I’d like to compliment reader Greg Flakus on his excellent idea, expressed in “How about a ferry for waterfront?” (June 11, Our Readers’ Views).
Indeed, this might help mitigate the problem of the congestion blighting the Vancouver-Portland commute. Big cities abroad like London already use public transportation by water using conventional riverboats. The Russians have shown more advanced transport using hydrofoils, though these have the disadvantage of their high wakes. A hydrofoil service would be faster than the current commute by car and have the added advantage of no additional parking problems, if the terminals in Vancouver and Portland had good connections with public transportation on land. Commuters could exchange their current parking fees for the premium rates for the hydrofoil and still come out ahead.
Where is the entrepreneur who would realize this idea?
