But Then Who Would Ride The Ferry?

The Advance reports that the City Independent Budget Office is investigating the idea of charging tourists to ride the Staten Island Ferry:

When you board the Staten Island Ferry, can you tell who’s a Staten Islander and who’s a tourist?

Chances are you can, but how can you program a ferry turnstile that will allow Donna from Dongan Hills to breeze through the gates for free — while charging Bernard from Belgium two bucks for the privilege?

With millions of tourists riding the ferry each year without paying a cent, the city Independent Budget Office now says it will look into how a tourist fare might be collected — and whether it would be worth the effort.

. . .

But the question of how to distinguish residents from tourists has dogged planners ever since the 50-cent round-trip ferry fare was repealed in 1997. Oddo said the technology employed in MetroCards and the new “contact-less” fare collection proposed for subways suggests solutions.

One fare-collection possibility is “smart cards” that could be issued to residents, while non-residents would have to purchase tickets or fare cards, like MetroCards, at Whitehall.

Remaining for policy planners would be the question of how to distribute the free cards to residents. Would cards be handed out free at St. George and then used to return free at Whitehall, where tourists would be charged? Would Islanders have to prove residency and register by mail, as with E-ZPass? What happens if you forget or lose your card?

And how would the city define who is a “resident”? Does that include Staten Islanders only? Anyone in the five boroughs? What about commuters from New Jersey and Long Island who occasionally use the ferry to visit family in the borough?

The turnstile gates, meanwhile, are not equipped with arms to stop passengers or accommodate cards and would have to be retrofitted or replaced, potentially cutting into the fare collection’s bottom line.

And with city estimates of anywhere between two and six million tourists annually, even a $2 fare per passenger wouldn’t equal the overtime alone paid to ferry workers last year.