The confluence of these factors has not gone unnoticed on the Island. In January, the Staten Island Advance published a series of lengthy Sunday features on traffic and transportation ("The Traffic Mess"), and instituted several new regular transportation columns.

Borough President Guy Molinari also made traffic issues central to his January State of the Borough address. Molinari said his office would fund development of a new computerized traffic model of Staten Island traffic patterns so officials and citizens can get a better picture of potential road system changes. He also outlined a set of relatively small priority projects like connecting some segments of street and parkways, creating turning lanes on some major roads, building new entrances to the Staten Island Expressway, experimenting with "smart" traffic signals to facilitate left hand turns on busy thoroughfares, and extending Forest Hill Road. He also talked of ferry service improvements, more express buses, and finding a site for a ferry stop on the South Shore.

Transit workers in Amalgamated Transit Union Local 726 responded to Molinari's speech by saying the Borough President is more interested in supplanting New York City Transit service with private bus lines than in pragmatically winning better bus service for Staten Island. Molinari says the MTA is unwilling to invest in Staten Island.

The Advance series chronicled traffic congestion's impacts on families, the economy, and emergency response times. It also described the human toll of frequent car crashes. It touched on a range of potential solutions, from small road projects to roadway pricing and transit construction.

Unfortunately, the series did not address the need to create a plan for future Staten Island land development to help guide transportation investments and potentially make transit expansion more viable. The paper's editors also discussed Islanders' "preference" for using cars, without noting the high market share transit enjoys where it actually serves Staten Island well (for work trips to and from Manhattan).

Neither Molinari nor the Advance called for widening the Staten Island Expressway or construction of a second I-278 Goethals highway bridge. Both encouraged Islanders to overcome a reflexive "not in my backyard" reaction to any proposed project, though the Advance said concerns about new traffic induced by additional highway capacity on Staten Island were real.