SPECIAL REPORT: Watch the above video to understand the efforts being made to improve Staten Island's miserable bus commute.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The skeleton of Staten Island's bus network has remained largely unchanged for well over 50 years. Yet the borough's population has rapidly grown in that time.

In fact, routes for the S40, S46, S51, S52, S54, S57, S59, S62, S66, and S74 mimic discontinued routes of streetcars, some dating back to the 1930s.

To modernize service, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is conducting its Staten Island Comprehensive Bus Study to re-envision how its fleet of 31 local and 20 express routes can navigate Staten Island's very old infrastructure.

"We work with the community and elected officials to match ridership demand through service additions and route changes whenever possible," said MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan. "This is why public input on our ongoing bus study on Staten Island is so vital, and we are taking the study very seriously."

Advocates and officials see "great opportunity" in the study, which launched the this summer. As part of its research and analysis, the MTA has begun meeting at community boards and hosting public workshops.

Two of the top concerns so far seem to be that several Island routes are simply too long, creating reliability issues, and that there are not enough east-to-west connections.

With one more public workshop being planned for the Mid-Island area, the MTA is preparing an interim progress report for this winter. The entire project is scheduled to wrap up at this time in 2017.