How would people travel from Staten Island to Manhattan?

Answer 1

You can take the Staten Island Ferry, or one of the Staten Island Express buses (see the Related Link below for a bus map), or you can drive through Brooklyn (either over the Brooklyn, Manhattan or Williamburg Bridges, or through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) and then over the Verrazano Bridge.

People make that trip multiple ways every day. I was one of them. There are four main methods that each have differences in cost and travel time. First, and cheapest, is to take the local bus to the Staten Island Ferry which will drop you off in lower Manhattan. This has an average cost of $2 due to the Ferry ride being free. Second is to take a different kind of bus. The express bus is a $5 ride that will run a short route through Staten Island and then drive either through New Jersey and through the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan or through Brooklyn. The third option is to hire a cab or car service. This is very expensive. A car service ride from the southern end of Staten Island to midtown Manhattan is approximately $86 then you have to give a tip of 10% - 15%. The fourth option is to drive yourself. This option offers the most flexibility, but parking is an issue. If you work in midtown Manhattan you'd probably want to get a monthly lease on a parking spot in one of the many garages in Manhattan, and the lease alone is more expensive than the average two bedroom apartment in middle America. It will cost on average between $900 and $1100 per month not to mention the rising cost of gasoline and the tolls you would pay each day you drive. However, if one was to drive there are four bridges connecting Staten Island to the rest of the world. They are the Outerbridge, the Goethals bridge, the Bayonne bridge, and the Verrazanno bridge. One last interesting fact the Verrazanno bridge is actually the longest iron suspension bridge in the world surpassing the Golden Gate Bridge by three feet.