Growing up in Ronkonkoma it barely registered with me that there were buses in the area aside from the big yellow ones I took to school. The first time I ever heard of someone taking a Suffolk County bus was when I was in high school working my first job on Portion Road making something like $6.50 an hour, and one of my co-workers was thinking about taking the bus one day when he couldn't borrow his parents' car. My first thoughts were along the lines of "wait, there are buses around here?" and then "who actually takes the bus?"
But why wouldn't he? I had the luxury of my parents having an extra car I could always take to work, but when you make minimum wage, the total cost of owning your own car will burn through a big portion of your paycheck. So for me, the cost of fuel probably didn't outweigh the cost of a bus ticket, and as a teenager I of course overlooked the potential cost of getting my parents' car in a fender bender on the way to work, but for him, buying, insuring, and maintaining his own car to get to a minimum wage job would have been absurd. Taking the bus actually makes a lot of sense when you're making minimum wage, and he lived just a 3 minute walk away from a bus stop.
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| Can you spot the bus stop? |
The thing is though, he didn't end up taking the bus and got a ride from a co-worker instead. Even though he could easily walk to a stop from his house and get off right in front of the business we worked at, it wasn't worth it. The bus only runs once an hour, so if the bus was on time, he would've been there half an hour early, which isn't that big of a deal, but if he missed it or the bus didn't come for whatever reason, he'd be half an hour late, which is the kind of thing you get fired for if it happens too many times. That's not a risk you want to take if you can avoid it.
So why would anyone ever take the bus in Ronkonkoma?
Fast forward a couple centuries to the present day. I had just flown into JFK and taken the LIRR to Ronkonkoma. Now, I could've taken a cab or a rideshare like most people would have in my situation, but after many years of my adult life living in places where taking the bus was a normal part of daily life, the main reason for me was that I was just curious to try out the bus in my home town.
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| This is the train to: Ronkonkoma. The next station is: Ronkonkoma. |
Aside from that, it was cheaper than a cab or rideshare, just $2.25, and I didn't have any time constraints so I wasn't worried about the bus being late. It also happened to be fairly convenient because the bus I wanted to take was scheduled to depart a little while after my train got in, so I wouldn't have to wait any longer than I would have for a rideshare. Just in case, I grabbed a cup of coffee from the bagel place at the station while I waited for the bus.
Where can I take the bus to from the Ronkonkoma LIRR Station?
As of June 2022 (full system map from Suffolk Transit), there are four buses you can take from the Ronkonkoma station: S57, S59, 6A, and 7A. The S57 and S59 run between Smith Haven Mall and Sayville LIRR with major stops at MacArthur Airport, Ronkonkoma LIRR station, and the intersection of Hawkins and Portion Road. The main difference between the two is the S57 makes a loop on Rosevale around the western side of the lake and on Lakeland Ave around the airport to stop at Colony Park, while the S59 runs along the eastern sides of the lake and airport to make a stop at Sun-Vet Mall and Sayville Plaza.
The 7A brings you to Patchogue LIRR station with a major stop at the IRS Center, and the 6A brings you to Coram Plaza with a major stop at Suffolk Community College.
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| Bus Routes via Ronkonkoma LIRR Station as of June 2022 from SCT's System Map |
It would be nice if this information were available on Google Maps rather than just a clunky sprawling pdf, but my guess is SCT doesn't have a developer or the funding to contract one out who'd be able to create a General Transit Feed Specification and submit it to Google. If anyone from SCT is reading, it's fairly simple and Google doesn't charge you for it!
What was it like taking a Suffolk County Transit Bus?
It actually wasn't that bad at all. And the reason I feel the need to say "actually" is because of the reactions I got from my friends. "Was it full of crackheads?" and "why didn't you call me, I would've picked you up!"
No, it wasn't full of crackheads. I rode two different times; the one time there were a couple guys who I assume were going to or home from work, and on the other bus there was a little old lady who asked if I could help her with the ticketing machine. I didn't encounter anyone who made me feel remotely uncomfortable whatsoever. I've heard women say before that they don't like taking mass transit because they're concerned about creeps, but this lady didn't seem to have a problem. It's also worth noting that these buses only pass through decent areas and it's not like crackheads just spontaneously materialize on public transit.
Aside from those three other people, both buses were mostly empty. Both trips were sometime in the afternoon so it might be that they're more crowded during rush hour. The seats were in good condition and the floors were clean. I've taken buses in Peru where the seats aren't properly bolted down and you can see the street through the holes in the floor, so these were like a limo by comparison.
If you want a more apples to apples comparison, the buses I rode to school as a kid often had holes cut in the back of the seats with big chunks of the padding pulled out, imprints of lighter tops that some kids made after first partially melting the upholstery with the lighter to soften it up, graffiti, sticky floors, etc. This blog features a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
I also recently traveled to Miami and got a bus pass for the time I was there and lemme tell ya, some of the Miami-Dade Transit buses are not in great shape. The one was bottoming out on every little bump in the road so the driver had to slow down to like 10mph and eventually had to pull over and have us switch to another bus. Another was the opposite extreme and felt like being on a trampoline as we were going 60mph across the bridge on 195. And some of the drivers were rude too. Luckily I bought a weekly ticket at the airport because I got to witness one of the drivers mocking passengers who struggled to get the ticketing machine to accept their dollar bills. She was also slamming on the brakes at the last second for every stop nearly knocking down everyone who was standing. On Suffolk County Transit buses however, I didn't have any of those issues. The buses were in good shape, and I didn't have any issue with the drivers.
I do have a few minor complaints. First, the ticketing machine isn't that easy to use. This might have been more of a me problem since it was my first time riding the bus, but I tried swiping my credit card after I saw that it had a card reader, and it just went back to the main display so I assumed it had gone through. I didn't want to swipe again and then get charged twice. Then the little old lady asked me for help putting her quarters in, and after we did that, it printed a ticket for her, at which point I realized I may not have paid. They have an app for cashless ticketing, but I didn't have mobile data at the time. I will say that it was easier than buying a ticket on a Miami-Dade bus and being berated by the driver when it spits your money back out!
Second, the seats rattled really loudly. I've taken buses in other places that have ramps, folding seats, extra belts and so forth to accommodate wheel chairs and none of them rattled like this. Nothing a couple rubber bushings and grommets couldn't solve.
My final complaint is that the clock that's visible to passengers was off by like 15 minutes. It was actually kind of funny because when I was sitting up front I could see the time was right on the clock on the dashboard, but the one up above that's supposed to help passengers was way off.
Overall, the ride itself was fine. It took me where I needed to go for cheap and
the ride was comfortable. It was like a five or ten minute ride, then I told the driver where I wanted to get off,
and then I had just a short walk home. If I had walked the whole way it would've taken like an hour. They just need to run more often. Between the valuable real estate squandered on surface parking at the train station and the rate of drunk driving on Long Island, improving bus service would pay for itself, but those are topics for future posts.
