Don’t Laugh, But A Pier-To-Pier Ferry System Is A Great Idea
After stepping on board, I leaned back in the seat and felt the warmth of the sunshine on my face.
I was using public transportation in Sydney, Australia, and it wasn’t a train, tram or a bus.
It was a ferry.
As we cruised out of the harbor past the Sydney Opera House and into the bay, I looked around and thought about how this was very pleasant way to get around a city. Then I suddenly jumped forward and said, much to the surprise of the passengers around me, “why don’t we have this in L.A.!?”
Seriously.
Why does Los Angeles not have a ferry system? Think what that would do to help solve our some of our terrible traffic problems. We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on trains and while I’m fully supportive of this, none of them go along the coast.
A pier-to-pier ferry system is a great idea. Would you rather be on the water between Malibu and Santa Monica or sit forever in your car on traffic-choked PCH? If a lot of people are like me. they would say “I would rather be on the water!” PCH, then, would not be so standstill crowded. There would likely be a lot less accidents, too, which would really speed up the traffic flow.
My proposed ferry system would extend all the way to Long Beach and have stops at these piers, going north to south: Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Long Beach.
Currently, the only ferries in the area are in Long Beach, where the Aqualink travels along Alamitos Bay to the Belmont Pier, Shoreline Village and the Queen Mary. I’ve taken it from Alamitos Bay to the Queen Mary and it was great. It also saved me they 20 bucks it cost to park at the Queen!
There is a ferry from Balboa Island to Newport Beach but that one only lasts about a minute. Still, I like it.
Hey, San Francisco has a ferry system. L.A., always likes to think of itself as being way more cooler than San Francisco, but that city has a ferry and we do not, so which one is really more cool in this department? Plus, San Francisco’s bus and BART system beats the pants off what we have here for public transportation.
A ferry system would also be a great for tourists. Tourism alone would likely keep the system afloat, so to speak. Tourists are intimidated by driving here but put them on a ferry to go to Malibu, Venice or the South Bay from Santa Monica and they will rave about how easy it is to get around the coastal cities of Los Angeles.
Think a ferry would be too expensive as a passenger? Well it probably would be here, but in Sydney I paid something like $30 for a pass that lasted an entire week.
I think it’s an idea that is worth exploring and even implementing here.
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