The MTA and NYCDOT’s fourth Select Bus Service (SBS) project saw its first day of heavy use on Staten Island today, and the optimized bus route is already saving commuters time, according to one Staten Island Advance report. The paper noted one journey’s time savings of 10% on the Staten Island Mall-Bay Ridge route this morning, even with heavy traffic on the line’s Brooklyn end. The route kicked off its service on Sunday, but today was the first day of operations in full commuter traffic.

Staten Island’s S79 SBS line saves riders time in a variety of ways. Several miles of new, dedicated lanes allow buses to move through congested areas more easily, and a pared-down roster of stops allows more efficient service on the 16-mile route. The bus will now stop at 22 stations (down from 80), and S59 and S78 service will pick up the slack at local stops.

The city also took several steps to improve travel for Staten Island pedestrians, bus riders, and drivers along the route, including:

• Added sidewalks;
• Five pedestrian islands;
• Seven new bus shelters;
• A mile of resurfacing on Hylan Boulevard; and
• New left turn lanes.

NYCDOT and the MTA will also add further time-saving technology to the route in coming months—while traffic signaling has already been improved, transit signal priority will be implemented in the spring of 2013. The latter will keep lights green for buses and reduce the amount of time that they spend idling at reds.

The changes benefit approximately 9,000 daily S79 riders, and many other Hylan Boulevard and Richmond Avenue bus riders will benefit as well, since other buses will be allowed in the dedicated lanes. About 32,000 riders travel on Hylan Boulevard routes daily, including S79 commuters.