The more I drive around Staten Island, the more I become convinced that we will never truly “solve” our nightmare traffic problems.
And I become more and more convinced that if anything will eventually push me to move off the Island, it’s the grinding traffic that we face here on a daily basis and the monumental amount of time that’s stolen from our lives by traffic.
Wouldn’t it be nice if it only took 15 minutes to drive someplace that’s 15 minutes away, instead of the 45 minutes it takes on Staten Island?
Here’s why we’re doomed.
Lousy roads
Our highways and local roads simply can’t handle the sheer volume of cars and trucks that we have here. Amboy Road is just too narrow. Arthur Kill Road as well, but at least part of Arthur Kill is being widened. Is there ever a good time to drive on Hylan Boulevard between Clove Road and Guyon Avenue? Or Richmond Road? Or Richmond Terrace? The whole borough is like a heart with its arteries clogged.
Drivers using cellphones
Few things get my blood boiling more than seeing the driver directly in front of me on an otherwise clear road puttering along and swerving all over the road because they’re looking at their phone. Worse are the folks who are working their phones and also paying attention to dashboard screens. These people should be ticketed for driving too slow. And do not get me started about drivers who fail to move when traffic lights turn green because they’re staring at their phones.
The Staten Island Expressway
It’s the road we all love to hate. And for good reason. The expressway seems to be jammed morning, noon and night. That’s because it’s not just a Staten Island roadway, but a major shipping artery for the entire Mid-Atlantic coast. Islanders trying get from Stapleton to Eltingville are competing with delivery trucks from all points of the compass as well as motorists going back and forth from the city to New Jersey. All of us taking the cursed SIE. Throw in that ridiculously truncated HOV lane on the Jersey-bound side and you’ll see why things are so dire.
Uber, Lyft and other for-hire cars
This is the cellphone problem magnified. These drivers are constantly looking at their phones or dashboard-mounted electronic maps in search of their next fare. On top of that, many of them appear to have no clue where they’re going. So they drive excruciatingly slow. They veer from side to side. That just gums up the works for all of us. And there seem to be more of more of these for-hire cars out there. Just count how many Taxi & Limousine Commission license plates you see on a given day.
The NYC Department of Transportation
It should actually be called the Department of Traffic because traffic congestion is what the agency is good at creating with all their speed cameras and with the bike lanes that rob motorists of room to move. Not to forget the ever-lowered speed limits that make all of us feel like criminals and slow everybody down. And, gods, do we need any more speed bumps out there? It’s like we’re living in a DOT police state.
Awful mass transit
There’s a single train line for the Island, a community of half a million people. There are few cross-Island transportation options. Ferries are scarce. Many Islanders have no option but to drive. Hence the traffic. And if they added more buses, they’d just be adding more vehicles to already congested roadways. So thank you, Robert Moses, for ignoring rail in favor of highways. It’s worked out great.
