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Dan Rodricks: Chesapeake ferries should not be seen as novelty, but real transit infrastructure | STAFF COMMENTARY

The plan to run ferries across the Chesapeake Bay — from Baltimore to Annapolis, from Annapolis to St. Michaels and other points — will provide an excellent boost for regional tourism. But, far more than that, it should be part of a long-term plan to reduce traffic on the bay bridges and instill an enduring public transit ethic in a new generation of Marylanders.

Current estimates for a third bay bridge — the painful idea of former Gov. Larry “The Road Warrior” Hogan — run as high as $9 billion. No one knows what the final cost will be if that bridge is ever built.

One way to reduce traffic congestion at the Sandy Point-Kent Island pinch point — where the two bridges currently stand and the third is being proposed — is to provide the public with several alternative crossings.

The study just released by a five-county tourism consortium shows ferry routes to points on the Eastern Shore, such as Cambridge, Crisfield, Oxford and Easton.

The idea is to get more Marylanders to visit those towns without having to drive there.

All good. The state should get behind that plan.

But it should go much further.

The bay needs a transportation master plan that includes electric-powered ferries — not as a novelty, but as part of sustainable infrastructure.

Imagine this: You live in Fallston, Harford County, and you want to go to Ocean City for a week. You dread the drive — either to the bay bridge 50 miles away or north to Delaware, then south to Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City. Maybe you have kids. Maybe they’d like to take a ride on a boat. So you drive 25 miles to Sparrows Point and park on a ferry that delivers you and your family to Kent Island. You burn less gas. You avoid some wear-and-tear on your brain. Your kids have a little thrill, and they see that there’s another way to get across the water besides the big, scary bridge.

And they think it’s absolutely cool that the ferry runs on electricity.

A ferry from Sparrows Point, in Baltimore County, or Port Covington, in Baltimore, would be even more convenient for city dwellers or families driving from points west — from Reisterstown or Sykesville, from Howard County or Frederick County.

If Ocean City isn’t your destination, you could spend part of a day in Rock Hall or Annapolis, and you wouldn’t need your car.

As for people who commute daily on the bay bridges, why not a ferry from Kent Island to Annapolis or Baltimore?

A system of ferries across and up and down the bay — “Hey, let’s take our bikes to St. Mary’s City for a day!” — would boost business for bars and restaurants (some of them established because of the ferries), bring more visitors to events like the Crisfield Heritage Festival or Oxford Day, and generally get people who presently have no access to boats on the water.

It will inspire a greater appreciation of the bay.

It will prompt the state and municipalities to provide more reliable ground transportation — shuttle buses, scooters, bikes, rickshaws.

Of course, this won’t be for everybody.

There are people who want no transportation other than the one parked in their driveway. I have heard from them — such kvetchers and doomers — ever since I first suggested that a fleet of electric-powered ferries, like those in operation in Europe, be used to take pressure off the bridges.

These are the same people who hate public transportation without ever having used it. Or maybe they tried Light Rail to get to an Orioles game, experienced a delay or other problem, and decided they’d never use it again.

Many of the people who sneer at public transportation think the climate crisis is a bunch of hooey and support Donald “Fossil Fuels Forever” Trump. They’re stuck in the 20th century.

Hey, if you don’t like electric cars, don’t buy one.

If you don’t like solar panels, don’t install them.

If you don’t like electric ferries, don’t use them.

The rest of us should support big-picture politicians who recognize the climate threat and legislate for a greener future that includes more environmentally friendly transportation options.

It will take some doing, even for tree huggers. All of us are, to some extent, spoiled; we expect to go everywhere by car and for there to be ample parking when we arrive. Part of that comes from our resignation that mass transit will forever be limited and unable to meet our needs.

That explains some of the great unsettledness or malaise among Americans, a sense that we’re stuck, running in place. We need moon-shot ambitions to keep us believing that we have the power to fix things, that we’re not doomed.

That’s exactly why I suggest the Great Chesapeake Bay Ferry Revival — yes, before the bridges, we had ferries — as a part of an important push to instill higher expectations for public transportation, especially among kids and future kids. They have the most to lose if we don’t do everything humanly possible to reduce carbon emissions.

Looks like I have allies. The study for the ferry consortium included a survey of people from 15 Maryland communities. Nearly 70% had “a high level of interest” in a Chesapeake ferry system, and 50% said “they would be more interested in the service if it was provided by an electric ferry.” That’s a great starting point for a potentially great project.