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Wow. A marine highway… that’s so cool. I’m adding this to my loooooong list of my travel bucket list. Especially as someone that absolutely hates car highways, lol. I can only imagine the scenery…
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Originally Posted by GeoffD
Since this is North America, I’d go with BC Ferries for sheer reliance on ferries as the cornerstone of the transportation infrastructure. Vancouver Island is, err, an Island. The two major cities in the province, Vancouver and Victoria, require a ferry ride.
I imagine NYC has the most passengers per day in the United States. But ferries are an insignificant part of their transportation infrastructure compared to BC.
I knew Vancouver would have something, I’m just not familiar with it. I’ll have to try to google more information. Is it extremely vital to the transportation system? That’s kind of exactly what I’m looking for in this thread.
EDIT: just saw Natnasci made a very informative post about Vancouver. Will get to that in a minute.
As for NYC, it’s also centered around an island (Manhattan is an island), and is technically an archipelago — a chain of islands. Brooklyn and Queens are on an island, Staten Island is an island, and The Bronx is the only borough on the mainland US, but being a different body of land than the other boroughs more or less acts as another island across the Harlem river or the LI Sound. And there’s many other smaller islands too in the city.
However, I would agree that the ferry system overall is not a significant part of the transportation infrastructure, unlike the subway, EXCEPT for the Staten Island ferry. Staten Island is extremely dependent on that ferry service 24/7. I used to work in Staten Island as well and commuted by ferry everyday with tens of thousands of other people. I think this new ferry line from SI to Midtown is going to be a huge deal. This is something that has been in large demand by Staten Islanders for many years and I can’t believe it took this long to get it, but glad it’s happening.
As a side note, there have been a few times where my ferry would get stuck by heavy harbor traffic, which is not a thing that I could even conceive of in my mind… I never thought that boats could get stuck in traffic like that.
That largely has to do with the port though. But I used to really enjoy watching all the other boats in the harbor during my commute — from container ships to cruise ships and party boats and everything else. I used to have a beer and sit on the outside deck on my way back home after leaving SI… it was kind of dope actually. Especially since I did the less crowded reverse commute from Manhattan to SI.
Also we need some routes between Staten Island and Brooklyn…
Last edited by That_One_Guy; 08-24-2021 at 02:18 PM..
I just (finally) went to Boston recently. I knew they had to have something. Next time I’ll have to check it out. Also I’ve never seen ferry service to an airport! That’s new for me and very interesting. Love how they have a ferry transit map and integration into the MBTA.
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Originally Posted by Natnasci
In Vancouver I'd break it down between services that are actually part of the transit system, meaning you seamlessly can move between the Skytrain and busses to the Seabus, and private little ferries that take people around False Creek, and BC Ferries,
Vancouver has pretty much always had some sort of ferry service from the North Shore to downtown Vancouver before the Lions Gate Bridge was built in 1937. Then as the development of Lonsdale Quay ( a public market etc ) was created, a new service called the Seabus was built in 1977.
The Seabus is a 400 passenger only ferry that is part of the transit system and goes between downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver. It runs every 15 minutes for the 12 minute journey. It's very efficient at loading and unloading. One side of the ferry doors open to let passengers off, then the other side opens to let passengers in.
There are two private companies that have little cute passenger ( some are built for bikes as well ) ferries, used by locals and but mostly tourists, to get around False Creek. They are not part of the transit system, so you pay separately.
Then we have BC Ferries. Not part of the transit system per se, but on some shorter routes, like Langdale to Horseshoe Bay, or Horseshoe Bay to Bowen Island, I suppose someone may use it as transit if they worked in the Vancouver area.
Their ferries range in size from small car ferries to large vessels that hold 2,100 passengers & crew, and 358 cars.
This guy seems to only be interested in food, but gives an idea of the amenities on board, usually two restaurants, a cafe, lots of comfortable seating, work stations and kids play areas.
Wow. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the informative post! And the videos too. I need to get myself to Vancouver soon… it looks absolutely stunning.
So the Seabus basically seems like the Vancouver equivalent of the Staten Island ferry, if that makes sense? Sounds like a good system with having separate doors for loading and unloading passengers.
I’ll have to check it out when I FINALLY make it out there. Vancouver has been on my list for sooo long….
Saint John, New Brunswick, is served by 12 free ferries within commuting distance of the city. Operational status is announced several times a day on the radio. They are maintained as ice crossings in winter. Most are on the sprawling tributaries on the Saint John River.
There are about 50 river-crossings by small ferries around the US that are little-known except by local people. The Ohio and Mississippi are crossed by a few. Fun diversions on a road trip. Back-country ferries are wonderful Americana, and most people have never seen one.
There are a couple central Montana on back roads. Ranchers drive down and blow the horn, and the ferryman comes over to get them on a cable-winched barge.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Shocked no mention of San Francisco Bay Area ferry service up until now, page 4.
When I lived there I took the ferry from Marin County (either Larkspur or Tiburon, with Sausalito being a 3rd option) that dropped me off at the SF Ferry Terminal just across from my office at One Market Plaza.
My job (first one starting out) sucked but that had to be (and still might be) the best commute in the country. I would pass Angel Island, Alcatraz, Marin Headlands, and have approach views of downtown SF, the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. People on the Tiburon route got pissed when they upgraded to a faster boat that reduced the commute home from 30 to 20 minutes, meaning you could only down 1 instead of 2 drinks. On Fridays, some would make a couple of return home round trips—called FART (Friday Afternoon RoundTrip)—for happy hour in which they could take their time enjoying more than 1 drink and the fantastic views. That was back in my day but looks like things have not changed much:
We have a few free car ferries in Virginia. In Hampton Roads (the Virginia Beach/Norfolk region) you have the 24 hr/ Jamestown-Scotland ferry which carries about one million per year:
Washington state did have the largest ferry system in the country mainly centered around metro Seattle, with 25 million passengers a year prior to Covid. It has the second largest vehicular ferry system in the world. Public buses in Seattle drive onto these ferries.
Hmm, which transit buses do that? I'd like to see that on my next visit.
Hmm, which transit buses do that? I'd like to see that on my next visit.
Yeah, I haven't seen that.
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