The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) and Bay Area Council recently held a subcommittee to further explore the possibility of water transit, which aims to ease congestion on the roads and crowded BART trains in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Policymakers and WETA have eyed ferries as a solution for growing congestion problems.

Even though ferries are relatively slow and don't carry nearly as many people as BART or the Bay Bridge, during rush hour the San Francisco Bay Area's ferry services provide essential relief to a transportation system that's bursting at the seams.

"We carry about 4 percent of Trans-bay ridership in the peak hours," said Kevin Connolly, manager of planning and development for the WETA, during a talk about the role of ferries in Bay Area transportation.

"That doesn't seem like a lot, but it's the equivalent of three BART trains or 48 buses in the peak hour," Connolly added.

For example, the new ferry service from Richmond to San Francisco, which began on Jan. 10, has four trips from Richmond to San Francisco during morning commute hours and four journeys from San Francisco to Richmond in evening commute hours. Ferries can each carry 225 people.

Compared to a two-hour drive, WETA's ferries shuttle passengers to the Ferry Building, which is a 35-minute trip across the bay.

Figures indicate that in the San Francisco Bay Area, WETA operates nine terminals with 14 vessels, and carries over 2.8 million passengers annually. The service already runs ferries from Oakland, Alameda, Vallejo, and South San Francisco.

However, even the ferries are becoming overcrowded during rush hour. Compared to a BART train, safety and the laws of buoyancy prohibit squeezing more and more people on board. "We leave people behind every day because of a hard cap on our ridership; we have a desperate need to expand capacity," noted Connolly.

"We're aggressively expanding San Francisco Bay Ferry service, and we need additional vessels to meet the high demand," said Nina Rannells, executive director of WETA.

Officials at the WETA hope to beef up service, but it means they need tens of millions of dollars.

In recent years, WETA has invested $465 million in new ferry assets, including new terminals, maintenance facilities and vessels, to support expanding regional ferry services in the Bay Area.

Going forward, WETA has developed a 20-year strategic plan with an ambitious vision that would expand WETA's regional ferry system to include 44 vessels, 16 terminals and 12 routes by 2035.

According to the strategic plan, WETA will gradually increase service from several locations, like Richmond, Treasure Island, and Berkeley.

California Assemblyman David Chiu supported the expansion of ferry services in the San Francisco Bay.

"Ferry terminals are relatively inexpensive to build, and the infrastructure for ferries and water taxis can be scaled quickly, one of our few short-term opportunities to greatly expand transit capacity," David said.

"Water transit can help connect the job centers of San Francisco, Oakland and Silicon Valley to San Francisco's growing southern waterfront as well as the Peninsula, Berkeley, Richmond, and other points around the Bay," he noted.

WETA expects the 20-year strategic plan will serve to increase peak period capacity by 740 percent.

The Global Bay Areas transportation landscape is witnessing unprecedented growth and change. They must look at new and innovative ways to ensure cities can responsibly meet the public's transportation and commuting needs now and in the future. San Francisco Bay Area may showcase some opportunities for the other Global Bay Areas.