[wristmittens]

Outside of San Francisco, a lot of the bay shoreline is not much more than acres of foot-deep mud and salt flats.

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/18651.shtml

Sierra Point, Coyote Point, Redwood City are the only current viable ports along the south. Creating new ports for a ferry system would involve a lot of dredging in addition to the infrastructure construction, which is not only costly but severely impacts the already damaged wetlands that line the bay.

[danans]

I wonder if hovercraft might be an option that wouldn't require the dredging. I.e. https://www.hovertravel.co.uk/

EDIT: I guess it's been considered before in 2011 [1] But it appears that the hovercraft themselves were more expensive and carried half as many people. But compared to the cost of dredging for ferries, maybe it's still cheaper?

1. https://www.mercurynews.com/2011/11/01/east-bay-looks-to-hov...

[mmt]

> But compared to the cost of dredging for ferries, maybe it's still cheaper?

I think the point is that it doesn't matter, if it's simply not cheap enough.

The shallowness of the estuarial coastline significantly drives up the cost (be it with dredging or more exotic technologies like hovercraft), and that's the (short) answer to why we don't have more ferry service.

[wffurr]

Hovercraft or fan boats. Something with skis that can go on mud.