What’s the impact of inconsistent ferry service to NYC climate goals? | Staten Island Climate Diary - SILive.com
What’s the impact of inconsistent ferry service to NYC climate goals? | Staten Island Climate Diary - silive.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — You’ve seen the headlines: “Staten Island Ferry to run reduced service (insert night here).”
It began with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with droves of ferry workers out sick. It continued over the past year as a longstanding labor dispute has diminished service and caused on New Year’s Eve private crews to man the route with private vessels.
For me, the announcement came over the loudspeaker in Whitehall Terminal: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the 10:30 p.m. ferry has been canceled.”
It garnered the groans of a few dozen people waiting for a trip back to Staten Island on Jan. 3, 2023, and sparked an extended wait for another boat, which came later than scheduled.
So, as I sat and waited ( and tweeted) through the experience, it got me thinking, “What’s the impact of inconsistent ferry service on the city’s climate goals?”
Maybe everyone wasn’t thinking that, but it is a legitimate question. Let me explain.
Overnight trips on the ferry surely don’t approach rush-hour ridership, but by the time another boat arrived at the dock, I counted at least a couple hundred people waiting to board. City Department of Transportation (DOT) data roughly corroborates my mental math, with nearly 250 people crossing into the terminal between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Even with that total, the question became: “Who didn’t rely on the ferry that night?”
I was in the terminal because I was attending a New York Rangers game. I typically take the ferry (or the fast ferry) there before taking the subway to the ferry back home. It takes a bit longer than driving but is obviously cheaper.
However, with recent service woes, missing a boat by just minutes could mean an hour-long wait in Whitehall. That’s a significantly long time when a trip back to Staten Island from Midtown by car could be completed in well under an hour in total.
And, with reduced service announcements sometimes coming unexpectedly (like it did in my case), it isn’t all that inconceivable that some do not want to risk missing a boat and getting home an hour later than they expected, especially late at night.
What do the numbers say?
The MTA said there does not appear to be any change in the overnight ridership of the SIM1C, which is the only overnight bus that travels to and from Staten Island, regardless of the different ferry schedules.
Parsing through toll data may not paint the whole picture, either. People who work overnight on Staten Island or in Manhattan may be crossing the span at a wide range of times, and it would be nearly impossible to correlate those trips with reduced ferry service.
As the city talks about rightfully reducing its emissions from sources like buildings and efforts are being made to reduce vehicle emissions, it seems reasonable to suggest it will have to rely on public transportation to arrive and leave as expected.
Local Law 88 of 2013 required the city to run 24/7, 365-days-per-year half-hour service of the Staten Island Ferry. That mandate was temporarily suspended amid the worst of the pandemic, but even after it was restored, borough residents are still dealing with unexpectedly inconsistent service.
“If people can’t depend on the ferry, they are going to find other means of commuting,” said Rose Uscianowski, Staten Island and South Brooklyn organizer for Transportation Alternatives.
“In the immediate, a lot of Staten Islanders who have the means may choose to commute by car, which is going to add more congestion, it’s going to add more pollution,” said Uscianowski. “But it’s also going to impact ridership levels over time, and that can, in turn, impact the funding that our ferry gets.”
To tackle the pollution question, I wanted to see just how much emissions were released during a single Staten Island Ferry trip.
As expected, different boats have different emission levels, with newer classes carrying significant reductions in nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and hydrocarbon emissions — all things you don’t want in the air.
For our purposes, let’s take the Molinari class. Per one-way trip, the city DOT said that boat emits about 1,130 kilograms of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas largely responsible for planetary warming.
The average car, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, emits about 404 grams of carbon dioxide per-mile. It takes about 20 miles to get to lower Manhattan from the Advance/SILive.com’s office on South Avenue, so let’s use that as our benchmark.
That means a one-way trip by car would equal about 8 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Newer cars will lower this total, but the basic math means about 140 people, by the metric of carbon dioxide, will need to be on the ferry to make it a more environmentally-friendly option.
Newer ferries will importantly lower this number, and other pollutants — like particulate matter — were significantly reduced in the Ollis and Austen ferry classes, magnifying the importance of ensuring people view the transportation option as a reliable one.
When asked if consistent ferry service is needed to ensure fewer drivers use vehicles to enter the city during overnight hours, the mayor’s office did not respond.
The city DOT said it is “dedicated to supporting safe, sustainable, and efficient transportation options for all New Yorkers.”
“As part of that mission, we always strive to provide regular, reliable ferry service and expand opportunities to use alternative modes of travel,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Concerns, however, remain for transportation-vulnerable Staten Islanders who depend on the ferry in the overnight hours.
“The ferry really is a lifeline for Staten Islanders,” said Uscianowski. “Those who are the least likely to own a car and those who are the most likely to be late night commuters.”
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