When Woodstock, the free water shuttle taxi between Oakland's Jack London Square and Bohol Immigrant Circle in Alameda, launched in July of 2024, it was only funded for two years. This week, the city of Alameda announced that it had secured funding for at least another nineteen months of service.
From Alameda's release:
Since we launched the water shuttle service over 1.5 years ago, we've found both operational efficiencies and new funding resulting in an 84% increase in weekly departures, from 187 to 345 trips, and we've seen increases in our average daily ridership. Thanks for riding with us!
Even though the boat has become essential for non-car-based transportation between Oakland and Western Alameda, its continued funding by the county is pegged to the Oakland-Alameda Access Project (OAAP), another Caltrans freeway ramp capacity project. "The 19 months is how long we think there will be an impact to Alameda from the OAAP," explained Alameda's Sarah Henry. "In 2027 we expect the Posey Tube to be reduced to a single lane, so having Woodstock in place is very important."
Streetsblog can only hope some day the state's transportation agencies will stop treating bikes, ferries, transit, etc. as something to receive a sliver of funding as "mitigation" for bloated car projects—as a box to tick to get project approval. Instead, boondoggles such as the OAAP should simply be cancelled and the money diverted to sustainable transportation modes. In other words, the "mitigation" should be the project.
Also announced this week: on March 10, the service will do its regular seasonal adjustment, with more service into the evening. The new schedule can be found here.
