Transit On the Water: Top 10 Ferry and Water Taxi Cities in North America
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2022
- Nearly every city has a close relationship to a bay or river -- bodies of water are critical to commercial activity, tourism, and a city's sense of identity.
But bodies of water can also be transportation barriers, and if a bridge isn't feasible, sometimes a ferry or water taxi can be the best travel option. In this video, we explore North America, looking for the ten metro areas that generate the most annual trips by ferry and water taxi.
Other CityNerd videos referenced in this video:
- North America's Best Public Markets: • Top 10 Public Markets/...
- NFL Stadium/Transit Connections: • Top Ten Transit to NFL...
- Busiest Bridges and Tunnels: • Busiest Bridges and Tu...
- Worldwide Beach/Transit Connections: • World's Top 10 Beach-T...
Transit Agencies referenced in this video:
- NYCDOT www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/fe...
- NY Waterway www.nywaterway.com/
- NYC Ferry www.ferry.nyc/
- Metro North new.mta.info/agency/metro-nor...
- BC Ferries www.bcferries.com/
- TransLink www.translink.ca/schedules-an...
- Washington State Ferries wsdot.wa.gov/travel/washingto...
- King County Metro kingcounty.gov/depts/transpor...
- Pierce County www.piercecountywa.gov/2200/F...
- Port Administration of Quintana Roo servicios.apiqroo.com.mx/estad...
- San Francisco Bay Ferry sanfranciscobayferry.com/
- Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District www.goldengate.org/ferry/sche...
- Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamship Authority www.steamshipauthority.com/
- Halifax Transit www.halifax.ca/transportation...
- Puerto Rico Maritime Transport Authority pr.gov/directorios/pages/info...
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority www.mbta.com/schedules/ferry
- New Orleans Transit Authority www.norta.com/
- Plaquemines Parish Government www.plaqueminesparish.com/295...
Data Sources:
National Transit Database: www.transit.dot.gov/ntd
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Ferr...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaBus
Other Resources:
- www.toronto.ca/news/city-of-t...
- www.portstoronto.com/portstor...
- www.fierainfrastructure.com/w...
Wikipedia page on Metropolitan Statistical Areas: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropo...
Photo/Video Credits:
- Thumbnail Thumb (WSF) By Jamies - Own work, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Staten Island Ferry Videos by CityXcape from Pexels
- BC Ferries Video Video by Vimeo-Free-Videos from Pixabay
- Hong Kong for title Video by Lam Bill from Pexels
- Disney Ferries By willenhallwench - pixabay.com/en/ferryboat-wate... archive copy, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By wsh1266 - Boats at the Magic Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Lee Ruk from North Tonawanda - 2016 June 10,GOING TO Disney Springs, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Flamenco Beach, Culebra By Christopher Zapf - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (TH-cam music library)
Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
Contact: nerd4cities@gmail.com - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I'm an American living in Istanbul, Turkey, and it has the most amazing ferry system I've ever seen. It handles 300,000 passengers every day. A ferry leaves every 20 minutes and takes you back and forth from Asia to Europe.
I love the ferries in Istanbul. Great mention!!
Ohh soo a mini cruise. Ship
As a New Yorker, I love seeing NY as #1 😁
The only thing I will add about the Staten Island Ferry is that I'm pretty sure on its own it would be the largest fare-free public transit system in the country! Kansas City MO made their busses fare free, and that entire system is close in daily ridership to the SIF but as far as I can tell the SIF is the larger of the two (the pandemic makes this math a little dicey).
Also, it is one of the only 24h systems, running at least half hourly service at all times!
There's really nothing like it!
Still for a city of it's size 40m isn't very impressive. Amsterdam is at 29m and has 1/10th the population.
@@Cl0ckcl0ck It’s very impressive, considering ferries and canals aren’t the prime reason why people visit New York City and they don’t determine the overall look of the city.
Seattle would beat Amsterdam anyways and London has a lot less riders on their river services, despite having more inhabitants than New York City. The population argument clearly doesn’t work here.
@@VieleGuteFahrer The ferries in Amsterdam only go to the new (1950's and later) neighborhoods across the IJ. Those aren't tourism worthy. The tourism boats on the canals weren't counted in this number.
@@Cl0ckcl0ck
New York has a much bigger metro than Amsterdam does though. The ferries are actually a shell of what they once were before the subways were built.
The NYC interboro ferry (Manhattan-Brooklyn-Queens) is really an underrated way to travel, especially in the summertime. Same price as a metrocard swipe, you get to experience glorious views of the east river bridges and Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines. Certainly beats waiting for the subway in a hot (and sometimes smelly) station. Also, there is the Seastreak Ferry that carries commuters from Atlantic Highlands, NJ on the Jersey Shore to lower Manhattan
The amount of ferry routes in and across NYC is staggering.
The NYC Ferry
NY Waterway
SI Ferry
NY Water taxi
Seastreak
Liberty Landing
Not to mention the tourist/sightseeing ferries, the ferries that go to ellis island and the statue of liberty and stuff.
I agree, the views really are amazing
Yeah, NYC Ferry is really nice. Sometimes I take classes at the makerspace at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and it's really easy to get there. (I live closest to the Dumbo stop, but it's actually faster to take the 2/3 to Wall St. and take the express ferry from there. Non-stop!) I guess people hate it because it's heavily subsidized and being a waterfront thing only serves rich neighborhoods, but if we ignore that I love it. You can also buy a beer and drink it on the way home from the class! (Recommend against it before operating power tools at the makerspace!)
Yeah, as a visitor I love the NYC Ferry! I think it's pretty far up there as far as operating cost per trip, but interestingly, it's run through the economic development agency.
What is surprising about ferries across the Hudson River is their prices. The ferries are the most expensive way to cross the Hudson River (expect driving), but they are still able to survive.
I'm from Toronto so I can answer a few questions. The Billy Bishop airport ferry used to be much busier as it was the only way to get to the airport until the tunnel opened in 2015. Since then, the ferry continues to run to allow motor vehicles to access the airport, but most foot passengers take the tunnel. (Fun fact: it's the shortest regularly-scheduled ferry route in the world, taking about 90 seconds end to end, running every 15 minutes) 2 million a year prior to the tunnel opening sounds reasonable.
The three Toronto Island ferries (Ward's Island, Centre Island, Hanlan's Point) are mostly used in the summer season for people accessing the Toronto Islands Park. There are a few hundred people who live on the islands, and they are served by the year-round Ward's Island ferry. (The other two only operate seasonally). During the summer, all three ferries are very busy with day-trippers to the Islands, but outside of that when only Ward's Island ferry runs (for the island residents, Parks workers, and those working at the few businesses on the islands), the Islands are virtually deserted. So, super-high ridership in the summer (75k per day sounds reasonable), and basically none in the winter (maybe
Also, Centre, Ward's, and Hanlan's ferries are operated by Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and I believe the Airport ferry is operated by the airport's operator (Nieuport Aviation last I checked). You can try checking their respective websites to see if you can find more ridership info.
I love the Toronto ferries 😁
Great info, thanks!
From a recent municipal report: "While ferry service is maintained year round, more than 80 per cent of passenger volume takes place from May-September." That means ~7,500 daily passengers May-September and ~1,300 daily passengers October-April. To be fair, it's mostly a recreational destination aside from the Island community and artist retreat.
So it seems like the Wikipedia statistic is a typo or just waaaay off. Even if you assume 80% of summer ridership happens on Saturdays/Sundays, that would still only work out to be ~21,000 daily passengers on weekends May-September.
I was going to say "why don't they build a bridge to the airport?". But then I Googled it, and it was possibly the most depressing thing I've read in months. I cannot believe how much of a political shit storm could exist over a simple bridge! What also beggars belief is that the "solution" was a pedestrian tunnel, rather than a (surely much cheaper) pedestrian bridge?
And that brief passing mention of Victoria is the first and only time my hometown is making one of these lists. Glad to see ferries getting some love.
Seconded, by this Victorian.
Yeah, I probably undersold Victoria here. Great connections over water to Seattle, Port Angeles, Anacortes, Tsawassen...what am I missing? Probably a lot. Victoria is super fun to visit.
@@CityNerd Pretty well got most of them. Only other one I can think of is the seasonal passenger ferry that Parks Canada operates back and forth to Sidney Island. BC Ferries obviously takes the lions share anyway you look at it.
And Nanaimo too it has even more terminals than Victoria.
Fun fact: There's seasonal ferry service between Seattle (actually Bellingham) Washington and Anchorage (actually Whittier) Alaska. You can take your car or RV up and back without having to drive through Canada.
Didn't know that!
@@CityNerd It's part of the Alaska Marine Highway system, which connects the lower 48 to the Alaskan panhandle, a few Canadian ports, and the Aleutians. It's on my bucket list. My SUMMERTIME bucket list!
No kidding? Wow, wish I known that much sooner.. That def is a fun fact that is weirdly unknown for some reason. At least I hope it's not well known because I'm so sick of bringing up fun facts with other ppl and then they look at me go "you really didn't know that??" It gets old quick.
@@colormedubious4747 You can take the BC Ferry service up to Prince Rupert from Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island and catch the Alaska Ferry from there -- it's a stunning trip. We saw SO MANY whales.
@@jrochest4642 Sounds like a hoot!
Definitely no Iowa in this video lol
Or Texas!!!😂
There’s one more ferry operator in Seattle - Kitsap transit runs “fast ferries” (passenger-only boats that go a lot faster than WSF ferries) from Colman Dock in downtown Seattle to Bremerton and Kingston, and they’re adding service to Southworth too! It’s a much better option for Westsound commuters - the WSF route from Seattle to Bremerton takes an hour, while the fast ferry is only 30 minutes.
I often take the Water Taxi from Vashon (we call it the “foot ferry”, or the “PO boat”). It takes about the same time to get to Colman Dock as it takes for the WSF ferry to get to Fauntleroy in West Seattle (just over 20 min) even though the distance is about 3 times longer. Getting downtown with the Water Taxi can easily save you an hour over taking the WSF and Rabid Ride.
Before the pandemic it was amazing to see how many people would actually take the WSF from Southworth to Vashon and then transfer onto the foot ferry. Last year however Kitsap Transit started operating their own Fast Ferry between Southworth and Colman Dock. It is amazing to see how much fewer people are boarding at Vashon now (although I suspect the pandemic is still keeping a lot of Vashoners from commuting to the mainland).
This isn't the KC Metro-run ferry I mentioned? Or is it privately operated? If it isn't run through a government agency the NTD isn't going to pick it up! Need to look into this.
The Vashon water taxi is run by KC metro (since Vashon Island is in King County), but the Kitsap fast ferries are run by Kitsap transit, which operates transit in Kitsap county (Bremerton, Bainbridge, etc.)
The Kitsap Ferries are weird because for the most part they duplicate WSDOT Ferries but some serve separate routes
Isn’t it odd that CityNerd didn’t include the Seattle/Bremerton run since one end terminates at the Coleman dock in Seattle?
Victoria definitely could've been it's own metro in this video - and probably would've crested Vancouver (on a no-lockdown year). There's the BC Ferries services from Swartz Bay back to Tsawwassen and to the gulf islands; there's Washington State that has service to Sidney back to Anacortes and the US Gulf Islands; there's the COHO which crosses twice daily from downtown Victoria to Port Angeles; there's the quick ferries from downtown to Vancouver and Seattle; and then there are the harbour ferries that take people around the city along the inner harbour and the gorge region!
EhXplained, eh?
Yeah I hear you -- but I can only assign ferry services to one city, I can't double count. I assigned BC Ferries to Vancouver, and that Anacortes-San Juans -Sidney ferry (which I've taken many times!) is a Washington State Ferry, so wouldn't be assigned to Victoria either. I get it though - it's ridiculous not to consider Victoria a big "ferry city"!
@@robertcartwright4374 Get it? Eh - xplained ;)
@@CityNerd I hear your methodology, and appreciate the reflection! I just moved to Vancouver Island - and cannot wait to go visit Portland and other cities in the region (having already spent a lot of time in Seattle, but not elsewhere) - big fan of the channel!
@@CityNerd there's actually talk about setting up a Vancouver style SeaBus service between Victoria and Colwood for commuters in future, which would help add credence to Victoria's place in your list. Great video as always!
I love that my native Boston and my current home of Vancouver did so well on this list! I'm one of the riders on the SeaBus every day, it's a nice relaxing ride across Vancouver Harbour. The views of downtown are spectacular! (PS - Great pronunciations of Charlestown and Barnstable. Tsawwassen was a good effort, but...)
Automatic like for my hometown! Halifax is a beautiful city that I love
And they are planning to add ferry routes which will greatly increase the ridership!
Do the waterways ever freeze over there?
@@stevengordon3271 no they do not
@@stevengordon3271 There is occasionally a small layer of broken ice floating on the surface but because the harbour is relatively close to the open waters of the Atlantic is doesn’t really freeze ever. The Bedford bassin on the other hand which is attached to the harbour does receive freshwater from a stream and does tend to freeze more often along the edges but I have never seen it freeze to any point where a boat or ship could not simply move through it. It also helps that it is a relatively busy port with cargo ships, navy ships, ferries, and other smaller ships/ boats making their way through the harbour.
The Alaska Marine Highway runs a rout out of Puget Sound too. Bellingham to Ketchikan. It's a bit north of the Seattle Metro area, but I think it should count.
I do enjoy my East River rides on the NYC Ferry! One interesting note not mentioned about this service is that it has a route to Rockaway Beach
Yeah, I ran out of space in the video but it does get well into The Bronx too!
Finally. Halifax makes a transit video. Our one redeeming feature of the transit system, the ferry.
Hey, the agency reporting is super well organized and transparent! That's not all that common, unfortunately
Absolutely love your combination of dry humour and making things like transit/numbers interesting!
The San Francisco Bay Area's ferries we're helped by its popularity due to the 1989 Earthquake. Next to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the ferries did a tremendous job of transporting people in a crisis. Glad to see the Bay Area continues to maintain ferry service 30-plus years later.
My Dad was trapped in San Francisco and got home to the East Bay across the bay via ferry after the 89 Loma Priata quake. We didn’t even know if he was safe or ok until he showed up later that night, having made his way across the bay via ferry after part of the BAY BRIDGE COLLAPSED, and BART wasn’t running for a while, phones were out at his building, which caught fire, and that was all over the news. Crazy times.
The New City's ferries network is really impressive, I didn't expect to see so many routes. Montreal is so underserved for being an island in an archipelago in the Saint-Lawrence river, an important seaway... oh well. There are discussion here of creating fast and small ferry lines to connect more part of the region but we are far from being in this top ten.
Ferries can have fantastic synergy with airports. Often airports are located close to water where the ground may not be stable for tunneling for rail or roads. Yes, ferries take much longer to load/unload than rapid transit, but most passengers/pilots/crew aren't daily commuters and can justify spend a bit more time to use a ferry. LGA is a fantastic example of this. For all the controversial about the new airlink connection to LGA offending NIMBY's, an LGA ferry could easily and cheaply connect the airport to Manhattan and provide direct connections (finally) to the metro without needing the city's infamous slow/cramped busses to get out of LGA.
YTZ was covered exactly as such, as even with the ped tunnel, rental cars and service vehicles can take the ferry from the mainland terminal to the island
Although we should still do the ferry, we have to ALSO extend the Astoria line to LGA, regardless of NIMBY’s. Ferries don’t connect directly to subway stations outside of South Ferry, which is very out of the way. For most stations, you have to take a bus or walk to a subway from the ferry because subway + water = most likely, bad. A ferry even every 10 minutes wouldn’t be enough for demand.
Wish we had some more ferries in Hawaii. I remember riding TheBoat back in 2008 which was very nice ride. Never got to ride the Super Ferry that took 5 hours to get to Maui.
Yeah that's a weird one -- it's a pretty short flight with tons of frequency!
A cheep method of access to the other islands has the potential to spread the Honolulu metro area onto those islands. That would only favor the land speculators.
While it won't change Vancouver's ranking, I disagree with the claim that false creek ferries don't fit the criteria. They are essentially the fastest way to travel across false creek, and it do serve commute purposes and they do sell month passes. They are part of essential public transportation around false creek community in my mind. In the mean time it is indeed hard to find their ridership report, and this can be a acceptable cause to exclude them from the numbers.
Yeah, I really waffled on whether to even try to include it. They're definitely fun!
I used to work for the Aquabus, (one of the operators). Summer ridership hovers around 1-3 thousand people a day, winter time we would have days were nobody rode at all.
Canada Day is definitely the busiest, over 10-15,000 people in a day, absolute nightmare busy
@@TheRulerofthecosmos its always nice to have a quick way back to Granville island after walking along the seawall all the way to David Lam
Another ferry to add in the Metro Vancouver area: the Barnston Island ferry in Surrey. It's a small ferry, mostly for pedestrians and cyclists, operated by the provincial government.
I love living in a city with a large selection of ferries linking the city with neighbouring towns, the Duchy of Cornwall and even Bretagne, Spain and Portugal. Everything from the small solar electric Mountbatten ferry to the Torpoint floating bridges (3 ferries on chains that carry double decker buses into Cornwall [Kernow] ) up to Pont Aven, Galicia and Cap Finisterre cruise ferries to Brittany and Iberia.
Plymouth?
I recently visited Palermo, Sicily and I was fascinated to realize an overnight cruiseferry is actually competitive with flying for travel to the mainland.
It’s also cool that most major Sicilian cities are served by intercity trains to Rome and Milan that roll into a ferry to reach the mainland
I think an overnight ferry is a great option. You can leave on a Friday night after work/school and come back on Sunday night. Then you get 2 full days in just a weekend. You can sometimes find cheap flights that do that, but they are usually in high demand. Plus there isn't the hassle of an airport with a ferry.
BC Ferries may not be the most urban, tho it may be one of the most scenic. Vancouver to Victoria is a nice ride, especially through Active Pass. Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay Terminals are an interesting dance of vehicles and ships
Honestly, I'm surprised you mentioned Toronto at all. Toronto Island is only a recreational destination (aside from a very small number of people who have homes there), so it isn't the kind of trip one would take in the normal course of their life. I'm not sure that the daily ridership figure was an average or daily max over the course of a year, but obviously there are major discrepancies between winter and summer.
As for Billy Bishop, ever since the paedestrian tunnel went in, the ferry only really gets used for vehicles servicing the airport.
Great vid as always. I'd love to see you do a video on Peachtree City, GA and their miles of paths connecting the community
Good pronunciations on Charlestown and Barnstable. Massachusetts place names aren't *always* impossible...
Thank you, this was great
I wanted to give a shout out to the British Columbia Inland Ferries. They are considered part of the provincial Dept of Highways and they are free!. Some are dinky things across remote rivers but the biggest Kootenay Lake ferry carries 80 vehicles and 250 passengers on a five mile trip.
Also note that the BC Ferries routes - which are definitely not free - cover 35 destinations. Their routes vary from a short passenger only boat to long-distance overnight trips. Their biggest ferry has capacity for 2,100 passengers and crew and 358 automobiles.
Probably been requested before, but would love to see a “top ten cycling cities in North America” with some weighted criteria like miles of coverage, infrastructure type (protected lane/dedicated path vs painted gutter/sharrow), maybe some other aspects like cool and comfortable weather or even ridership numbers or cycling accidents per capita if data for those is consistent enough. Love the videos!
Vashon resident here. For Seattle, you forgot Kitsap Fast Ferry! In the year before covid when I'd leave Vashon occasionally, I took the Water Taxi downtown and then the fast ferry to Kingston for a short vacation. Got there far faster (not to mention less stressed) than driving.
I'll have to look this up!
@@CityNerd my hometown is on the peninsula, it's super useful network for getting back from the city
I'm from Halifax and it's great to finally see my city in a video! There's a current plan to build 3 more regional ferry routes so we may be moving up this list in the future!
Nice! I ran out of space in the video but I really wanted to show more of the scene around the main ferry terminal. Very lively!
By regional they mean routes that service the Bedford Bassin and it is something I am greatly looking forward to! They say 18 min by ferry which is very comparable to taking the car (from Mill Cove) during almost all hours I’d say. I would gladly ride my bike or roller blades or scooter down to the ferry and be downtown in 18 min not needing to park my car anywhere or pay for a parking spot! Truly can’t wait for it to be completed!
The Mill Cove service will serve the residents of Bedford primarily which used to be a suburb and it’s own town actually until the Provincial government amalgamated many towns as they were growing too close together. Anyways, love the history of Halifax. They also had streetcars at one time! But they are unfortunately long gone and replaced with busses today. Hope to see Halifax more often in future videos!
Hell yea I though the same thing
I was glad to see Hali on the list, too! I took the Woodside Ferry recently; it was great!
I wish they'd hired a Human to record the stop announcements. The computer voice doesn't pronounce "Halifax" very smoothly, which I'd say is kind of key...
Video idea: top 10 urban highways that were ALMOST built
I like it. I bet #1 would be I-95 through DC. How fortunate that abomination was stopped.
Actually, that would probably be #2. Moses' plan to gut Manhattan with elevated freeways might well be #1.
@@colormedubious4747 Well luckily it didn't or else NYC would be just another sprawling city defined by freeways
@@thomasgrabkowski8283 Instead, thanks to Moses, it's a sprawling city defined by tolled parkways, bridges, and tunnels. What they stopped was his plan to trisect Manhattan with 30-story high elevated expressways that would have cast permanent darkness onto some of the world's most valuable real estate. Federal intervention, however, was needed to kill his Brooklyn-Battery Bridge proposal that would have decimated property values and destroyed a major park and historic site.
My family owns a house on Martha's Vineyard so the Wood's Hole ferry has been an essential part of our summer travel for years. Cool to see it feature on a list like this!
Wow! You've ... gained 100,000 subscribers in one year! Glad to be one of them.
Great video. I’ve taken joy ride water taxis in Chicago and Boston just for the sake of getting out on the water. If I ever had an actual need for them, commute by water would be the coolest!
There's no high school on the Bolivar side of Galveston County. Bolivar kids have to get their busses loaded onto the Bolivar ferry to get to school on The Island and get home. They have a commute by water every school day.
I always say the ferry is the best free entertainment on the Texas coast. There are about three boats an hour and the view is beautiful. Dolphins love to bow surf the ferry , and you see the massive line of ships coming in to the Port of Houston.
Shout out to Auckland, New Zealand. We have quite a number of ferry services around the city
I'm from Halifax area, super cool to see it on the list! Love the ferry
Surprised New London, CT didn't make the list. Connections to Long Island, Fisher's Island, and Block Island.
Man you dropped the ball on Vancouver! Our ferry system is WAY more extensive than that, it connects essentially ALL of Canada’s western coastal communities with the mainland
I didn't discuss all the BC Ferries routes in the video because there are too many -- but I included them all in the tally! Are there non-BC Ferries or SeaBus services I didn't mention?
Could you please do a video on cities in North America that have 'balanced' regional traffic demand? Places where both sides of the highway are equally full or buses/trains passing each other on a line have a roughly equal number of passengers on board? I am from Kitchener-Waterloo and have heard this is a strong point of this region: short trips, multiple route options, commuters in/out at the same rate, etc. There must be many other places that have roughly equal traffic demand and maximized potential from their infrastructure.
Awesome video! While it is not a metro area by any means, shout out to the ferry services to Mackinac Island in Michigan, a car-free island resort and community and wonderful vacation spot.
That giant f***ing highway bridge across the strait was built in part due to the influence of a wealthy island businessman wanting to make it easier to get to the ferry, though, so I think the fact that there are no cars on the island itself has more to do with NIMBYism than actual car independence.
@@TheRealE.B. People sure like to throw "NIMBY" around indiscriminately. It's not the inarguable negative that some like to think it is. Those "NIMBYs" are the same types of people who put a stop to countless insults to the built environment, like the hideous elevated expressways that Moses wanted to inflict on Manhattan, I-95 cutting through the core of DC, and many other examples.
Ding ding ding! That was the top ferry service in the data for non-metro areas.
I remember watching a Dirty Jobs episode about that island!
Yes! My city of Halifax finally got featured in a video. Maybe another way it could get featured is if you do a video an cities that almost had their downtowns destroyed by highways. That would probably require a lot of research though.
That would be a good topic, though I thought you were going to say "cities that almost had their downtowns destroyed by huge explosions".
I'd love to see a future video comparing European cities with North American city of a similar size and/or characteristics looking at transportation
I didn't realize there were this many major ferries in North America. When I lived in the states I was in a city without many (any?). Philadelphia. There's a water bus in my city now (Antwerpen) but I've never used it. I think it's mainly good for suburban commutes to the south.
The Chicago Water Taxi alone makes it 15th is surprising (imagine how high it could get if it had a traditional ferry service to somewhere lol). Shows how much people use it, and it is very useful to actually get around the city like rapid transit.
I honestly didn't even know it existed until I researched this video.
Oooh a video about gondolas or other "air" travel would be cool!
I have a love afferry with this mode of transit
While talking about Vancouver, B.C., I was expecting to hear you talk about the dozens of water taxis that swarm False Creek and Granville Island. While much of it is tourism-driven, residents use them to get around as well. Still, another great video, and I appreciate everything you do here!
I'm familiar with most of the cities on your list, and I can tell you for sure that you're spot on with your assessment of fairies in those cities. Oh, and they have good water transportation services, too! lol
Fond memories of the downtown water taxi and Southworth ferry while I was in W WA 🥰
Great video, Philly to Camden would've been in the top 3 a hundred years ago when Camden was a manufacturing powerhouse and the Ben Franklin Bridge didn't exist. You should do a video on the best gondola routes or potential gondola cities.
Yeah, I have gondolas on my list!
After hurricane maría the ferry port in Puerto Rico servicing Culebra (Ku-leh-brah) and Vieques (Vee-eh-ke-s) was moved from Fajardo (Fa-ha-r-doh) to Ceiba (Say-bah). The already poor infrastructure was heavily affected so they moved the port to a now abandoned military base (Roosevelt Roads).
Also.....Charlestown (charles-town) ;)
I think a video about what urban highway removal would produce the greatest benefit would be very interesting, if hard to quantify. I've always thought that demolishing I76 between the Delaware and schuylkill rivers would be incredibly beneficial for Philadelphia as it would connect the Stadium District, and a lot of abandoned industrial land to the city. Traffic could easily be diverted to I95 and I476/I676. It would be interested to get your perspective on this and see how it stacks up to other highways in the North America.
I like the idea -- I can probably figure out the way to do this.
Very interesting idea! Also kind of a touchy subject, I would imagine, since you're talking about many freeways that displaced communities of minorities. So unless we're looking into giving the property back to those families, we're basically talking about a list of long-term gentrification projects.
The completely pointless construction of I-405 in Portland comes immediately to mind for me, as a PNW resident. Between the construction of the Fremont Bridge (405 crossing of the Willamette River), Lloyd Center Mall & the hospital on N Vancouver Ave, the mostly black city of Albina was essentially destroyed and/or displaced. All by using power of domain laws.... Robert Moses = Satan.
Have been to Isla Mujeres multiple times, that Ultramar ferry really is excellent!
Your excitement in this video is palpable.
Next video idea: top 10 fairy and water pixie cities.
Of note, when I was in San Juan last year, the Hato Rey ferry was no longer running despite being on the map. I was staying in Viejo San Juan, an had wanted to take it down to the rail line, but had to take a bus instead. This is also when I learned that buses there do not stop if you don't wave them down.
Ugh. 2019 data! Annoying that the Tren Urbano barely runs to Santurce too -- would love a Condado/Old San Juan extension.
I'm in Dartmouth, NS and used the ferry a lot when I worked in Halifax. The ferry is probably the most reliable transit we got, it only really stops for major weather events. It's super nice biking or driving to Alderney and ending up right in downtown Halifax. In comparison our busses suck and trans/trains don't exist here :(
Toronto’s main ferry service is to the two largest islands across the harbour where several hundred people live and commute year round. During the summer and good spring/fall weather, these ferries carry hundreds of visitors each trip. The small ferry to the airport has to all intents and purposes been replaced by the tunnel, so what used to be a large volume of ferry riders is now negligible on this less than 5-minute ride.
New york also has Seastreak which goes south of Staten Island to connect to Jersey and one route to Martha's vineyard during summers.
Amazing content !!! Can you do a video for Asia and one for Europe?
Hey! Just found the channel and I'm quickly a big fan. I did a lot of travel PRE-COVID and all this talk of transit/trains reminded me of the REX Train I saw in rural Austria (Geinberg). The tiny resort town had a train station with hourly stops. Is this just some kind of Austrian miracle? Did I imagine it? Do other rural train lines exist and could they work other places? [Top 10 Rural Train lines would rule, NGL]
Just waiting for the day you finally mention Omaha in a video. I feel like it only misses out on your videos because it's just under 1 million in the metro area. Growing up in Council Bluffs, IA (across the Missouri River) all we could do was drive. Almost everybody I knew had a car at 15 or 16 (even when they had older siblings) because you just couldn't get anywhere without one. The sprawl of Omaha, which will likely reach Lincoln within my lifetime, has produced dozens of identical suburbs that require a 15-20 minute drive on the interstate to get downtown or any other interesting destination. I love Omaha's Old Market and Midtown spaces, but the only way we could get there from across the Missouri was by car (there is a pedestrian bridge, but the entrance was miles away and biking there was dangerous because of stroads). If Omaha invested in light rail, freeway demolition, biking infrastructure, and cross-river transportation, I think it could be the next Chicago. But for now all we get is one of the most segregated cities in America copying and pasting the same suburb over and over in its quest to expand forever westward toward Lincoln and even beyond. I hope you can find a way to mention in on the channel.
If I ever do "weirdest border with a neighboring state," Omaha will definitely be on the list!
@@CityNerd Oh yeah don't get me started on Carter Lake! Thanks for the response man. I really love your videos.
Surprised to see my tiny hometown (Vashon Island) mentioned on this channel. And surprised I only found this video a year later. I kind of grew up as a ferry rider.
I don't have the datas myself (they do seem pretty hard to find), but if Halifax is in the top 10, Quebec City has to be higher. I've lived in both cities and the Quebec city ferry is way more busy, has higher capacity and has also a much higher frequency.
Oh man I didn't even research that one. I'm going to start a Patreon so I can build a Canada National Transit Database
Okay, now what about the _smallest_ ferries? :)
Well, I suppose that's a pretty long tail. Might be hard to fit them all into a single video. Still, I'll put my recommendations in for the Oregon ferries across the Willamette River, at Buena Vista and Wheatland, and for the ferry connecting WA and OR across the Columbia River at Cathlamet.
There are several metros I was surprised not to see: Hampton Roads/Norfolk, Providence, Montreal, Tampa/St. Pete, and Miami. Seems like all of those could benefit from a good ferry system. Baltimore, too.
Let's take an extra moment to note that the Victoria to Vancouver ferry leaves from nowhere near Victoria to nowhere near Vancouver. Why? So that massive ferries can be used to fit lots of cars. Just another way for cars to ruin transit.
Great point. Swartz Bay is even further away from Victoria than Sidney is! Absurd.
Yea when I was tourist there, we ended up renting a car for this reason. I wouldn't say nowhere near though, Tswwassen is in Vancouver's sprawling suburbs, and I would consider Swartz Bay Victoria's sprawl too.
I love and miss ferries. I'm originally from the Pacific NW.
The Vancouver BC ferries are better than the Washington State Ferries. The one from Twassen to Vancouver Island is huge.
As a Vancouverite, great pronunciation on Tsawwassen!
Seems like I have mixed feedback on that!
@@CityNerd It's how the radio and news personalities pronounce it, so that's what I go with.
When I was in Japan I took an overnight car ferry from Tokyo to Hokkaido. I’d be curious if you could do some examination of long distance ferries.
Sure hope the aqua expresso has a strong shot of coffee 😁
I took the ferry from Fajardo to Vieques.
I don't know if they make ridership data publicly available, but one of the most interesting quirks of the NYC ferry scene is the IKEA ferry, which runs from Wall St down to the IKEA in Red Hook Brooklyn, which is ostensibly a transit desert, particularly if you're trying to drag home goods back to midtown. It's completely free, and also has fantastic views of the city. Even if you're not interested in decor, there's barbecue and lobster roll joints a short walk from the ferry!
I know! There were too many stops to mention. I love Red Hook, but man, it really is a bit of a transit desert!
I didn't think the Galveston-Bolivar ferry would be on here, but it's very cool and it's free. They load fast and make the trip in 19 minutes. There's no high school in in Bolivar so the kids have to get on busses to Galveston. K-8 students on Bolivar go to school in the Crenshaw School, which is a giant fortress against hurricanes.
Only other local ferry is the Lynchburg Ferry across the Houston Ship Channel.
In nyc they have the sea streak it connects to new jersey
Glad Toronto made the list. Was afraid the Great lakes would get the shaft.
I do wish there was more maritime travel on Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair and eastern Lake Ontario.
The reason Toronto is weird is because the only reason to use the ferry is to visit a park. There's a very small number of full-time residents on Toronto island. So in Summer all the biggest ferries are full all day everyday, but in Winter they use tiny barges that aren't even full.
Yeah, I THINK (?) that was in the data? I definitely looked at that shore area to the south and I thought all of that was showing up in the NY Waterway network. Is Seastreak a completely different service?
If we’re going by the metro area, Long Island is a part of the NYC metro and there are many routes up and down the LI sound as well as routes going between LI Connecticut and between LI and Rhode Island. Counting LI (outside of NYC) as a separate metro, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in the top 10.
Halifax has a ferry named The Vincent Coleman, named after one of the heroes of the Halifax Explosion. He was a train dispatcher who stayed behind to stop incoming trains from coming into Halifax, he was killed in the explosion but is thought to have saved hundreds of people.
I would absolutely never have known that. I had to read up on it just now -- amazing and horrible.
The only clue I can find about the ferries in Puerto Rico is that they switched to Ceiba in October 2018, and that they also privatized operation of the ferries at that time. Most likely the PR Ports Authority couldn't afford to replace infrastructure after hurricane Maria. Ceiba is the location of the former Roosevelt Roads naval base in PR and is a significantly better sheltered harbor than Fajardo as well.
The Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry in Texas is a very heavily used ferry, runs 24-7, using probably a half dozen ferries. I used to use it all the time. Also, the ferries from St. Thomas to St. John and St. Croix(and British Virgin Islands) in the United States Virgin Islands. Both of those are definitely used more than the Louisiana ferries (I have lived in all 3 places)
Yeah, the Bolivar ferry is awesome. It's part of a State Highway and runs 24/7 except during hurricanes. High school kids from Bolivar ride it twice a day. Excellent dolphin watching on every trip.
Huh, Texas doesn't show up in the data at all. USVI should (since Puerto Rico did) -- I wonder if they aren't considered "transit" services.
@@CityNerd yeah Galveston Ferry is run by the highway department, but not sure why USVI is not included, they get federal dollars and it's a vital transit connection for pedestrians
@@CityNerd I did some research. I think the Ferry is considered part of SH 87. TXDot operates it. Maybe it's a road on a boat.
Thank you! I design ships for a living. You’d be surprised how often people forget that we exist, but we’re actually a really great way to move a lot of people. For example, Disney’s three ferries in Magic Kingdom are often a faster option than the Monorail for getting to the parking lot/bus & Uber terminal, just because their passenger capacity is so much higher.
It's an efficient way to move a lot of people!
Love our vacation ferry from Bayfield Wisconsin to Madeline Island.
quick shout for London England there are several fast ferries along the River Thames which serve several stops along the river both for tourists and commuters with views of the city and riverside
When I started the video I thought to myself: "I hope he covers the Cataño-VSJ connection" and you did! Appreciate the love to my Puerto Rico querido. As far as the Fajardo to Ceiba change, I believe it's an effort to give the old Roosevelt Roads Naval Base a new lease on life.
I should actually ride the dang Chicago water taxi sometime, always biking everywhere
This clip makes me miss Sydney Australia.
The Jack Layton Ferry is pretty busy especially in summer as the Toronto Island is a pretty big and desirable tourist location. The islands are also home to some small communities and are not actually apart of Toronto, and are their own separate entity. As a Toronto resident I would love to see the TTC or at least Metrolinx take over operation, implement the citywide adopted fare payment system, Presto, and get new ferries. There’s always stories here and there about how the ferries are old and need replacements but there hasn’t been any sign of a new fleet any time soon.
As someone who has lived in British Columbia, allow me to describe to you our trials and tribulations dealing with the governance and operations of BC Ferries.
It's a lot.
my favorite was whether they could figure out a way to line up the three fast ferries in a row and convert them into a bridge.
There’s another ferry terminal in South Boston that runs to Provincetown on the cape most of the year, more of a vacation line though
Hamilton, Bermuda has about 3 ferries from it's urban area although only one is likely to be of use to visitors.
The Larkspur ferry terminal isn't great for public transit, but it does connect to the SMART train that takes you all the way to Santa Rosa. Crucially, both the ferry and SMART serve beer on board, which helps take the edge off how long that commute can take.
That's the very definition of "crucial"
The subway map is a mess.
I know this is not exactly a transport topic, but a top 10 public transport maps might be fun. Even though they are all slowly being replaced by google maps.
Might look at Portland Maine
If you're in the Seattle area, it's worth taking the ferries just for the outstanding views!
Now I wanna take a trip to Cape May NJ and take the ferry to Delaware
There are several very short (~500’ +/-) ferry routes in the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta connecting Ryer Island along highway 84. Never used them but I know they’re truly tiny ferries.
I've ridden on one of these! It was in the days before Google maps, my family got kinda lost and saw "ferry" on the paper map and went to go check it out. It really was super, super tiny.
There's a micro-ferry across the Houston Ship Channel they've been predicting to die for sixty years. The Lynchburg Ferry was supposed to shut down after the 610 bridge was built. It was supposed to be shut down after the Beltway bridge was built, and it was supposed to shut down after the Fred Hartman bridge replaced the Baytown tunnel. The Lynchburg still operates to this day. The traffic reports don't even say there's a two boat wait, because there always has been for decades.
Quebec City has 2 ferries linking downtown Levis to the old town of Quebec, right next to the cruiseship terminal. The integration with the bus network makes it painful to use as commute but you get amazing view of the Chateau Frontenac for tourists. Land use on the terminals is really good considering, likely because of the historical nature of the neighborhood. The rest of the river fronts being more industrial mean only one line exist. The Saint-Charles river being too small to require ferries.
I would love to get data for that service!
There are about a dozen or so ferries operating along the St. Lawrence River down river from Montreal, but I guess that shouldn't be surprising given there aren't many bridge options. For instance, if you don't take the Tadoussac ferry it's a long way to the nearest bridge across the Saguenay River. LOL.
Yay, my city get mentioned, lol.
Wow I was not expecting New Orleans to be on this list but I LOVE that ferry. If I had lived in Algiers I would have used it all the time because I worked downtown and the bridge is a nightmare.
I haven't been to Algiers but I almost wanted to spend like a minute of the video streetviewing it. Extremely interesting!
I was surprised by Cancun’s performance and was glad a city in Mexico made it on the list!