July 12, 2007 -- The waters surrounding Manhattan are natu ral highways and a vital transportation link that will help Mayor Bloomberg achieve his visionary congestion-pricing plan.
The existing capacity of NY Waterway and other private ferry operators can transport more than 90,000 commuters in and out of Manhattan each workday. With added investment in ferries, terminals and buses to link those terminals to other neighborhoods, there's almost no limit to the number of people who could commute by water.
Setting up a ferry/bus route is the most efficient and flexible form of mass transit. If our region is to grow and prosper, leaders in New York and New Jersey can and must find ways to get more people out of their cars and into trains, buses, subways - and ferries.
Yes, congestion pricing will be good for private ferry operators, especially NY Waterway, the company I founded 20 years ago. But let's look at the facts. This morning, more than 16,000 people will ride our ferries into Manhattan. They'll park 6,000 cars in New Jersey - 6,000 cars that won't clog Manhattan streets today. And we can do more.
Since we receive no operating subsidy from any government agency, our customers pay more than commuters on subsidized mass transit. Using mostly federal funds, government agencies have built terminals for us - but we pay rent for the terminals. And our only source of revenue to pay that rent, and to pay for crews, boats and diesel oil is our customers.
What our customers get is time. Our ferries save customers up to two hours each day in commuting time. They make it from Weehawken to Wall Street in under 20 minutes; from Monmouth County, N.J., to Wall Street in 40 minutes.
Ferries will play a big role in the development of the Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx waterfronts, which will become more attractive because ferry commuting avoids congestion-pricing fees. A ferry takes less than 10 minutes to get from Greenpoint in Brooklyn to Wall Street.
Subsidized ferry fares, paid from some part of the congestion-pricing fee, would encourage even more commuters to leave their cars behind.
Ferry terminals, linked to surrounding neighborhoods by bus, are the fastest and cheapest form of transportation infrastructure. Among the routes we could create:
* West 70th Street to Lower Manhattan, a 15-20 minute trip for residents of Riverside South and the surrounding area, reducing traffic on the West Side and relieving pressure on the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 subway lines.
* Randalls Island to Lower Manhattan, a 25-minute trip for Queens/Long Island commuters who could park in the hundreds of spaces under the Triborough Bridge, taking traffic off the FDR Drive.
* Midland Beach in Staten Island to Lower Manhattan, a 22-minute trip, cutting traffic on the Verazzano Bridge-Gowanus Expressway corridor.
* Jamaica Bay service, with stops in Rockaway and at Floyd Bennett Field or Sheepshead Bay and in Bay Ridge, taking traffic off the Belt Parkway.
With the vision and courage of leaders such as Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the possibilities are enormous.
Government support, via direct operating subsidies or purchase and leaseback of ferries and buses, would benefit commuters, encourage development of waterfront communities, make the waterfront more accessible and - most important - improve the quality of life for all of us by keeping cars off our streets.
Arthur E. Imperatore is president and founder of NY Waterway, the nation's largest privately operated commuter-ferry system.
