REMARKS
Council Member Brannan discusses ferry infrastructure and accessibility challenges
1:44:01
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4 min
Council Member Justin L. Brannan addresses the challenges of ferry infrastructure and accessibility in NYC. He emphasizes the importance of connecting ferries to existing transportation networks and the difficulties in justifying ferry services without proper accessibility.
- Highlights the need for better connectivity to ferry landings
- Discusses the challenge of using different fare systems for buses and ferries
- Suggests that improving access could significantly increase ferry ridership
Justin L. Brannan
1:44:01
Thank you, Cherish.
1:44:02
Thank you for organizing this hearing.
1:44:06
EDC is good to see you guys.
1:44:08
Appreciate your partnership on all the things.
1:44:13
And I wanna talk I wanna get into the the Kony Island ferry.
1:44:16
But but first, just to talk a little bit about the thought that goes into the infrastructure surrounding fairies in terms of getting people to the ferry.
1:44:28
Right?
1:44:29
I think for, you know, I fought really hard to bring back the Bay Ridge ferry until we sort of were able to get ridership up to a decent level.
1:44:37
It was always a fight every year to to sort of, you know, to to fight for its existence, right, to to sort of you you know, justify its existence.
1:44:47
And part of the problem was that for I think for all of my colleagues is the fairies are great if you live near the ferry or if you can get to the ferry in some way where they're biking or whatever, Unfortunately, not all of our fairies are connected to the existing transportation infrastructure.
1:45:05
So, you know, and there's always talk about doing ferry shut you know, shuttles to the ferry, that kind of thing, but without any you know, without funding streams that are guaranteed, it's hard to, you know, I can fund a shuttle for 1 year.
1:45:19
If I can get the money the following year, I'll do it again.
1:45:21
But it's it's something, you know, you need people need to rely on it.
1:45:24
So how much thought goes into the infrastructure around getting people to the ferry to make them successful and to to make them sustainable.
1:45:33
Of course.
1:45:34
Good to see
James Wong
1:45:34
you, council member.
1:45:35
Thank you for your partnership on ferries over the years.
1:45:39
So I'll talk about in in kind of a general sense as it relates whenever we've had prior planning studies or discussions around ferry services.
1:45:48
In general, we have looked for opportunities to place ferry landings where there are by sort of definitionally gaps in the existing transit network.
1:45:58
So where there are where the subway is half a mile or more inland, where the bus does, you know, you have to, you know, go a long ways before you could get to a subway.
1:46:06
We are actually looking for kind of these least connected places, as opportunities where ferry service can really help connect a neighborhood where they don't have great access to other options.
1:46:18
And so where we find success is where the other transit options are not good, that's often an opportunity to create a ridership a ridership base if we are able to connect the ferry service to where people want to go.
1:46:31
In terms of the upland infrastructure, ferry is at least through NYC ferry in our current iteration, have generally been a pretty light touch in terms of, like, physical infrastructure.
1:46:42
It's a floating barge, a gangway, and a couple of piles, and, of course, the utility connections.
1:46:48
But the narrow scope of that work is what allowed us to build a ferry system in the sort of timeline that we did without having to, you know, really see if we could make major investments in roadways and other places that that might otherwise be required.
1:47:05
Yeah.
1:47:05
And,
Justin L. Brannan
1:47:06
you know, as a noted fairy apologist, I I want them all to succeed, but part of the challenge is the connectivity, right, is getting people to the ferry.
1:47:15
Obviously, you have the challenge of not being able to use a metro card to get, you know, if you're taking a bus ride and then you're talking about a 2 a 2 fair situation.
1:47:23
So I'd like to see EDC focus on that too because just setting up a ferry, if for any any of our my colleagues who were dreaming, including me, who's dreaming of putting a ferry somewhere else in our district or getting our first ferry in our neighborhood.
1:47:37
It's hard when you have to fight to justify its existence every year, and then EDC says, well, no one's riding the ferry.
1:47:43
It's like, well, yeah, because no one can get to it.
1:47:45
So so it creates this sort of feedback loop that and we all know why because I think a lot more people would use the fairies if they could get to the ferry.
1:47:55
So so that's that that's one.
1:47:58
And so so just talking about the the 2022 feasibility study for the Kony Island ferry.
1:48:03
You know, I'm old enough to remember in prior administration when there was talk around, you know, building a Kony Island ferry, whether it was on the Creekside or whether it was on the Ocean side, The issue of, you know, the the issue that that EDC is now putting in our way as far as it would cost $250,000,000 to do it to do it right because of challenges on the ocean side.