If you have ever driven on I-45 outside Houston, paid a toll to cross a bridge within your own city, or seen your Metro fare increase for the umpteenth time, the Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry sounds positively apocryphal. No fare gate, no app, no "peak pricing." You can simply drive on, ride 2.7 miles across Bolivar Roads and drive off, free of charge, every 20 minutes or so, at 3 a.m. or during a Category 2 storm.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, the ferry has run toll-free since 1950 and carries about 1.57 million vehicles a year on an 18-minute crossing, 24 hours a day in most weather conditions. In a country in which almost every bridge, tunnel, subway swipe, or highway seems to be priced, that's not some charming local oddity, but a pointed contrast.
