This Feb. 3 article from DNAInfo.com details New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recently announced plans to expand ferry service around the city over the course of the next several years.

The new routes the city will introduce will include Astoria, Southern Brooklyn, the Lower East Side, Soundview-Bronx and Rockaway Beach. Some of the new routes are expected to begin service in 2017 while the remaining routes are expected to begin service the following year.

In 2013, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) contracted Econsult Solutions (ESI) to conduct a citywide ferry study to assess the real estate, development, direct user, economic and transit system benefits attributable to the city’s ferry system.

The study found that ferry service increased home values within certain ranges close to ferry stops and that new residential units within 1/4 of a mile to service increased in both number and size. It also found positive effects on worker accessibility and limiting overcrowding on the city’s other transit systems.

To read ESI’s New York citywide ferry study, click here.

To read the DNAInfo article on New York’s expanding ferry service, click here.