Ferry boats hauled commuters across the bay between San Francisco and Berkeley well before the San Francisco Bay Bridge was completed in the late 1930s. For several decades now, ferries have run daily between San Francisco, Larkspur, Vallejo, and Oakland. In 2012, commuter ferry service to Oyster Point Marina, in South San Francisco, was inaugurated. Service to Redwood City may be next.
Planners should think even bigger. Commuters living on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the East Bay have to contend with congestion and inordinate travel times along the transit corridors to job-dense areas around northern San Jose. Routes 101, 880, and 237 and the San Mateo Bridge and Dumbarton Bridge are particularly impacted. CalTrain and BART are alternatives to driving, but these lines run well inland, away from newer office complexes built near the bay. If drivers had extensive water transit alternatives across South San Francisco Bay, they might look something like this: