San Mateo County Harbor DistrictCandidato para Commissioner4 Year Term

Shawn Mooney - Harbor Commission - Candidate Statement

Occupation: Property Tax Auditor/Advocate for South Bay Ferry Service

Primary Goal:  Bay Ferry Terminal at San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (Werder Pier)

Werder Pier is an existing, abandoned fishing pier that extends from Foster City into the deep water shipping channel beneath the high-rise section of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, and is owned by the County of San Mateo.

There are existing plans to expand San Francisco Bay ferry service to Redwood City, and this proposed south bay ferry service does not include ferry service to Werder Pier, thus bi-passing the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge location by a mere 100 feet. This makes absolutely no sense.

Currently, the cities neighboring the 92/101 corridor, including Foster City, San Mateo, Belmont, Redwood Shores, San Carlos and Burlingame,  are not represented on the San Mateo County Harbor Commission.

My primary goal as an elected San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner to ensure the incorporation of Werder Pier into the south bay ferry service expansion planning to mitigate the horrendous and worsening traffic gridlock on 92/101, and to lighten the overall commuter load on bay area roads and highways by taking cars off the street.

A Foster City Ferry terminal will help the proposed Redwood City terminal project meet their minimum ridership requirements, and thereby increase the likelihood that the San Francisco Water Transportation Authority will implement this sorely needed service to our community.

I am committed to reducing vehicle congestion and I ask for your vote.

Thank you.

Shawn Mooney (San Mateo)

Endorsements:

NORTH PENINSULA DEMOCRATIC CLUB

SAN MATEO COUNTY LABOR COUNCIL

In addition to the necessity of reducing horrendous traffic congestion on the peninsula, Ferry Service at the San Mateo/Hayward Bridge in Foster City is vitally needed as an emergency evacuation corridor in the event of a cataclysmic earthquake or other unforeseen disaster event.

Foster City currently has no emergency evacuation plan for pedestrians during a disaster event as specifically identified in Foster City’s “Local Hazarded Mitigation Plan” whereby violent shaking from an earthquake can cause soil liquid faction whereby city streets will not be available for first responders providing emergency evacuation and rescue services. Therefore, the only option is a bay rescue and evacuation by use of bay ferry boats.

The State’s Office of Emergency Services can only provide an effective rescue and mass evacuation by use of ferry boats, therefore without a Foster City ferry terminal the rescue and evacuation of thousands of stranded pedestrians may be limited to only a few survivors.

The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) was created after the Katrina Disaster, whereby the State realized the Bay Area was vulnerable to a similar disaster and rising sea elevations.

WETA is partially funded by Regional Measure 2, passed in 2004, whereby a dollar toll increase was added for every vehicle crossing bay area bridges including the Dumbarton Bridge and the San Mateo/Hayward Bridge.

Vehicles crossing the south bay bridges have been paying into WETA ferry services for over a decade, without any benefits in the form of south bay ferry service. WETA, ferry boat service provides both emergency transportation and vehicle traffic relief to bottlenecked areas like 92/101.

Ferry boat service is desperately needed in the recovery after a regional disaster. We all remember the 1989 earthquake that caused the SF Bay Bridge collapse. Repairing the bridge took years and caused daily traffic grid lock for many years after the disaster as the San Mateo/Hayward Bridge became the primary bridge connecting San Francisco and the Peninsula to the East Bay.

In other words, in a blink of an eye the traffic load on the San Mateo/Hayward Bridge more than doubled, causing a traffic nightmare that lasted years after the disaster occurred. This traffic nightmare will likely cause a secondary regional economic disaster, as working commuters fail to get to work.

South bay ferry service to both Foster City and Redwood City is critical to the recovery after a disaster by protecting the bay area economic steam engine in Silicon Valley by providing an alternative way for commuters to get to work after a disaster.

WETA’s proposed expansion of bay ferry service to Redwood City has been stalled for over a decade by low ridership projections; however, by combining Foster City ferry boat ridership with Redwood City’s projected ridership, the WETA minimum ridership standards will be met, thereby justifying WETA to implementing this crucial ferry service. Currently WETA projected ridership models to Redwood City shows minimus ridership will not be achieved before 2035.