Suffolk County wants rider feedback on bus system redesign plan

Suffolk County is embarking on the first major redesign of its bus system in more than 40 years and wants to hear from riders about their priorities for a "reimagined" transit network.

The Reimagine Transit initiative aims to rethink Suffolk County Transit and make sure the county gets the most out of its bus system, which for years has struggled with sagging ridership and unpredictable funding, according to project officials.

County Executive Steve Bellone said the effort, which is funded by a $350,000 grant from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, aims to "create a transportation network that works for all of our residents."

"There have been small tweaks and adjustments and changes, line by line and route by route. But it’s never really been taken a look at comprehensively," said Jonathan Keyes, Suffolk’s director of downtown and transit-oriented development, who is heading the project for the county.

At its peak in 2011, Suffolk County Transit carried about 6.3 million passengers annually, according to county records. Following several budget-related service cuts, ridership dropped to just under 4 million by 2018, and has fallen further during the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the cost of operating the county’s fleet of nearly 300 full-sized and smaller paratransit buses has steadily climbed, from about $65 million in 2013 to about $84 million in 2019 — about half of which is funded using county tax dollars, according to the Federal Transit Administration. The county last year even considered cutting service in half before receiving enough federal COVID-19 stimulus funds to avert having to do so.

The goal of the Reimagine Transit initiative is not to cut costs but rather to get the most out of every transit dollar, Keyes said.

As part of the study on redesigning the system, bus riders can take an online survey at connectli.org until June 30. The two main models being considered by transportation planners are the "ridership model," which would prioritize serving areas with the highest demand for buses, and the "coverage model," which would more evenly distribute bus service throughout the entire county.

In a recent virtual public meeting held on the topic, transportation consultant Scudder Wagg said Suffolk’s transit budget is split about evenly between the two priorities — resulting in inconsistent service throughout the county, where just a few routes operate buses every 30 minutes, and most have waits of an hour or more.

"The challenge is that, often, both goals matter to most people in a community, but they lead us in opposite directions," said Wagg, of Portland, Oregon-based transit consulting firm Jarrett Walker and Associates, which was hired by the county to conduct the study. "Ultimately, the trade-off is unavoidable … So we want everyone to think about this trade-off, because it’s so fundamental to transit and how we choose which goals to emphasize."

Wagg noted that in Suffolk, where 90% of jobs are concentrated in the five most western towns, factors other than ridership need to be considered, including serving the elderly and disabled, supporting emerging transit-oriented developments, and getting cars off the road.

Suffolk Legis. Bridget Fleming (D-Noyac), who created the legislature’s public transportation working group, said the future of the transit system shouldn’t rest on a binary choice. She hopes planners instead adopt a "hybrid" model that maintains the parts of Suffolk County Transit that are working, and adopts technological innovations to improve service in the parts that are not.

"We should keep in mind that wholesale change could be very disruptive to people who rely on the service," Fleming said. "Many of the riders in the Suffolk County transportation system don’t have an option. They need to take public transportation to get around. So we need to make sure that any kind of adjustments made doesn’t harm people."

After gathering input from the public, and recommendations from consultants, the county expects to roll out its plan for a redesigned transit network in the fourth quarter of this year.

One strategy expected to play a major role in the redesigned Suffolk Transit is "microtransit," wherein smaller, more efficient vehicles, including vans, provide on-demand service to passengers through a mobile app.

Cliff Hymowitz, a Suffolk bus rider and transit advocate for more than 20 years, said microtransit would "definitely, without a doubt" be used to enhance Suffolk County Transit. The Medford resident said that rather than taking the drastic tactic of redesigning the entire transit network, the county should look to make meaningful adjustments to the current one.

"A route might be underused because of the location of it or the timing of it. Instead of trying to improve the routes that don’t have ridership, they cut them," Hymowitz, 67, said. "What they tend not to do is fix problems. They eliminate them."

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.