From the SFist tipline comes a seemingly improbable tip that the Water Emergency Transit Authority (neé Water Transit Authority) is considering using hovercraft in place of traditional ferries along routes in the Bay Area. Confirmation from WETA Manager of Public Affairs, Leamon Abrams via email reveals that the Authority is indeed "evaluating the feasibility of utilizing hovercraft" on the proposed Hercules-San Francisco ferry route as they work to add seven new routes and triple ferry patronage by 2025.

Hercules, it seems, has a particularly sandy shoreline that could pose challenges to dredging efforts, meaning it's probably easier to just ignore all that and just drive ferries right up on the beach. While the idea of zipping around the Bay on a floating bag of air is actually kind of appealing in a The-Future-via-the-1960's sort of way, we're not really sure this bodes well for patio umbrellas around the Ferry Terminal. On the other hand, Abrams did imply that the agency wouldn't be evaluating the possibility if not for new advances in hovercraft design, which hopefully means these things aren't as noisy as the hovercraft we've seen in the movies.