Blaming the tourists

The headline story in today's Staten Island Advance is entitled, " Blame it on the Tourists". In it the local Department of Transportation is blaming the tourists who stay behind taking photographs of the Manhattan skyline or of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge with a dramatic 3 point fall in the on time performance rate of  Staten Island Ferry service, now at an all time low of 87.8% in fiscal year 2013.  In the article, the writer refers to "Clueless tourists" as the major culprits in this performance down turn.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation stated, "The No. 1 cause of late ferry trips remains the consistently large number of tourists who attempt to remain aboard the boats to make the return trip, taking significant crew time to clear the vessel, as required by Coast Guard regulations."

Now, being a sort-of frequent ferry user, I will admit that I have seen an upsurge in the number of  tourists riding the boats...after all a ferry ride is free to anyone who boards. And I will say the proliferation of digital cameras, and I-phone and I-pad camera apps, has lead to many more people jockeying for spots to take good shots of the Statue of Liberty and Governor's Island.  And then there are locals who also snap an occasional photo of interesting boats going in and out of the harbor. This all adds to a photo-mania that is fast becoming a ship board phenomenon.

But it seems unfair to single out out-of-towners for  the less than stellar on-time performance of the boats.

There are announcements made prior to the landing of the boat that all must disembark.  This is a Coast Guard regulation and since 9-11 this rule has been followed pretty closely...and that is a good thing.  But methinks the Department of Transportation is its own worst enemy, and has an easy to do fix. 

There is a very simple solution: make the announcement in a few other languages! What do you think, guys?  Unless all of your deck hands are multilingual...which I doubt, it would just make good sense to have a recorded announcement in say, oh, I don't know: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Mandarin and Japanese? Or at the very least, post a sign in these languages at several places on the ferries and in the terminals explaining the boarding and disembarking routines.

I am sure there will be outcries from xenophobic locals who demand that everything be in English, but if we really want to make the ferries and Staten Island more "tourist friendly", small gestures like these can go along way.