Bring on the Water Taxis!
“Other cities have ferry lines sprouting out of every pier like weeds from a crack in the pavement;” writes The Times’ City Critic. “Why not New York?” Why not New York, indeed! As the article points out, the city has spent the last decade rezoning large swaths of waterfront to encourage the construction of large…
“Other cities have ferry lines sprouting out of every pier like weeds from a crack in the pavement;” writes The Times’ City Critic. “Why not New York?” Why not New York, indeed! As the article points out, the city has spent the last decade rezoning large swaths of waterfront to encourage the construction of large residential buildings. On the Brooklyn side at least, this development has been accompanied by the promise of water taxi service to Manhattan, but not much has materialized. There are signs of life though, especially with the onset of ferry season: In addition to ferry service between Ikea in Red Hook and lower Manhattan, Brooklynites can now get to and from Governors Island without having to take to subway to the southern tip of Manhattan first. The logic is irrefutable:
Ferries are a growth opportunity. To add new routes, you don’t need to dig a tunnel or lay a track. You don’t need to reroute traffic, build bridges or add lanes. And in many parts of New York, unlike almost every other city, you wouldn’t need to build big parking lots where riders could leave their cars. What cars? What you need is a viable pier and a boat.
Let’s get to it!
What New York Needs: More Water Taxis [NY Times]
Photo by poorhumble
Sorry. Brownstoner’s I-hate-HTML filter ate my link. Here’s the piece: http://secondavenuesagas.com/2010/06/07/a-ferry-good-idea-for-nyc-travel/
The logic is so irrefutable that I refuted it on Monday. Sounds great in theory, not too practical in reality.
Sparafucile has it 100% correct – Ferries dont work in many places because the people do not live near the water. Once you have to ‘transfer’ it defeats the purpose.
There are 2 places IMHO that ferries could work 1. Too the airports (If I could eliminate traffic and leave from an assessable location it could beat taking car) and 2. along Gowanus )to Manhattan) – thousands live within walking distance as opposed to traditional Brooklyn Bridge Park which is assessable to few.
Ferries take you from the edge of one landmass to the edge of another, so unless your origin and destination points are within walking distance at both ends of the ride, you’re transferring to another mode, which adds to your cost and time, and makes it more convenient to travel on wheels over or under the water. It could take decades for enough new development to occur in the right places to make this a viable option for more than a relative handfull of people.
Aren’t there small vessels for hire if a richy rich wanted to commute by boat… ya know, privately.
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/04/13/queens/qns_quinn_rockaway_ferry_20100408.txt
Check out the information on subsidies. Speaking about the subsidy for the now defunct Rockaway Ferry:
“He said the problem is the ferry, which costs passengers $6 each way, requires far larger subsidies than other transportation modes. The ferry is subsidized at $19.57 per rider, more than three times the rate of the Long Island Rail Road subsidy of $6.19 per person.
“In the context of other subsidies, it’s a lot of money,†Wolfson said. “We in the administration don’t have plans to continue the ferry after the [July 1] cutoff point.â€
The Staten Island Ferry, which is free, is subsidized at $5.95 per rider, while New York City local and express buses are subsidized at $1.64 per passenger and subway ridership is subsidized 56 cents per person.”
This is why there aren’t more ferries in NYC. Its not a low cost alternative, its a high cost alternative.
Ferry service should tap into the existing
Brooklyn as a destination crowd.
Push to create partnership with alternative transportation efforts in the city. Bike Parking, Bike Rentals etc.
Use food vendors and arts/craft organizations to make launch piers less of a no mans land. Something similar to the Fairway pier in Brooklyn with the cafe adjacent.
All water taxi/ferry service in NYC is deeply subsidized. I have no problem with providing ferry service that actually serves the public (accessable to large portions of the population through mass transit connections), but when you are putting in a ferry so that folks that paid north of a million for their condos on the water can get to their wall street jobs in 15 minutes without having to ride the subway with folks they view as undesireable well, that’s a different story.
Let the One Brooklyn Bridge folks pay $15 per ride to get across the river instead of providing ferry service at $2.50 with a hidden state subsidy of $13 per ride.
Never mind the economics… Ferries aren’t exactly the cleanest creatures. Belching fumes from No. 6 Fuel Oil.