The San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority (WTA) has a colorful new logo 

Charlene Johnson interview

Well, actually I have been the President for over a year, but I have been the President with money for only about 7 or 8 months. That’s because our budget was vetoed in June of last year and we only reacquired our right to the $12 million appropriation at the end of last year. In answer to your question, it has been a substantial amount of work to get the Authority going and, yes, it was more than I bargained for.

You must remember that we didn’t have anything at the beginning, neither an office, pencils nor computers. We had to create the Authority from thin air; we had no history and no old employees to rely on. But we have come a long way from the first couple of Board meetings for which I actually typed and mailed the agendas to the people who were supposed to receive them. Now, of course, we have a wonderful staff and thanks to them I don’t have to do that type of work anymore.

Well, that’s a good question. I guess part of it is that I have an interest in the Bay and I have an interest in public policy and especially in transportation issues. I am a commuter and I am interested in finding some solutions to our Bay Area traffic problems. Traffic is a mess and traffic problems are affecting our quality of life and productivity of our businesses. I am a commuter and, like everyone else, I want to make my commute to work a little easier and make other people’s a little easier as well.

By taking people out of their cars and providing reliable ferry service, ferries offer one way to help solve the traffic problem. The Golden Gate Bridge District ferries prove this. If all Marin ferry commuters started driving to work, they would fill up an entire lane on the Golden Gate Bridge. Right now, the Bay is an under-utilized transportation resource. Look at how effectively other cities like Sydney, Seattle and New York use their waterways.

Part of my attraction to the Bay and to water transit has something to do with me being a Navy brat. My father was stationed in San Francisco for the last part of his military career and was involved in patrolling the Bay during the Second World War.

I think the Authority is definitely on the right side. We are committed to doing what the State of California has asked us to do: deliver an environmentally sound ferry system.

This is a very exciting time in the ferry industry. The industry is at the brink of developing the next generation of ferries. The WTA will study cleaner fuels like biodiesel. This fuel is made out of soybean oil and is already being used for road vehicles. Who would have imagined that the U. S. Postal service in San Francisco would start using this fuel for its fleet? We will look at any technology that can reduce air and water emissions because good air and water quality is important for our passengers, crew and all of us who life here.

We will get good information on the level of ferry emissions in the Bay. There’s been a lot of rhetoric and misinformation about pollution from ferries. The rhetoric is good because it called attention to this problem and generated State dollars for our studies. On the other hand, I really have a distaste for bad information and believe that it must be corrected.

The reality is that there has not been any testing of emissions from a ferry actually operating on San Francisco Bay. We don’t have good answers to this air and water emissions question. This is where the WTA’s studies will fill a huge information void. This fall, the WTA’s consultants will start testing emissions from ferries operating daily commute runs in the Bay.

These tests are highly sophisticated and technical and way over my head.

They will produce critical information to plan the next fleet of ferries for the Bay and in other parts of the country. The Federal government is watching this closely because our studies will be used to set emissions standards for ferries in the future. I am happy the Legislature gave us the money to conduct these studies because most of the Bay Area agencies operating ferry service don’t have extra money to fund them.

So I think we are on the right side of the environmental issue and we are certainly working with the environmental community to keep ourselves on the right side of the issue.

Not necessarily. I am optimistic that if our plan is put together correctly and with broad local support, the WTA will be able to tap into new transportation dollars to pay for the creation of the ferry system. It is important to note, however, that we are planning a public transit system. We will be in competition with other transportation providers for dollars. We have to show that new water transit routes will be cost effective and not duplicative of other public transit routes. We will have to justify each new route and terminal.

The Blue Ribbon Task Force provided us with a good starting point. Their work is what caused the legislation, which created the Water Transit Authority and the Governor’s support of it. But now we are moving into a new chapter. We have to be realistic about the fact that we will be in line with other transit systems that need lots of dollars too.

There will be an initiative on the March 2002 ballot, which will re-dedicate sales tax on fuel to be used exclusively for transportation. This, along with the possibility of increasing bridge tolls around the Bay, represent potential sources of funding for the ferry plan. We will have a stake in both of these new sources of funds from which we can fund new ferry routes and boats.

Obviously, we don’t know what is going to happen in the economy in the years ahead, but I feel and I think a lot of other people feel that it will rebound and I think the energy crisis is in the process of being solved right now. So again, I think that if our plan is good, with broad based public support it will be accepted and funded by the Legislature.