight will have faster uncongested access to the airports.
I envision two types of potential ferry service: passenger and freight. In terms of freight, the South Bay to Oakland is the biggest and most time critical market. A ferry could provide an extra hour for South Bay collection in the early evening. With the airport handling 700,000 tons of freight annually, the opportunities for ferry service appear quite viable.
Steven Grossman, Director of Aviation Port of Oakland
The new Bay Area water transit system also will add substantially to regional disaster preparedness because it will be able to assist in recovery from natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes. Water transit can keep the region moving even if there is major damage or disruption to bridges, freeways, or fixed-rail services.
And finally, the establishment of a comprehensive water transit system fully integrated with the ground transportation network will not only add significant capacity to the regional transportation system, but it will also generate hundreds of new jobs in the Bay Area. These jobs will not only involve operation of the water transit system from the vessels to the terminals, but also will be related to maintenance of the fleet. Ideally, the vessels would even be designed and manufactured in the region, reviving an industry that once flourished in the Bay Area.
In other words, the new high-speed water transit system will be extraordinary, meeting the real needs of the population, creating new market and employment opportunities, forging better links between transportation and land-use, removing mobile-source pollutants from the air, providing a significant new increment of regional mobility, and making the Bay a bridge–not a barrier.
The Success Factors for a World-Class Water Transit System
In order to build the bold vision—the best water transit system in the world—it is necessary to have a thorough understanding about what makes systems in other regions successful. Accordingly, a comprehensive analysis was conducted of the most successful water transportation systems in other regions of the world, whose geographical configurations and operating environments most closely resemble those of the Bay Area.
The comparison and analysis of these exemplary systems, although highly particular to their respective localities, illustrates several common characteristics that appear to be fundamental to the success of any new system. Specifically, there are Ten Success Factors that emerge from the investigation of Hong Kong, Sydney, Seattle, and Vancouver as defining characteristics of a world-class system. They are:
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Scope and Geographic Coverage |
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Frequency of Service |
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Travel Time |
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Reliability |
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Quality of Service |
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Efficiency of Landside Facilities |
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Cost and Fares |
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Intermodal Interface |
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Safety |
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Public Information and Education |
In addition and just as important, for a new water transit system to succeed in the Bay Area, it also must be exceptionally environmentally-friendly. The designers, developers, managers, and operators of this envisioned best-in-the-world water transit system must embrace from the very beginning an environmental ethic and moral commitment to protecting precious wildlife and vital habitat. The sum total of this environmental ethic plus the Ten Success Factors provide the framework for the bold vision: they are the essential elements and foundational components for the new Bay Area high-speed water transit system.
The following describes what each Success Factor means for the new Bay Area water transit system. It should be underscored that these Success Factors are interrelated and affect one another: they are all vital parts of an integrated system.
Scope and Geographic Coverage. First and foremost, to build a world-class water transit that adds significant capacity to the regional transportation capacity, provides an alternative to congested roadways, and attracts passengers who otherwise have to drive alone, the system must be comprehensive. Success derives from the confidence users will have that travel almost anywhere in the region is possible by traversing the water and connecting with other public transit services. The overarching premise, in other words, is that critical mass can only be achieved when there is an extensive comprehensive network of routes connecting points throughout the nine-county Bay Area, catering not only to current travel patterns, but also facilitating new ones.
This concept of critical mass argues strongly against incremental approaches, in which piecemeal additions are made to the current system on a demonstration basis. Although the realization of the vision may require phased implementation, the undertaking must be understood, from the very start, as a commitment to create a new, integrated, comprehensive, and truly regional high-speed water transit system.
Frequency of Service. Flexibility in departure time is one of the most important factors in travel mode choice. Volumes of research and survey information show that travel behavior is strongly linked to frequency. For water transit services to compete with driving, frequent departures are required. During peak demand times, successful systems operate as frequently as 15-minute or 10-minutes intervals. The annual Bay Area Commute Profile 98, compiled by the ridesharing organization RIDES, is a recent affirmation of this relationship; the 1997 Harbor Bay Maritime Ferry Survey is another. Both surveys surfaced data stressing the willingness of riders to take to the water if the departures were frequent and continuous throughout the day.
Travel Time. Studies and experience have shown that time spent en route is the most critical consideration. A competitive water transit system will match highway driving times, or make a reasonable approximation so that the extra time factor on the water is easily offset by the quality of the riding experience.
Increasing congestion and longer travel times (including parking difficulties) for given distances coupled with breakthroughs in vessel technology have resulted in making high-speed water travel time-competitive with driving. Catamarans in use today have the potential to exceed 45 miles per hour on longer distance routes, and improvements on that figure (in the 10 percent range) are fully expected by the time the Bay Area implements the new system.
Fortunately, advances in hull design mean that the wake generated by high-speed ferries is much smaller than that generated by conventional monohulls and may mitigate a key environmental concern. Critical advances in hull design have already made successful the Larkspur and Vallejo services (30 and 53 minutes to San Francisco, respectively). On shorter routes, where travel time on the water is a smaller percentage of total door-to-door travel time, vessel speed recedes in importance, and the efficiency of the landside facilities becomes paramount.
Reliability. Consistent guaranteed on-time service and available seating are essential to sustain ridership. Exemplary world-class systems report on-time arrival rates exceeding 95 percent. The new Bay Area system must match and exceed this. The means of achieving the threshold has mostly to do with the size of the spare vessel fleet, so that neither routine maintenance needs nor unexpected incidents cause service interruptions. The system will be designed accordingly, requiring new maintenance facilities and injecting hundreds of high-skilled jobs into the regional economy.
A challenge to total reliability of the new system is the occurrence of fog which can cause vessels to slow down and thus delay trips. Statistically, fog which could slow vessels occurs 15 days a year in the Bay Area, but is usually limited to morning hours. Approximately 1% of trips are delayed by fog at present. And, while fog will continue to be a challenge at times in maintaining operating schedules for the new system, new technology for both vessels and safe operations make it possible to achieve an acceptable standard for reliability in the Bay Area. In poor visibility, the key variable is the speed and ability of the vessel to stop, which is why boats reduce speeds through fog. Although new-generation vessels will continue to reduce speeds for safe operations during fog episodes, high-speed catamarans are far more maneuverable, and capable of faster stops at much shorter distances. When combined with state-of-the-art electronic detection and location technology, high-speed vessels will operate safely in inclement weather and achieve on-time reliability equal to or exceeding that of alternative travel modes.
Quality of Service. The ride will be comfortable, and very pleasant, particularly in contrast to fighting congestion and sitting in traffic jams. Regular ferry users know the experience is calm, scenic, and amenable to any variety of productive activities. Providing amenities conducive to working on board coupled with quality food and beverage services will provide a superior experience in comparison to other travel mode choices. The new system will extend this experience to the land as well, providing courteous shuttle drivers and appealing terminals that are convenient hubs for services and shopping.
Efficiency of Landside Facilities. In a very real sense, the landside facilities are as important as the vessels themselves. Door-to-door travel time is the operative factor. Speed on the water accomplishes little if riders are subjected to long queues during loading and off-loading, if transfers to ground transportation systems aren’t easily available, if an appropriate amount of safe secure parking isn’t available, or if pedestrian circulation isn’t foremost in design considerations. Total travel time, quality of service, and intermodal interface are all functions of the efficiency of landside facilities. The Bay Area water transit system must address all of these factors in the landside facilities with state-of-the-art design and efficiencies. The terminals must be designed to provide maximum convenience and comfort plus optimal utility for passengers, including intermodal access. In order to optimize the efficiency of landside facilities there will need to be standardized design and construction criteria for both terminals and vessels.
In order for this vision to be realized, the system will be designed in full cooperation with the landside transit providers, who have publicly pledged staff and resources to the development of a network of services interfacing with the terminals. Parking will be a critical aspect of landside facilities, although the amount and design at any specific terminal will be determined cooperatively with the local community and surrounding neighbors. Satellite airport terminals will include long-term parking options. There will be ample loading and drop-off zones, and handicapped access will be a central design feature. Impacts on the environment and the Bay from parking facilities must be minimized. Public transit, bicycle and pedestrian access must be maximized.
Cost and Fares. To succeed, the fare for riders must be competitive with both other forms of transit and the door-to-door costs of driving, including parking. Public officials must ensure that there is sufficient initial public investment in capital facilities and operational support to establish the critical mass needed for a world-class system. And once established and attracting the expected ridership, ongoing public support for operations must be comparable to other modes of transportation and adequate to ensure the fare is competitive.
Intermodal Interface. Connectivity of ground transportation and pedestrian access to the water transit system is pivotal in ensuring ridership. Transfers between modes must be seamless, and should be facilitated by single-fare transactions. Schedules between modes and different services must be coordinated.
As an example, Sydney uses a large fleet of midsize midi buses that meet every ferry. The other systems studied also provide well-integrated connections with bus and rail systems. The Bay Area had the seeds of such a system in place in the 1930s, when street and cable cars left the San Francisco Ferry Building every 20 seconds. Today, the region is host to 28 separate transit providers who are effective in their own spheres, but who lack coordination. The success of the new system, however, will be critically dependent upon smooth working interfaces with all existing ground transportation systems, including AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, Contra Costa County Connection, Delta Shuttle, Emeryville Shuttle, SamTrans, San Francisco MUNI, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and a host of others.
A comprehensive integrated regional transportation system also requires the introduction of supplementary feeder services to the major transit components, including the water transportation service. A large fleet of dedicated shuttle vans and buses, making frequent suburban connections from a multitude of near-home locations, would greatly leverage the positive impact of the water transit system on relieving congestion. A shuttle system such as this would both induce ridership and reduce the demand for parking. Terminals should also be designed to accommodate a facility for renting or sharing on a time basis low- or zero-emission (LEV or ZEV) vehicles.
The new water transit service will incorporate state-of-the-art electronic ticketing and will be greatly promoted by the use of a universal ticket, currently being developed by regional transportation officials. A universal ticket is a fundamental component of a seamless multi-modal comprehensive integrated regional transportation system.
Safety. Landside and waterside safety must be assured. The new system will greatly increase the number of vessels operating on the Bay along with existing commercial shipping, recreational boating, and fishing. Rigorous new control procedures will have to be implemented. Just as the Federal Aviation Administration controls the skyways, the new system will be controlled and directed by a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) and cooperative arrangements with the Marine Exchange and the Maritime Partnership Initiative to determine the exact location of vessels or hazards, providing the operators a data-rich environment to ensure safety. The system also will be designed with a system of lanes, including some reserved exclusively for high-speed traffic.
Public Information and Education. A successful water transit system will require an outstanding public information program. There are at least two dimensions to such a program. First, ridership is sustained when the public receives easily readable timetables and other forms of user information. These include maps, transfer schedules and information, real-time arrival/departure information through the media and on electronic signboards, and an excellent, user-friendly website. Second, a successful system embraces an aggressive marketing campaign, not relying solely on word-of-mouth advertising. Part of this campaign will include an element designed to educate the public about the real costs of driving and the attractiveness of water transit by comparison.
Trends in Transportation Conditions
Bay Area traffic congestion is increasing at an exponential rate, creating more miles of freeway congestion every year, for more hours of the day. The latest Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) released by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission estimates that traffic delay will increase by 249 percent by 2020, even with an $88 billion expenditure for roadways and transit over the next two decades. The Bay Area cannot build its way out of this problem in the traditional manner. New freeway costs are enormous, may cause unacceptable relocation of people and jobs, and often contribute to environmental degradation. However, while spiraling levels of congestion on the highways and bridges have increased highway travel time, advances in fast ferry technology and vessel speed have decreased water transit trip time. The point has been reached where water transit is actually faster than vehicle travel between several locations during peak demand period, and thus a far more viable option than in past years.
The South Bay industry is in a building mode, but housing for prospective employees is a major issue. In terms of access, Highways 237, 101, and 880 are a hopeless case. We are optimistic that a seamless water transit system, with one fare payment and good ground connections, would offer not only a potential solution to commuting needs but also an opportunity for additional entertainment outings.
Joel Suty, Vice-President Operations
Lockheed Martin Missiles And Space
Level-of-Service (LOS) on most Bay Area freeways is degrading quickly (LOS is ranked A through F). LOS rank E, which represents stop-and-go conditions, and LOS rank F, which represents gridlock, are the common conditions during peak periods on Bay Area freeways. A trip from Mountain View to Hayward in the afternoon peak period, a distance of about 25 miles, commonly takes about 75 minutes (20 mph). The Regional Transportation Plan estimates that the automobile trip from Union City to Moffett Field will take about 50 minutes by 2020, and that the Palo Alto to San Francisco trip will take about 45 minutes. It also estimates that the San Rafael to San Francisco commute will increase from an average of 41 minutes to 62 minutes by 2020 and that the Oakland to San Francisco trip time will slow from 34 minutes to 51 minutes.
In a historical nutshell, as the Bay Area grew, bridges added new commute capacity that exceeded the capacity provided by the old ferry system. BART added another form of transportation, now reaching capacity during peak hours. BART extensions, however, cost millions of dollars per mile, and the BART transbay tube has a fixed upper limit of capacity—no more than 30 trains per hour—only eight more than BART currently operates during the peak hour. Total daily travel along the Bay Bridge corridor is about 274,000 vehicles on the bridge, approximately 134,000 BART passengers, 14,000 AC Transit bus passengers, and 4,000 ferry passengers (Vallejo, Alameda/Oakland, Harbor Bay Isle).
What’s critical is the speed of transit and competition: if there’s a long distance to travel and it’s jammed on the highway, ferries might be the answer. The ambiance of the trip may help encourage use of the ferries as well.
Honorable Marland Townsend
Foster City City Council
Explore any and all means to get people out of cars at commute times; build, expand, explore, adapt new vision to old technology. There were sixty million passengers carried by ferry in the 30’s today there are only 3 million. It is more than a notion, it is not a new concept, it is a reality that we need to realize.
Honorable Mike Nevin
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
In the last 10 years, however, the number of vehicles crossing the Bay Bridge has increased by more than 30,000, or about 12 percent. The RTP estimates that daily person-trips will increase by about 30 percent by 2020—well above the ability of planned BART or bus improvements. Even a 10 percent increase in vehicle counts in the next 10 years (less than one percent annually) would generate about 28,000 new trips, severely limiting travel in the corridor, even with improvements planned by BART and AC Transit.
Bridge traffic is projected to increase between 30 and 40 percent in the next 20 years. Bridges simply don’t have the capacity to handle this projected growth. They are already at, or approaching, full capacity. The Bay Bridge is already carrying 10,800 vehicles per hour in one direction during peak hours. It has no capacity to carry more traffic. The current Caltrans plans to rebuild the East Span of the Bay Bridge include no additional capacity for the Bay Bridge, either vehicular or transit. The other bridges are at 90 percent or more of capacity during peak hours. The current total weekday travel on the Richmond-San Rafael and Bay Bridges ranges between 900,000 and 1.2 million trips daily. Bridge truck counts indicate that more than 37,000 trucks use Bay crossings daily.
The potential does exist to divert some of these truck trips related to express mail and light airfreight to water transit, however. By 2020, according to MTC estimates, the total weekday travel in these corridors could range from 1.1 to 1.5 million trips.
Visionary Pragmatism
With the Bay such a dominant feature of the regional landscape, it is impossible to minimize its potential as a travel corridor. In recent decades since the construction of the bridges, water transit has begun to figure once again in the regional transportation planning, even if actual levels of investment have not matched the potential. Periodic earthquakes, gasoline crises, or transit strikes have underscored the need for viable, fully-functioning water-based alternatives. For this reason regional decision makers have provided at least a modicum of funding to this mode, and highlighted water transportation as a subject for continued attention.
Progress in the current decade traces to 1990 when California voters approved Proposition 116, a $1.99 billion statewide bond issue for rail transit and related projects. The measure earmarked $10 million for ferry service between Vallejo and San Francisco and $20 million for other water service around the state. In order to develop a spending plan for these funds, and to maximize available matching funds, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the City of Vallejo sponsored a 1992 study, the Regional Ferry Plan. The Plan offered a number of short- and long-term recommendations for improving the ferry network. A number of those recommendations have been implemented; others have not.
Meanwhile, new information shows major prospective growth in demand for water transportation services. The tourist and excursion markets are expanding, including the construction of new sports stadiums near the waterfront. The conversion of the region’s military bases holds the promise of new housing stock and job centers, both of which could be served naturally and easily by water transportation. And, officials at the Oakland and San Francisco airports are investigating service and capacity upgrades by having their facilities accessed from the water side.
At the same time, highway gridlock grows worse by the month. In the intervening years since the 1992 Regional Ferry Plan, the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) reports that roadway congestion in the Bay Area has swollen to more than 100,000 hours lost per day by the commuters in the nine Bay Area counties, a figure that translates into more than $850,000 in daily productivity losses and wasted resources.
To be sure, Bay Area planners and transit providers are working diligently to improve the existing transportation infrastructure and relieve congestion. Major rail expansions are under construction or coming on line under the leadership of the major regional systems—BART (to the San Francisco Airport), the San Francisco Municipal Railway (N-Line extension to Mission Bay, the Third Street Corridor Project), the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (Tasman light rail extension), and a new Joint Powers Board bringing commuter express service on refurbished Southern Pacific tracks through the Altamont Pass. Bus operators are maximizing service under budgetary constraints, and working within a welcome new state legislative mandate (Senate Bill 1474) to provide more coordinated, cross-jurisdictional service. Some expansions and additional capacity are being added to the highway system, mostly through a number of county-based self-help taxation measures. These will be matched by a limited number of state-financed, regionally-planned capacity improvements at some of the key regional bottlenecks and choke points.
Although these investments are adding capacity to the system, the region’s population is growing and, fortunately, the economy is strong and expanding. The California Department of Finance has released reports showing the state’s population doubling by the year 2040, with a significant portion coming to the Bay Area. Within 20 years, the Association of Bay Area Governments estimates 1.4 million new jobs will cluster primarily in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and various East Bay locations. Without a stunning reversal of trends, however, the housing stock will stay relatively fixed in those areas, lagging seriously behind the job growth. The major residential developments will be in Solano, Sonoma, Napa, and Contra Costa counties. And although transit usage will grow in absolute numbers, vehicle ownership will outpace these figures, as will vehicle miles traveled. And despite the best and most concerted efforts of the region’s planners and transit providers, there is projected a staggering increase in traffic congestion, a sobering prospect that should jar the region’s public officials and civic leaders into action, fashioning an altogether different—and bold—response.
Consider the cost of expanding capacity and increasing mobility by conventional means: the BART system costs upwards of $70 million per mile; additional highway capacity runs at least $32 million per mile; the construction of a single freeway interchange can cost more than $300 million, and the Bay Bridge east span seismic replacement will exceed $1 billion. Meanwhile, the Bay is seriously underutilized as a transportation facility, both as a mode and a corridor. An advanced high-speed ferry costs $10 million and a modern efficient terminal up to $15 million. In fact, the initial capitalization of a world-class water transit system in the Bay Area could be no more than the cost of approximately four freeway interchanges or the new Bay Bridge span. In light of present circumstances and future demographic trends, can the region afford not to use one of the world’s finest natural harbors and waterways?
Fortunately, the vision for a water transit system in the Bay Area is very timely. Public interest in an integrated, comprehensive regional water transit system is running at an all-time high. The 1996 Bay Area Poll reported 82 percent of respondents favored expanded water transportation services; the 1998 Bay Area Poll duplicated this result and revealed that 80 percent of residents favor tax increases for transit expansions and improvements. Further, even without the benefit of this vision or conceptual design, 48 percent surveyed last fall said they would support increasing bridge tolls an additional $1 to pay for increased ferry service, a robust result coming so soon after the 1998 $1 toll increase. It appears that Bay Area residents are ready for a world-class water transit system in their region.
The Past is Prologue: It’s Back to the Future
In truth, this has already been done. The Bay Area was once the ferry capital of the United States, with water transportation playing a long and historic role in the development of the region—not to mention a fashionable role in society. The story dates as early as 1850, the year California entered the Union, and the Kangaroo entered service on a route between San Francisco and the Oakland Estuary. By the late 1800s, 22 passenger-carrying cross-bay ferry companies were in operation. Later, an additional five companies carried only automobiles. The ferries served approximately 30 destinations, half of them on the San Francisco-Oakland corridor.
Most ferry lines were established and operated by railroads seeking means to extend their service across the Bay. Consolidation took its toll, however, and by the early 1930s only 10 passenger operators remained. Of these, the Southern Pacific Company was by far the largest operator, with 22 vessels in full-time service in 1935. The Key System and Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP), a subsidiary of Southern Pacific, held second and third place. Between them, the three operators carried 49 million passengers annually.
The vessels were large and stately. The NWP Eureka had seating for 2,300 and standing room for an additional 1,000 people. All of the Southern Pacific major vessels had seating capacity of greater than 1,000; the Golden Bear could seat 2,200.
By modern standards, these ferries were slow, powered by steam until the 1920s when diesel engines made their appearance. But even with diesel engines, the thirty-mile run between Vallejo and San Francisco took nearly two hours, at an average speed of 15 knots. The slower pace brought on-board restaurants into vogue, passengers took advantage of their time in transit to consume a substantial meal, and social historians report that the galley chefs were as well trained in the culinary arts as any of their counterparts on shore.
The peak ferry transit years were 1935 and 1936, when as many as 60 million people crossed the Bay annually on a fleet of 50 ferries. As many as 250,000 passengers flowed through San Francisco’s Ferry Building each day, loading onto streetcars that left every 20 seconds. All total, the ferries made 340 arrivals and departures daily.
Then came the great bridges: first the original Dumbarton Bridge and Carquinez Bridge in 1927, followed by the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. These were followed by the Richmond-San Rafael, Benicia-Martinez, San Mateo, and the new Carquinez, Antioch and Dumbarton bridges. With their completion, decline of water transit was precipitous, and nearly immediate. By 1958 there were no more ferries, period. Moreover, in the case of the Bay Bridge, entrepreneurs thinking to offer ferry service were statutorily prohibited from doing so within a 10-mile span, a provision the State Legislature had enacted to ensure the bonding agents a reliable toll revenue stream.
They needn’t have worried. By the 1950s it was apparent that congestion would reach a critical stage, and the traveling public would require alternatives to the bridges. But the water-based alternatives would not assert themselves in the minds of the region’s officials. Instead, heavy rail and rapid transit captured the imagination of the region, and the Bay Area’s history records a long, interesting chapter on the creation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART).
A portion of the bridge tolls were used to finance the construction of the BART transbay tube as a replacement for the railway tracks removed from the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. Ferries, however, were still prohibited from competing directly with the bridges.
The Seeds of a Comeback
Mounting congestion, occasional transit shutdowns, and natural disasters provided the justification required for a new generation of water transportation, starting with the Golden Gate Larkspur Ferry Project and the Tiburon Ferries in the 1960s.
By 1982 water-based service had reached a turning point. Until then, most observers regarded the Larkspur Project as a noble but failed experiment, over-budget and substantially below the targeted patronage. Then came the 1982 mudslides in Marin, which eliminated automobile access to San Francisco. Suddenly, it seemed-water transportation wasn’t merely a quaint, costly redundancy. On one day alone, three 725-passenger Larkspur ferries carried more than 12,200 passengers.
Concurrent to these developments came a decision to convert gasoline-powered engines to diesel fuel. Until then, the Golden Gate ferries had been powered by three gasoline turbine engines which proved enormously expensive throughout the gasoline crises of the 1970s and 1980s. While the conversion to diesel lowered speeds, it also lowered costs substantially. When these lower costs were coupled with the favorable new, mudslide-induced disposition for parallel systems, the Larkspur Project found itself on a stable public policy course. The service was not growing to speak of, but it was not contracting either, and local policy decisions were supportive.
Meanwhile, congestion on the other, state-owned bridges continued to grow, and there were occasional calls for new water transit links. Events such as the 1978 transbay tube shutdown catalyzed the Berkeley Ferry Committee, for example, to provide new San Francisco service from the Berkeley Mar
