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Transit options are limited for those who live west of Port Richmond Avenue on Richmond Terrace.

(Advance file photo)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - We live on Staten Island. We complain about transportation. That's just what we do.

We complain about traffic. We complain about rude drivers. We complain about the lousy mass transit, the lack of buses and trains to get us where we need to go. We complain about historically long commutes to work, of the hours with family and friends lost.

Of course, some folks have it worse than others, including those who live along the western portion of Richmond Terrace on the North Shore. The area was recently dubbed the borough's "forgotten corridor" by Transportation Alternatives. With good reason.

Imagine how bad off you have to be when you're in the forgotten part of the forgotten borough. That's pretty darn bad.

The advocacy group wants the city to study traffic conditions in the area of Richmond Terrace west of Port Richmond Avenue, an area that was left out of the recent North Shore transportation study that looked at conditions in the context of the $1 billion in private development coming to the North Shore, led by the New York Wheel and Empire Outlets mall.

You remember that study. It's the one that said traffic conditions on major roads like Richmond Terrace, Bay Street and Victory Boulevard were already problematic, and would likely become even more so with the expected influx of tourists, residents and new businesses.

So why was the area west of Port Richmond Avenue left out of the study? Maybe those in charge of putting the study together didn't want to put any more bad news out there.

Because as Transportation Alternatives points out, those western lands are home to some of our poorer neighbors, people who have a lower rate of car ownership and yet have fewer mass transit options available to them. And even those who commute to Manhattan and can get to one of the two bus lines that service the area face a long and arduous ride to the St. George Ferry Terminal.

"Without a direct link to the Staten Island Railway, the area is a transit desert for those without a private vehicle," the group's report said.

It's so bad that the group found that many people in the area have started relying on bicycles to get around. Along narrow Richmond Terrace? With trucks coming and going from all the businesses and industrial sites? Talk about a perilous ride. They're braver than us.

But beside that, there's another very good reason why the study area should have extended westward beyond Port Richmond Avenue. Because as we look west, we see the Bayonne Bridge and, further, a route to the Goethals Bridge.

If the Wheel and the outlets and all the other attractions coming to the North Shore are truly going to bring people to the Island, some of them could be coming from off-Island, and not just via the Staten Island Ferry, but over those bridges. Just like they could come over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the east. It would have made sense to include the entirety of Richmond Terrace in the study. That stretch of road could turn out to be pretty important.

Even without the Wheel etc., the people who live in that area need improved mass transit. It's that simple.

Staten Island members of Transportation Alternatives will hold a rally on Richmond Terrace Wednesday night asking the city to extend the study's scope further west.

There are some signs of hope. Mariners Harbor was considered a priority for mass transit improvements by City Hall in 2015. And the MTA is putting up some money to study a North Shore Bus Rapid Transit line.

But so much more needs to be done.