A man who ferries schoolchildren between their homes on Smith Island and their classes in the Eastern Shore town of Crisfield has been charged with operating the vessel while drunk.

According to the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the 60-foot school boat Wednesday while the operating was taking five chidren to the island. The department said the operator tested positive for alcohol use and was detained until a DNR police officer arrived to arrest him and to take the children home.

Alan Wade Tyler, 49, of Smith Island was charged with operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol, operating a vessel while impaired by alcohol, operating a vessel while impaired by any drug or combination of drugs and alcohol and negligent operation of a vessel.

The department said the Coast Guard has temporarily suspended the operator’s license and will begin administrative disciplinary proceedings.

 “We take violations affecting passengers, especially children, very seriously,” said Cmdr. Kelly M. Post, chief of prevention at the Coast Guard’s Sector Baltimore.“I have initiated a detailed investigation and will take the appropriate measures to prevent and deter violations like this in the future.”

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Sun photo/Michael Dresser                     

Jamie Kendrick, deputy director of Baltimore's Department of Transportation, passed along some figures showing that the city's commuter water taxi service between Locust Point and Fells Point has been building up some more-than-respectable numbers.

Kendrick said the city's goal for the service was to have 75 boardings a day until it could supplement the service with a land-side shuttle, with the expectation that would grow to 150 once that service was in place. But Kendrick said that even without the shuttle, the weekday water taxi is getting more than 150 boardings a day.

The city inaugurated the service in early May. Ridership figures provided by the contractor, Harbor Boating Inc., show that the service has regularly exceeded 800 boardings a week since late June. One day in July, it reported an astonishing 327 boardings for the less-than-five-minute crossing between Fells Point and Tide Point.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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The Dixon administration scored a coup this week when it scored a federal grant to expand its pilot commuter water taxi  that now serves Fells Point and Locust Point to Canton.

It's a great idea on some levels. The Locust Point peninsula presents a difficult challenge for surface mass transit. The population isn't sufficient to sustain a rail transit line, and the No. 1 bus  line doesn't have the ridership to secure frequent bus service. Except for the caveats mentioned below, water is the most efficient way to get people to  and  from there to East Baltimore.

But I'm not sure it's a good idea to make it free. You see, free isn't really free. It's fully subsidized. The money has to come from somewhere. But once you call something free, people expect it to remain so and become mightily offended when -- inevitably -- the 100 percent  subsidy is withdrawn. Consider what happened when the Maryland Transportation Authority stopped fully subsidizing people's E-ZPass accounts. Many subscribers reacted as if their first-born child had been confiscated. Perks quickly become viewed as entitlements.

It would put the water taxi on a plane of greater equivalency with other forms of mass transit if the city charged a modest fare once the service expands. It wouldn't have to be a 100 percent recovery of costs. We don't ask any form to  mass transit to do that. But a modest fare -- say $1 to Fells Point and $2 to Canton  -- establishes that the city is providing people with something of real value. It also seems a little unseemly to be providing this service to relatively affluent neighborhoods free when  residents of poorer areas pay $1.60 for a bus ride.

A point for users of the service: Once you pay a fare, you've earned the right to complain. As long as it's free, it's hard to  work up much sympathy with any gripes that  may arise.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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Baltimore's new -- and soon-to-be-expanded -- water taxi service for commuters is a very attractive idea in many respects. I rode it from Fells Point to Locust Point Tuesday evening and it was a perfect crossing that too less than five minutes each way. This fall it is expected to start offering an eight-minute passage between Locust Point and Canton.

 But reader Mark Adams introduced a note of reality in an email. He wrote: "The late Ed Kane used to tell me that he NEVER wanted to have commuter service because of the problems that come when you deliver someone to work in the morning and can't take them home in the evening because of a thunderstorm."

Mr. Adams, channeling the late water taxi entrepreneur, makes a great point. Tuesday evening might have been a perfect day for a crossing, but there will be many imperfect days. The city, the water taxi and the commuters themselves must all understand that safety trumps schedule and convenience on every occasion. The fact that a rider gets a free, convenient trip to Locust Point in the morning doesn't mean that person is entitled to a ride back that evening. If storms are in the area, the boats must not leave the dock. There can never be another Lady D incident in Baltimore harbor.

Continue reading "Water taxi service requires honest disclosure" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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The mystery of that $1.59 million federal stimulus grant for a Baltimore ferry project has been solved. It's actually going to pay for an expansion of the city's commuter water taxi service.

Since May, Baltimore has been offering a free commuter service from Fells Point to Locust Point. According to Jamie Kendrick, the deputy director of the Baltimore Transportation Department, the grant money will allow the city to buy three new boats and add a second route from Canton to Locust Point.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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The Federal Highway Administration just announced a $1.6 million award for a ferry project in Baltimore called the Inner Harbor Connector.  This project hasn't been on my radar at all, so any information anyone wants to share would be appreciated.

It's part of a distribution on $60 million in federal stimulus funds for ferry projects around the country, announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. According to the department, the Maryland  grant will go toward pier improvements and purchase of a new ferry.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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