Council Legislation

Ordinance No. 2015-77

Title: An Ordinance of the Pierce County Council Adopting a New Ferry Fare Schedule by Amending Chapter 10.38 of the Pierce County Code, "Ferry Fares"; and Setting an Effective Date.

Effective: January 1, 2016

Status: Passed

Sponsors: Councilmembers Douglas G. Richardson

Final votes

November 10, 2015
Aye Aye Aye Aye Aye Aye Aye


Documents
Additional legislative records are available below Collapse All  Expand All
 

Public Comments

Name Date Comment
Ann Dasch 11/4/15 11:15 AM RE: Proposed Ordinance 2015-77. Mine was one of many working families that moved to Anderson Island between 1990 and 2005, when you had rapidly growing ferry ridership and fare revenue, and rising island property values. A decade later, the vast majority of island houses are vacation and retirement homes. You charge their owners under $1000/year to access their homes. In 2014, with 2 part-time workers and 2 students commuting, my family used over 700 ferry tickets costing over $5000. The 2015 Waterborne Transportation Study cites affordability as the major barrier to growth of commuter households. But you set the fares that determine affordability. Since 2001, you lowered fares paid by vehicles between 18 and 21’ feet long. You’ve given other car fares half the percentage increase you gave youth and multi-ride passenger fares. You charge $612/year for a kid walking on for school. People walking on 5 days/week pay over $1000/year (about $200 more than Pierce Transit unlimited adult passes). In 2001, a five-ride passenger pass cost $9.20 less than a trip in a 20’ truck. Now that pass costs $6.96 more than that truck driver’s commute. Most ferry trips are taken in cars now. You added runs and built a bigger backup boat to carry them, dramatically increasing O&M expenses. After fare restructuring, the migration of families reversed. Ridership dropped. By Census 2010, half of island houses were vacant or used occasionally. In 2014, island property values continued to drop while the rest of the county rebounded. Among island residents, 65% are NOT in the labor force, compared to 34% of Pierce County residents. Can any isolated community thrive with so few workers? It takes 50 lightly used vacation homes to generate $5,000/year in fares. But they cost more to serve. Vacation trips are concentrated on a dozen summer weekends and holidays, requiring extra runs and staff. Those 50 homes also use more resources like land, internet service, and fire and sheriff protection. The island’s infrastructure is limited (e.g. internet, septic systems, wells), so housing growth will eventually stall. How will you keep up with inflation then? You need to grow the percentage of commuters by restoring passenger discounts and extending weekday hours to make commuting doable again. Retirees and vacationers don’t ride enough to pay thousands per year. Households like mine do, but there’s a limit to how much we’ll pay. The Study shows you passed that limit. The Study recommends changes to restore affordability for commuters and reduce car traffic, including restoring half price youth fares, a cheaper pass for walk-on commuters, and an account-based system to reward high ridership households. But those changes aren’t in this fare plan, largely because Public Works failed to replace ticketing technology that was obsolete in 2012. That was their excuse in 2013, too. But you can lower youth and multi-ride passenger fares with the technology we have now. Don’t assume lowering those fares will reduce revenue. Businesses offer discounts for kids and bulk incentives all the time because they increase profits. Public policy drives private choices. There are affordable homes on the island and your policies affect who buys them, if anyone. My family would save over $700/year commuting from Vashon instead, and their last ferry leaves Point Defiance at 10:30 p.m. on weekdays, not 7:30. But we love our community, and I don’t want bad policies to force my family to move, too. Losing working families harms the community and reduces your fare revenue. That’s why islanders have been advocating for a restoration of those deep passenger discounts since 2008. The Study shows you how to fix this longstanding problem. This fare plan does not do it. Every year you wait is another year of low real estate values and low ridership. P.S. There are other barriers for commuters. Delayed runs are increasingly common, lengthening already long commutes. Delays are caused by increasing train traffic, heavy vehicle loads, and loading procedure changes – there just isn’t enough time, especially between afternoon departures (when most tickets are scanned). Also, since the recession, many companies demand their workers be available for variable shifts but your weekday service hours don’t allow for a variable work schedule (or even traffic jams!). Could you do your jobs and consistently catch the 7:30 pm ferry in Steilacoom every Monday through Wednesday? Would you move somewhere knowing you’d couldn’t get there several nights a month? Our farebox percentage is similar to other NW islands’ but I know you’d like to improve it. I suggest you reduce spending. Both Skagit and Whatcom County Ferries serve similar communities with longer service hours for under $2.5M/year, so it can be done. We average 21 vehicles per run on boats with a 54 car capacity and the passenger deck is less than 20% full! You could easily meet demand and cover our current service hours with fewer runs per week (especially Oct - Apr) and improve reliability and reduce fuel costs. We wouldn’t need any extra ferry runs at 11 a.m. on busy weekends if you just move the little used 8/8:30 a.m. run to that higher demand time every weekend. You would reduce cars left behind – at no additional cost. Instead, Deb Wallace is pushing expensive two-boat summer service while ignoring islanders’, the school district’s, and the Study’s calls for longer weekday hours.