Dangerous Roads newsletter: 3-hour commutes? Some Long Islanders don't have a choice

I grew up a block away from the Rosedale Long Island Rail Road station, where you could get to Penn Station in roughly 30 minutes. And yet my late father, who for years worked in midtown Manhattan, rarely saw the inside of an LIRR train, unless he was taking me to a WWF show at Madison Square Garden.

The reason: The cost of a bus and subway ride (with a free transfer) was a heck of a lot cheaper than the cost of an LIRR ticket, even if the trip took three times longer.

That kind of arithmetic remains at the forefront for how many low- and middle-income families in the metropolitan area approach their commutes. For them, an LIRR ticket, much less owning a car, is a luxury they can’t afford. By LIRR, it takes about 45 minutes to get from Hicksville to Penn Station during the morning rush hour, and costs $15.25 for a one-way ticket. That same trip via Nassau's NICE Bus and a New York City subway train takes between takes between 2½ and 3 hours, but costs just $3.

And so, every day, tens of thousands of Long Islanders ride the bus — to work, to school, to church, to doctors’ appointments, to anywhere they need to go, and then back home again.

I learned early on covering the transit beat that public buses tend to be filled with passengers who have no other options. In addition to those who can’t afford other means of transportation, they include teens who haven’t started driving yet, seniors who have stopped driving, people with disabilities who will never be able to get a driver’s license, and those with other challenges that have caused them to lose their licenses.

And, for a few days last week, public buses on Long Island included another category of passenger: displaced LIRR riders.

With a union strike shutting down Long Island’s largest public transportation provider for three-and-a-half days last week, its next largest provider, NICE, had to step in to fill the void. Although NICE didn't have solid ridership figures, spokesman Mark Smith said bus drivers and supervisors reported "fuller vehicles" during the strike, and rush hours beginning earlier than usual. NICE bolstered service on many of its routes in anticipation of the surge of new riders.

Charlton D’souza, president of Passengers United, a transit advocacy group, and a regular NICE rider, said he noticed a "different demographic" riding the buses on the first day of the strike, including baseball fans going to the Yankees-Mets baseball game at Citi Field. He expected some LIRR riders who discovered NICE could be converted to regular riders.

"I think a lot of people who are struggling to pay LIRR monthly or weekly tickets might say, ‘You know what? I might consider this option,’ " D’souza said. "NICE Bus can never duplicate the railroad, but I think they’re going to be a lifeline for commuters that, right now, cannot afford Uber or Lyft."

Other LIRR regulars who sampled life as a bus commuter last week took a hard pass on repeating the experience.

Lisa Esposito, a New York City schoolteacher who typically rides the LIRR from New Hyde Park, said she rode a Nassau bus for the first time since the 1990s during the LIRR strike last week. Taking the n6x to Jamaica, where she transferred to a subway train, her commute took about twice as long as it usually did.

"Honestly, I hate the bus. ... It doesn’t come on time, you’re waiting outside, you get thrown around with all the stop and go, it sits in traffic etc.," Esposito said in a Facebook message. "I’d take the train over the bus any day."

I’m thinking most regular bus riders would agree. But, their inability to ride the LIRR has little to do with whether the trains are running or not.

Readers speak up:

Here's yet another reader who believes Long Island's traffic laws need to be better enforced.

The police are absolutely not doing enough to address the problem. It's havoc out there!

-Karen Sheerin, Islip

We want to hear from you

We're expanding this newsletter to address transportation concerns beyond just dangerous roads. Send us your suggestions for topics you’d like to see covered, and any suggestions for a new name for the newsletter to roads@newsday.com.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.