Car-Free on Puget Sound, Washington State Ferries

Washington State Ferries produced this folded promotional brochure urging passengers to ride the Puget Sound routes on foot or by bicycle, skipping the car surcharge entirely. The back panel makes the case in practical terms: cyclists board first, disembark first, and find "miles of rural roadways to explore" at every destination. Readers were invited to write to the WSDOT Public Affairs Office in Olympia for a free companion bicycle map — suggesting a coordinated campaign, not a one-off print.

Washington State Ferries is the largest ferry system in the United States by number of vessels. The state absorbed the routes from Puget Sound Navigation Company — known as the Black Ball Line — in 1951, after a prolonged labor dispute left the privately-run system unable to continue. The Seattle terminal here, Pier 52 (Colman Dock), has anchored the system since the 1880s; the steel-and-concrete structure that stood through this brochure's era dated from 1966 and served the Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, and Vashon routes.

The piece was published under the Washington State Department of Transportation, created in September 1977 when several state agencies consolidated — fixing a hard floor for the date. The earth-tone palette, bold block sans-serif type, and wide-leg denim visible in the cover photograph all read late 1970s to early 1980s. The timing fits neatly with the aftermath of the 1979 oil crisis, when bicycle-compatible public transit saw active promotional investment across the country.

The cover's overhead crowd shot — no faces, figures reduced to color blocks and silhouettes — was a fashionable documentary framing in travel and transit work of the period. One figure carries a large blue backpack; another, near the bottom edge, wheels a bicycle. The close-up on page two, a yellow-framed bicycle shot against the diamond-plate deck of a ferry, doubles down on that pitch.