It’s not exactly a flying car, but hovercraft could zip across San Francisco Bay, bringing ferry service to cities with shallow waterfronts that have always been off limits to boats. While the idea of a craft hovering over the water may sound futuristic, the technology has been in use for years.
“There’s hundreds of them that operate around the world,” including England between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, said Jim Wunderman, vice chair of the Bay Area’s Water Emergency Transportation Authority.
Wunderman and his colleagues recently traveled to England to study how to bring the environmentally-friendly ferry service to the South Bay.
The England ferry route, like parts of southern San Francisco Bay near the tech hub of Redwood City, for example, lacks sufficient depth for traditional craft. That makes the service a model for BAETA to study how the technology could apply here.
One problem with hovercraft is that they’ve been too noisy, disturbing both humans and wildlife. But recently technology has brought noise levels down, and they have environmental advantages, as well. In addition to potentially taking cars off the road, hovercraft travel along on the air currents the craft creates, without disturbing the sea bed and the ecosystems that flourish there.
Bay Area officials see the water as a relatively untapped mode of transit that could help relieve the region’s growing traffic congestion. There's been recently added ferry service between Richmond and San Francisco and expanded capacity on existing lines. Planning is also currently underway to add ferry service between San Francisco and Treasure Island, Berkeley, and the city’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
As with cars, ferry service is not without its collisions and mishaps. Recently, a Golden Gate Ferry smashed into a pier at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal, causing significant damage.