I was just responding to Jimbo’s argument that the ferry being free is unfair. It costs Staten Islanders at least $2 to get to Manhattan using public transit- just like anyone else in the outer boroughs.

Brooklyn and Queens residents drive for free through your neighborhood; Staten Islanders have to pay a toll (on the return trip).

I don’t think that suburbia is inherently transit-averse; American suburbia is. With some simple but unpopular changes, like dropping the infamous minimum parking requirements and beefing up bus and ferry service, Staten Island can be quite transit-rich. It’s not about housing densities, it’s about car densities.

Including the buses, uh no. The MTA studiously avoids tabulating data on costs and revenues by route, but I did at one point tabulate average daily ridership vs. the total number of buses by borough.

Manhattan 700
Bronx 587
Queens 536
Brooklyn 532
System Total 527

Staten Island 199

But getting back the substance of Mr. Lanza’s complaints, I’ve always felt that as part of a deal to impose tolls into Manhattan south of 96th Street:

The tolls should be used to maintain the tolled bridges first (ie. keep repainting them on an ongoing basis) and

The tolls on crossings between the other boroughs should be reduced. Not to zero, but perhaps one-third to half off the Manhattan levels.

Transit is a less realistic option between the outer boroughs, and drivers to Manhattan benefit far more from those who use transit and thereby ceded their share of the street.

It wouldn’t offset the $30 billion in MTA debt, but if you want tolls (and I do) they way to pick off some of these bozos is to put the northern toll cordon at 96th Street as originally proposed (or perhaps 110th) and lower the tolls on the Veranzano, Cross Bay, Gil Hodges, Triboro (if not going to MN), Whitestone and Throggs Neck bridges. Makes a lot more sense than having lower tolls on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, WillieB, QB, etc.

In the end, the subsidy per ride on Staten Island is very high relative to the rest of the city. To give your argument some credit it probably does not deserve however if the TA subsidy is whacked up per resident instead of per rider I think it is much more equal city wide than you imagine on Staten Island – The Rock of Self-Pity.

The fares are collected to enter or exit the St. George SIR station (and soon to be Tompkinsville) by the MTA. Those fares have nothing to do with the ferry, which is run by the city.

Two-way turnstiles at one station out of 20 is a proxy for a full fare collection system that tacitly acknowledges 1) that a high proportion of people using the SIR are going to or from the ferry, and 2) that building turnstiles at 20 stations would be expensive. The upshot is that if you want to ride on the system in between any of the other stations, it is free. It is sort of like if Metro-North chargied to enter or exit Grand Central Terminal, but did not have conductors collect tickets on trains.

Staten Island has tolled bridges (at least in one direction) but free trains (unless you’re going to the ferry). It’s almost the model the Livable Streets movement is advocating.

As a regular user of the Staten Island Railway (everyday commuting to and from Manhattan) I would gladly pay to board the train, just like everyone else in the city. It would serve a dual purpose. Keeping loiterers from hanging out on the platform, and pay for improvements to our horribly dilapidated platforms and stations. For many Staten Island communities along the SIRW, these stations are the centers of commerce in mixed use neighborhoods (yes, Staten Island has actual individual town centers in our individual communities). But those stations are seriously ugly to look at.

Make us pay for the train and provide a transfer at the Ferry. Just like everyone else in the city.

And speaking to the legality of bridge tolls for residents, there is a court case going on in New England that could have a major impact on how much Staten Islanders pay for the bridge. Our discount just may be unconstiutional. See here-http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/are_staten_island_resident_dis.html

Not that I disagree with his position.