Leadership in Portland: Support Frog Ferry
With federal funds available, proposed Frog Ferry water taxi on the Willamette is a way to address the climate crisis and reactivate downtown Portland
Civic leaders in Oregon and Portland are facing numerous seemingly existential crises all at once. With the post-pandemic work-from-home paradigm, many employees have found it more comfortable to skip the commute and the associated slog of sitting in traffic, leaving central business districts unactivated, desolate, and unsafe. The effects of the national crises of homelessness and addiction have hurt tourism and civic morale. Elected officials and policy makers are confronted with the need to address the climate emergency, a polluting and inequitable legacy transportation system, and help downtown businesses economically recover — and do so with limited budgets. It is a seemingly insurmountable assignment, but one proposed project would be able to help make it much easier. That’s Frog Ferry.
It’s understandable at first-glance to be skeptical of the proposal put forth by Frog Ferry, a non-profit organization with the vision of a passenger ferry (aka water taxi) on the Willamette River. The last decade of transportation lobbying has largely consisted of pitches from unproven tech startups and bids for status-quo highway expansions. But where these other (almost uniformly profit-driven) endeavors ultimately fall flat because of a lack of appreciation for technical detail, Frog Ferry has delivered comprehensive studies that show the cost effectiveness and feasibility of a green public ferry operation. Its team of marine-transportation experts and community leaders bring a well-researched plan to provide Portland with reliable, frequent, and fast transit using its greatest natural resource: our waterways.
Even still, why a ferry? Like other river cities such as Brisbane, London, Boston, and Seattle have discovered, the answer is that water transportation brings advantages that land-based mobility can’t.
For workers that continue to travel to job centers, private vehicles remain the preferred transportation mode, despite record traffic fatalities, unprecedented climate catastrophes, and the cost of car ownership. As a result, transportation planners are left with the difficult task of trying to expand and modernize transit systems, but are increasingly faced with tightening budgets; enormous capital construction costs; and highly-complex environmental reviews and public engagement processes.
St. John’s for example, a proposed stop on Frog Ferry’s route, is served by several bus lines, but most take nearly an hour to reach the region’s entertainment, employment, and transportation hubs. Even if TriMet were to improve bus service to “enhanced-transit” standards (like the newly minted FX-2 bus line), transit time reductions would only amount to 10%-15%.
In contrast, Phase I of the Frog Ferry rollout can be operational in under two years. It would make the trip in 25 minutes, is impervious to roadway traffic congestion, requires almost no infrastructure, and needs only a pittance of municipal dollars to prove its effectiveness for a more full-scale implementation. All told, the needed dock enhancements, a vessel, and a year of operations will only cost $12 million – with up to 80% coming from federal funds. That’s while most transit projects cost in the billions – with a “B.”
Yet critical support for Frog Ferry runs into a remaining hurdle: the question of why now? In a city dealing with a very visible homelessness crisis, one of the slowest downtown pandemic-recoveries, and a budget crunch inside the city’s transportation agency, why should a new ferry be the recipient of civic support? Can we really afford this?
A better question might be: can we afford not to? The years of research, community outreach, and planning has largely been completed. The vast majority of what it would take to establish the first phase of ferry service, between the RiverPlace in Downtown and Cathedral Park in St. John’s, requires very little investment on the part of the city, but stands to yield a massive return.
Once-in-a-generation ferry transit dollars have been made available by the U.S. government through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and now is the time to act for our region to make use of those funds – or lose out. Only a small contribution is needed from Portland to acquire the federally required municipal match, and it can be nearly entirely achieved by the City merely allowing the ferry to use already existing docks that it owns. Extensive proforma from Frog Ferry indicate that the majority of operational costs would be covered by a $3.50 fare for passengers. The remainder of costs could be covered from subsidies derived not from beleaguered transit funding mechanisms, but rather the infamously overly-flush Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), the voter approved business surcharge that provides for green infrastructure development.
Where Portland was once on the vanguard of progressive and green transportation, we are now more well-known for poor air quality, traffic, and crime. It will take proactive engagement to get us back on track. While it may be hard to imagine a ferry service on the Willamette, it was once difficult to imagine the wild success of the Aerial Tram, now one of the most beloved icons of the city.
The current crisis requires decisive action to reactivate downtown, provide climate-minded transportation options for underserved and diverse North Portlanders, and allow residents to reconnect with the river. This isn't just about transit–it's about climate action, economic development, resilience planning, environmental justice, and activating our waterfronts.
Frog Ferry needs true partnership with the City in order to apply for federal dollars. In the immediate, that means City Council voting to include it on Metro’s Constrained Project List in the Regional Transportation Plan, which must be done by October 11th. Longer term, it means our leaders need to ensure that classic Portland interagency red tape doesn’t needlessly hinder forward progress. We deserve reliable, fast, and fun transportation methods to support our existing infrastructure. Frog Ferry will provide just that.
The opportunity to provide an affordable, car-free transit service along our beloved river while also boosting tourism is the exact type of boon Portland needs now more than ever. We call on Mayor Wheeler; Commissioners Rubio, Gonzales, Ryan, and Mapps; and all those considering a run for City Council to support Frog Ferry to support the organization to move forward in the implementation process.
This op-ed was written by Xavier D. Stickler, chair of the Land-Use & Transportation Committee of the Downtown Neighborhood Association. It speaks for the Downtown and St. John’s Neighborhood Associations of Portland.