BRT.JPG

Linda Baran, president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, is a leading proponent of a North Shore Bus Rapid Transit line.

(Advance file photo)

For good reason, concern is mounting over the hike in traffic expected on the densely populated North Shore. The prospect of gridlock in downtown Staten Island is a legitimate worry.



A groundbreaking ceremony on March 10 will officially mark the debut of construction for two major tourist attractions to be located near the ferry terminal in St. George.



The New York Wheel, a 630-foot revolving observation platform, is designed to be a world-class destination. Close by will be Empire Outlets, an outdoor shopping village that is billed as the first brand-name discount center in New York City.



Both projects are due to open for business in 2017.



Two million tourists a year already ride the Staten Island Ferry. The developer of the Wheel estimates that it will bring in 1 million more vacationers annually from Manhattan.



But there is some question about how many fun-seekers and bargain hunters will arrive by car from the rest of Staten Island and beyond - especially from the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.



Nobody is quite sure about the coming volume of traffic.

The emerging $1 billion renaissance of the North Shore also features major residential development at the Navy's former home port in Stapleton. Plus attractions such as the St. George Theatre, the National Lighthouse Museum, a new 200-room hotel overlooking the harbor and dozens of restaurants.

All of this will test the capacity of the aging, convoluted and bumpy network of roads that lead to Borough Hall, to the newly built courthouse and to other government sites in St. George.

There are limits to what can be done to improve the flow of traffic along the narrow "thoroughfares" of Bay Street, Victory Boulevard and Richmond Terrace.

So there is no excuse for ignoring the potential to ward off congestion by constructing a dedicated bus rapid transit (BRT) lane along the Kill van Kull from Arlington to St. George.

Under a $326 million plan approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the 5-mile paved roadway with eight stops would trace the right-of-way of the old North Shore railroad. Those tracks were abandoned decades ago

.

But a North Shore BRT line, which has been sought for years, was excluded from the MTA's new five-year plan to spend $32 billion on capital projects. The budget has yet to be approved because of a massive spending gap of over $15 billion.

Last Tuesday, on "Transit Awareness Day," more than 2,000 petitions supporting BRT here were delivered to Albany by a coalition led by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce and the New York League of Conservation Voters.

The petitions urge: "Tell Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio it's time for Staten Island to receive its fair share of MTA transit investments, fund the North Shore BRT! We're not going to let Staten Island get thrown under the bus again!"

Unfortunately, there is a crisis looming.

Yet the MTA doesn't seem ready to ease the situation even though it loots tolls from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to pay for transit needs elsewhere in the metropolitan area.

"To leave North Shore BRT out of the next capital plan -- when so many Staten Island residents need access to better, faster, and more efficient transit network -- is simply unacceptable," said Ya-Ting Liu, the League's New York City program director.

Gov. Cuomo has given no indication that he will come to the rescue of bus rapid transit on Staten Island. For now, he is withholding BRT money from a $5 billion state budget surplus even though he says the funds ought to be used by one-time allocations, not for programs that need annual funding.

Nor is Mayor de Blasio offering to help us.

In his State of the City address last week, Mr. de Blasio outlined a plan to create 13 new bus rapid transit lines: in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. He didn't include Staten Island.

Like the Advance, Linda Baran, president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, has been fighting for years to boost mass transit throughout this borough.

As Ms. Baran has stated, "Funding the North Shore BRT is vitally important considering the significant amount of private and public development taking place along the waterfront."

The need for this Staten Island project is dire.

Our leaders must find a way to get it done