Making the S93 to Brooklyn More Accessible

Making the S93 to Brooklyn More Accessible

Right now, there's only 3 routes from Staten Island to Brooklyn: The S53, S79, and S93. (The S93 is technically a limited-stop variant of the S53, but most of its path is different from that of the S93, so I'm going to count it as a separate route)

Before last year, the S93 ended just outside the gate to CSI, in a cul-de-sac shown here. I have always thought that it should be extended a half mile further down, to end at Richmond Avenue. The reason being that it would provide a direct connection to the bus lines along Richmond Avenue, which opens up a whole swath of Staten Island for easier access to Brooklyn. For instance, if you live by Rockland Avenue & Richmond Avenue, you simply take the S44/94 or S59/89 up to Victory and transfer right there, instead of having to walk all the way to CSI.

In addition, it would also help some people in the neighborhood as well. For instance, a decent amount of people walk from the area by Morani Street (so all those streets like Parkview Loop, Debbie Street, etc) down to CSI to catch the S93. People walk from points west of Richmond Avenue, albiet in smaller numbers (I've done it myself from time to time, even though it's almost a mile) Unfortunately, they can't do this in the westbound direction anymore, and I'll explain why in a minute. But in any case, those people would have the S93 stop a little bit closer to them.

Now, as you've probably read in my post about the S57/S66 restructuring I proposed, at one point, I wanted the S93 to be the route to cover the area alongside the Staten Island Expressway. The extension would've been down Victory Blvd, make a right on Richmond Avenue, a left on Goethals Road North, and either end by South Avenue, or continue further up South Avenue to hit more ridership generators. (Ending by the Mariners' Harbor Houses would provide easier access to the shopping along Forest Avenue, as well as provide additional riders from the housing projects to support the route. Ending along Holland Avenue where the S48/98 end would provide that, plus riders in Arlington to support the route). And by "support", I mean they would provide ridership so the buses aren't running empty or near-empty. As part of the proposal, the S93 would be expanded to a full-time route.

So basically, it would provide the connection to Richmond Avenue, plus serve an additional neighborhood, where people are walking excessive distances to reach the existing routes.

However, in July of 2012, the MTA announced that it was going to be extending the S93 into the CSI campus, and so I had to come up with a new plan to provide service down alongside the expressway. (Which is how I came up with the S57/S66 restructuring plan). It also meant that the S93 wouldn't even be able to extend to Richmond Avenue, because people wouldn't want to go all the way into the college and all the way back out on their way to Brooklyn.

I have mixed feelings about the extension itself. On one hand, there's a decent number of CSI students who take the S93 to get to Brooklyn, from within the campus itself. On the other hand, the S93 only serves a portion of the campus, and there's already a loop bus that serves the entire campus, and provides a connection to the S93 at the Victory Blvd gate. (So if your class is in a part of the campus that's too far from the S93 stop, you still have to take the shuttle anyway)

So I can accept the extension into CSI. However, what I cannot accept is the fact that in the process, they also removed the westbound S93 stop outside the college, screwing over my neighborhood without telling anybody, and brushing off complaints as if those riders don't exist.

As I've mentioned before, a decent amount of riders use the S93, who live west of CSI. Before, they had direct access both going to Brooklyn and coming back to Staten Island. Now, with the extension, Brooklyn-bound service remains the same, but coming back from Brooklyn requires those riders to  walk an extra 1/4 mile along a portion of Victory Blvd with an extremely narrow sidewalk, with cars flying by (not to mention walking under the expressway underpass with all the bird crap and who-knows-what else on the ground). This portion to be exact. Yeah, that looks like a really pedestrian-friendly place over there. (**sarcasm**)

A few of my neighbors and myself wrote some emails to both the MTA and CSI officials. The CSI officials made up a response that was inaccurate (for instance, the S93 has two endpoints, and unless the driver is being nice, you're not allowed to stay on the bus while he sits through his layover. The CSI officials thought otherwise). However, when we explained the situation, they understood where we were coming from, but said that it was ultimately up to the MTA (I don't like that they were acting like they had absolutely nothing to do with this, because they did, but whatever). The MTA didn't even respond back to us (not even a form letter stating that this is being looked into)

Keep in mind that this also negatively impacts some CSI students. Before, they were able to get off at the gate and transfer to the shuttle bus to get them to virtually any part of the campus. Now that there's no stop there, they're forced to walk from the 1A building to their class, which can be up to a half mile.

Just to be clear, I'm not even asking them to change the route. I'm asking them to stick a damn pole in the ground so buses are authorized to stop there, so people don't have to walk an additional 1/4 mile on a narrow sidewalk alongside speeding cars.

There's three locations where the bus could stop (which are the blue point, the green point, or the bus icon on this map). The blue point would be where the bus stop would be placed if it were to stop outside the gate. It's far enough in so that it doesn't block cars turning, yet it is close enough that riders heading to the residential neighborhood don't have to walk too far. A lot of S93 drivers actually used to discharge people at this location, so that those riders getting off wouldn't walk into a crowd of Brooklyn-bound riders looking to get on. Some people say that it would block traffic, but I don't think so, because it's pretty far in. The only issue might be if an S62/S92 pulls in behind them, it might be tight making that turn if they have to squeeze around a bus making that stop. I don't recall if that scenario ever occurred.

In any case, the next alternative would be to have the S93 stop inside the gate, at the green point. This would have absolutely no impact on S62/S92 buses making the turn. Either the MTA or CSI might have to put in a concrete pad for the bus stop.

The third alternative is to have the buses stop at the stop behind the shuttle buses, which is the bus icon on the map. I've seen drivers do this as well (and they would sometimes take their layover there as well, so they wouldn't be blocking other buses at the stop at the main gate). The buses would have to enter the gate, make the next available U-turn, and then drop passengers off at the shuttle bus stop. The buses would then make the same U-turn that the shuttle buses make, and then continue south towards the 1P building.

Now, I would start a petition about this, except that I've already got my hands full with the S57/S66 restructuring. It's not necessarily that it would be too much work: It's that the MTA likes to twist things around, so I'm sure they'd find some way of justifying how having bus service on Lamberts Lane, going towards St. George somehow justifies not having a bus stop outside the gate at CSI. So unfortunately, I have to wait until I make more progress with my S57/S66 proposal, even though both issues direly need to be resolved.

As always, questions & comments are welcome.