Focus on ferries

N.C. 12 is out again, and it looks like this will be a continuing phenomenon. It’s a state responsibility to provide transportation routes for our residents to their homes, but constantly rebuilding N.C. 12 may not be the most cost-effective answer. How about leaving N.C. 12 to the ocean (as if we could really save it) and instituting an extended ferry service? Free to residents with priority boarding, at break-even cost to tourists on an as-available basis, and allow private ferry competitors to compete for the rest of the traffic setting their own, market-driven fee schedule. Everybody wins.

Fred Gerkens

Chapel Hill