TRANSPORTATION
Staten Island is located in the heart of the New York Metropolitan Region. The roads across Staten Island form part of the Southern Corridor of New York City, linking New Jersey and Long Island. As one of only two cross-city highway routes, island roads are extremely important to both regional commerce and local commuting. Staten Island's highway network is heavily burdened with cross-region truck freight movements, shipments of goods between the regional airports, commuter buses and private automobiles.
Staten Island, unlike all the other counties in Greater New York, has no rail link to the regional core in Manhattan. It also lack any subway service, so commuters are dependent on local and express bus service, local train & ferry service and private automobile to travel to their jobs both on Staten Island and in surrounding counties. Regional growth has increased the job base in Brooklyn and New Jersey, increasing the flow of commuters from Staten Island to these areas, both of which are poorly served by mass transit. Existing, dormant rail corridors have not yet been reactivated for commuter service, exacerbating the traffic loads on the road network. Yet, despite this incomplete network, Staten Island has a mass transit usage rate that is six times the national average.
The weaknesses of the system include: the absence of subway links to the rest of New York City, as well as private ferry service to destinations throughout New York Harbor; the virtual absence of mass transit to New Jersey; a local road system that is circuitous and overtaxed; gaps in bus service and tardiness in all forms of transit service; and an average commute time (regardless of mode) among the longest in the nation. and the City.
Jonathan Peters
CSI Business Department
AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS
- "Present Problems and Future Solutions for Staten Island's Transportation System," Dr. Cameron Gordon & Dr. Jonathan Peters, October 2004
- CSI-SIP Poll Report: "Staten Island Traffic and Mass Transportation," Prepared by Dr. Steven L. Johnson, March 2004
