The Dilemmas of Island Dwellers: A Disadvantageous Commute

Every day, I get on the bus that I ride to school and take out my credit card instead of my OMNY card, which is what most Stuyvesant students use. This is not because I lost my OMNY card and never replaced it but because using the Department of Education’s (DOE’s) OMNY card isn’t a valid payment method for the bus I take. 

I live in Staten Island, so I’m part of a small minority at Stuy. Whenever people learn that I live in Staten Island, they ask, “Oh, so do you take the ferry, then?” I respond with “no,” telling them I take the Staten Island to Manhattan (SIM) express bus. The SIM transit line consists of express buses that transport commuters daily between Manhattan and Staten Island. They are different from local buses because not only are they much faster and more comfortable, but they also cost more—much more. The average local New York City bus, such as the M22 or M55, costs the standard $2.90 fare. However, the SIM buses cost seven dollars per trip, so I pay $14 for my daily commute. While students who live in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx are able to commute between home and school at virtually no cost, students such as myself who live in Staten Island are forced to either pay $14 a day or wake up extremely early to take the free ferry to Manhattan. While Staten Islanders aren’t the only students with long, inconvenient commutes, ours are more difficult than most, and little has been done to change this.

Since Staten Island students do not have the option of taking the subway like other students, we are forced to choose between the ferry and the SIM bus. This is unfair compared to the subway system’s low cost and convenience. There are numerous stations on every subway line in the other four boroughs that allow people to quickly and punctually get to their destinations, but the singular Staten Island Ferry port is located on one side of the island. Traveling to this location is often impractical for those who live farther from the ferry. For Staten Island students, the minimum commute time to Manhattan is one hour. If students want to take the ferry in order to avoid high transportation costs, they have to wake up even earlier and plan accordingly in order to commute to the ferry port. Unlike the ferry, the SIM bus stops are located much more conveniently around the island. My bus stop is a five-minute drive or a 10-minute walk from my house, while my drive to the ferry is half an hour. 

The SIM buses are intended to transport daily commuters who live in Staten Island and work in Manhattan. What often happens is that the companies people work for will pay for their transportation by making paycheck cuts or distributing tax breaks. In consideration of this, the prices for these buses may be slightly inflated due to the discounts that most people receive. This also means that the majority of people who take these SIM buses actually pay a price lower than other students and I do. If adult commuters are often given discounts for the SIM line, there is no reason why students shouldn’t have the same right. In fact, it is more necessary for students to be offered a discount since we do not have jobs and can’t always rely on personal income to pay for our transportation. 

Similarly, students located in Long Island generally take the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) in order to commute to school. According to the MTA website, commuters can buy a CityTicket to NYC for as low as five dollars during non-peak hours and seven dollars during peak hours. Essentially, SIM bus prices are more or less the same as the LIRR’s prices. The student OMNY card isn’t applicable to these trains, either. Despite this, students who take the LIRR do not have to pay the entire fare. They can fill out a form—the LIRR School Ticket Application—affirming that they will only use the LIRR discount for transportation between school and home. Once their request gets processed and accepted, they are granted a 25 percent discount on monthly LIRR tickets. A monthly ticket costs $287 and allots 20 trips per month, but the discount lowers the price to $215.25. This is still a substantial price, but a SIM commuter’s cost for the same number of trips would come out to around $280. Although the price Long Island commuters are required to pay without the discount is slightly more than Staten Islanders have to pay, students with the LIRR discount save almost $72 per month. That’s around how much I spend on one school week’s worth of transportation. 

The NYC DOE—Supported by the Chancellor’s Regulation A-801—realizes the significant impact of transportation on a student’s academic life. For this reason, they provide students with free OMNY cards so that most students can commute to school without having to worry about the cost of transportation. While the Staten Island ferry is free, it is impractical and negatively impacts the school day and academic performance of students who must take it. Students who live far from the ferry, such as in Tottenville, the southernmost part of Staten Island, not only have to ride the ferry but also commute to it. This means waking up earlier and accounting for even more travel time to make sure they can make it to school on time. Students at Stuyvesant are already deprived of time and sleep due to the heavy workload. Transportation occupies much of the day for Stuyvesant students, giving them less time for homework and studying. Waking up earlier means that it is likely that they will get even less sleep than they would otherwise, negatively impacting their health and brain function. If students are tired throughout the school day, they cannot focus sufficiently and consequently will not learn or perform as effectively. 

 The DOE should acknowledge and work to fix this issue for Staten Island students the same way they have remedied issues for those in Long Island. The DOE could even fully cover the cost of the SIM buses to eliminate even more transportation inconvenience. While this may seem like an expensive endeavor for the DOE, the reality is that few students commute from Staten Island to Manhattan in comparison to students traveling from other parts of the city. If covering the cost of SIM buses is too big of an endeavor for the DOE, they can still help in other ways. For example, they can make the ferry more accessible for students throughout Staten Island. This could be done by implementing free bus services that use the high-occupancy vehicle lane located on the highway to quickly take students directly to the ferry, such as the yellow buses that commonly transport elementary and middle school students to school. This way, students won’t have to worry about how to get to the ferry nor worry about the cost of the journey. 

The DOE created the student OMNY card system to ensure that students, low-income or not, never have to worry about how much it costs to go to school and receive an education in the city. To keep this promise for all New York City students, they should address the issue that Staten Island students face in order to create the sense of equity they strive to display through transportation support. Whether it be by making the ferry more accessible or providing a student discount for those who take SIM buses, the DOE should follow through on their promise to grant students and their families the right to a successful academic career.