Row, Row, Row Your Boat

News today in my city of temporary exile is that ferry services will start running in the area around Georgetown and Navy Yard.

The ferry concept has always been fascinating to me, and often when I tell people I write about transportation issues in Pittsburgh, they ask me why there aren't water taxis running up and down the three rivers. It seems like every couple of years it reemerges as a potential project, and if I remember correctly, there is a water limo that runs from from the Strip District to the North Shore to Station Square. They've got one hour head ways on the weekend, but to my understanding they don't run during the day.

So why aren't there ferries running nonstop between and among river destinations? I feel like it's a market thing, more than anything else. Pittsburgh has a lot of riverfront destinations, to be sure, but it also has easy ways to get back and forth to them without actually having to take to the water (an expansive system of bridges certainly helps that).

In addition, for as much development has happened along the rivers, the heavy hitters of economic development are far away from the rivers. In the old days the rivers were the arteries of industry. Corporate offices, nice residences, and upper crust shops headed for the hills. So while there are a good number of brownfields that have become destinations (Station Square, South Side, Waterfront, Pittsburgh Technology Center), the heavy hitters of the city's economy (Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, East Liberty, much of downtown) are a bit of a hike from the nearest dock.

A water taxi would be like any other type of transportation option. If the headways aren't there, than people can't consider them a valid option. Unless someone shows up with an armada and starts serving half a dozen destinations with 15 minute headways, plan on taking the bus from the South Side to the North Shore.