For New Yorkers--Staten Island sucks for bicycling in and around the island and cyclists get almost zero courtesy and respect from most Staten Island drivers--but--if you live less than half an hour from the Staten Island Ferry and work in Manhattan-SI is not a bad place to commute from. I have a mostly downhill ride to the Staten Island waterfront at Front street (parallel to Bay Street), which leads to the ferry terminal. (Takes me about 17- 20 minutes at a lesiurely pace of 10 - 15 mph-it's about 3.5 miles from my house to the St. George ferry terminal.) Then a pleasant free ride on the ferryboat for 25 minutes, when I arrive in lower Manhattan. Then a car-free ride up the east side greenway, along the east river and parallel to the FDR drive (for part of that ride I am only a few feet away from the highway, but there is a separation barrier). At 34th street the greenway is interrupted and doesn't resume until the east 60s, but I bike onto 1st Avenue from 34th near the heliport, and only have 23 blocks more to go until I reach my office at 3d Avenue and 55th. So Staten Island-Manhattan is not a bad place to commute from--it takes just about as much time for me (approx. 80 minutes) than it would if I took the Staten Island Rapid Transit train from my house to the ferry and then the subway to from lower Manhattan to East Midtown.