thank you for sharing your experience, Brooke, and what’s been working for you. i agree that improving transit at all ferry terminals would need to be improved as well. it’s great to hear that the fast ferry’s schedule expansion has worked out so well. more opportunities to run ferries solely for walk on folks would be great trialed more of around here.

As a Vashon resident, the thing that has changed my car usage patterns the most is the extension of the fast ferry to an all-day schedule. Commuting on foot to Fauntleroy is bit of a pain with the lack of transit infrastructure in West Seattle–getting to the airport from the dock, for instance, is a two-bus trip or a pricey taxi. With sailings into the downtown docks coming more regularly, I can access the light rail from the boat, and that means i can walk or bike almost my entire commute to just about anywhere I need to go, though I frequently end up driving from my home to the north end dock. I think you make excellent points about car dependency, but the transit around Fauntleroy could really stand to improve for pedestrians on the land-based side as well.

nice response! only most of it was ad hominin :) i find it interesting i get the label of hysteric. which particular part of my comment makes
you feel like it’s coming from a place of hysterics? or at least let me know how the history around car infrastructure capacity increases not working or recommending fare adjustments as a solution can be seen as an “anti-car screed” and not simply economics? one of my ideas is free walk on fare to incentivize it, so how would that be “anti-car”? anyway, i’m glad you brought up “farebox recovery” in regards to cars! WSF’s farebox recovery has been on a downward trend post recovery and for 2023 was 50%, yet for Amtrak in WA (which only serves on foot passengers) came in at 60% the same year. WSF has reported that vehicle boarding have almost recovered to 2019 levels, yet on foot is still lagging. so, in 2019 WSF had a farebox recovery of 72.5% for it’s mix of boardings at the time, but now is at 50% with a relative mix much more tilted towards cars. to me, this shows that an increase in vehicles in terms of ratio of ferry cargo does not correlate to getting the farebox recovery ratio closer to 100%; it does the opposite: the higher the ratio of vehicles in your cargo, the higher cost-per-passenger and lower farebox recovery ratio. but even then, your point is confusing b/c if vehicles cause the most amount of work in a system (for the ferries, the majority of their dock labor, and all of the timing around load/unload is required only by car boardings) then they for sure should be giving the most back in fares. if it wasn’t, it would be even worst than it already is. what do these numbers mean to you? you stated “Moreover, [farebox recovery] percentage continues to rise”, but from WSF’s own reports it is continuing to fall (source). finally, i’m confused why you brought up the MVET being gutted at all because it’s a blatant example of cars not paying their fair share to cover infrastructure expenses, or that ferries are the best in terms of farebox recovery as a pro-car stance when all it indicates is that the rest of the infrastructure cars use is heavily subsidized by everyone. looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

You should advocate for overhead loading for pedestrians then and a better terminal for pedestrians. I’m in favor of those improvements too, but common sense says to seize the opportunity to build the biggest dock. This isn’t a lane on a freeway. The queue line is not going to get smaller whether the cars wait on the street or in a smaller footprint on a dock. Let’s have them queue on the dock for the safety of all.

Agreed, get the cars off the street as much as possible. It’s a mess down there pretty much everyday. The bigger dock would be the best for the neighborhood and safer for all.

@BBron: I don’t know if your goal is to out-Jort Jort with your borderline hysterical anti-car screeds, or what? But you seem utterly oblivious to one cold fact. Vehicles that use Washington State Ferries pay the highest percentage in “farebox recovery” of the cost of the service of any transportation mode in the state. It has  been the case since Eyman and Gary Locke gutted the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax. Look it up if you don’t believe it. Moreover, that percentage continues to rise. So I can only conclude that you don’t know what the F you’re talking about.

Despite strong pushback and creative ideas from the community, WSF has no intention of addressing the 80% single occupant vehicles on the Triangle because it would be of no benefit to them.  🙄 😡            I’m not making it up… that was established at the previous meeting of the Community Advisory Group and WSF.

I agree with Alex regarding taking back Fauntleroy. The long queues make accessing and using Lincoln Park less pleasant and less safe for everyone, in particular those of us who walk/bike to the park. What would be most fair would be to take all the cars off that road, put them on the dock, and then raise prices on the car ferry passengers to recoup whatever the difference in cost between options A and C are.