Since the 60-car capacity Bowen Queen has been running between Snug Cove and Horseshoe Bay, overloads to start at 7:30 am and wrap-up by 10:30, says flagger and de-facto ferry marshall Jewal Maxwell. She adds that a ferry running early if not on-time seems to be leading to extra chaos and confusion in the line-up.
“It’s the worst for the 7:30 ferry,” she says. “Everyone’s rushing, people aren’t even in their cars when the loading begins and they’re running through moving traffic. I see parents dropping off their kids right in the middle of ferry traffic because they are stuck waiting to turn left on Cardena Rd. On top of everything else, everyone is wearing black.”
She adds that drivers still seem to be confused about how the two-lane “zipper” on the hill works.
“People are supposed to go into the shortest lane, they’re starting to get that,” she says. “But somehow, the inside lane still seems to move more quickly. When people get overloaded and are parked closer to the ferry line up, they get out of their cars and yell about it. They even complain about their friends getting ahead of them.”
Maxwell says that she is accustomed to people’s short tempers in the ferry line-up, and that most Islanders express a great deal of generosity.
“People tell me they feel safer knowing someone is there to enforce the rules,” she says. “And so many people offer to buy me coffee.”
While she appreciates these offers, Maxwell says she doesn’t drink coffee and buys her own lunch.
