NEW YORK CITY — Express buses from Staten Island could cut out several stops in Manhattan — or avoid Lower Manhattan and Midtown all together — under new proposals from the winners of the MTA's first bus Hackathon.
The MTA announced Wednesday the three winners of the first competition. It invites entrants to come up with ways to improve Staten Island's bus network, focusing on ways to streamline the express bus service from Manhattan to Staten Island.
"The Hackathon gave us an incredible opportunity to see and hear about ideas that come from residents and transit enthusiasts thinking outside the box," said Sarah Wyss, senior director for bus service planning at the MTA.
"We look forward to delving deeper into whether we can take some of these ideas off the screen and put them to work on the streets to improve Staten Island’s transit network."
The top prize of $1,000 was given to Sri Kanjan's pitch "How to Optimize Express Bus Routes in Staten Island" that used ridership and route data to see where delays on express routes were, the MTA said.
The data showed most riders use a limited number of centralized stops. Kanjan suggested the MTA cut many in Manhattan to avoid roundabout routes during rush hours.
The MTA partnered with the TransitCenter and New York University's Rudin Center for Transportation for the Hackathon that asked developers and riders to find ways to improve Staten Island's buses — from shorter commute times to wait times.
About 150 participants were given ridership numbers, performance data, Staten Island's population, historical traffic patterns and customer feedback from the MTA's Staten Island bus study to figure out ways to improve service.
The MTA also awarded $500 for the "Better Than the Subway" idea submitted by Colin Foley, Mariya Carey, Raymond Chia, Larry Gould and David McCreery which used route, population and ridership data to streamline parts of high-ridership routes and provide direct service to either Lower Manhattan or Midtown.
A team of six developers were awarded $500 for best local bus idea with "Buses in SI" that proposed to cancel all Staten Island express bus service in Lower Manhattan and use the funds to add rush hour service to local routes in the borough, the MTA said.
The team also proposed new Bus Rapid Transit routes and shuttles that would connect to the Staten Island Ferry or over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
The winning ideas from the Hackathon will be presented by the MTA for feedback and the presentations and other proposals can be viewed online.
"We all need to embrace the concept of tapping into the expertise of those well versed in evolving technologies in hopes of affording us a better chance at finding solutions to the challenges of municipal government," Borough President James Oddo said.
"I am hopeful this collective effort will yield positive results for Staten Island commuters."
Aside from the Hackathon, the MTA started a study last year to look at every bus route in Staten Island to make improvements to the 51 lines. The city expects the study to be finished by this year.
