What happen to the ferries

From the book Ecocities;

It's hard to imagine how chummy the world must have seemed back before the building of the Bay Bridge ... Transportation was a social occasion; Americans, in contrast to more reticent Europeans, were notorious for chatting up with strangers on boats and trains. Both the Red Trains and Key System had a commuting ridership that was so regular that commuter clubs formed on the San Francisco-bound ferries. Some commuter clubs held on-board parties as often as once a month and just about every club gave a Christmas party on the morning of the last working day before Christmas. The car by contrast, is the world's most antisocial invention. People are at their worst in cars - I know I am ... If the metaphor of the train is "We're all in this together", the metto of the car is "Me first."

by Dashka Slater in East Bay Express, mid-1990's,