<p>How easy is it to go from SBU to Brooklyn? I am not familiar with the NY transportation system or the highways (I am from CA).</p>
<p>Would it be better to get a car, or just use the subway/buses? Would there be very long waits if I use public transportation instead of a car? How is the traffic in NY (way less than in CA, I'd bet)? Would this be very expensive if I went to Brooklyn often?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>There are no subways out in Long Island, you can take the LIRR(Long Island Railroad) which goes straight to the city(usually a transfer at some point to switch trains since locomotives in the tunnels won’t work well but the connecting train is always there and usually waits for the other train to leave the track to pull in). You can get off on the LIRR in Jamaica, Flushings, Hunters Point(There three are in queens) or in Penn Station in Manhattan. From there you take the subway which costs has a fare of $2.25. The LIRR will run you about $10.75 one way and twice that for round trip. It takes it about 2 hours to reach the city from Stony Brook station(which is on campus).
So yeah it can be expensive especially if you travel during the peak times(the tickets cost even more, peak is when you are traveling to the city in the morning or leaving the city in the evening). There are discounts for buying 10 trip tickets and a few other combinations but not much.
You can also use a car, traffic depends mostly on time of day but it can get bad, especially on the BQE which has a huge flow of cars but is undergoing alot of large construction and repair work on the aging highway spans. Keep in mind that you must be a commuter or a junior and above standing to have a car on campus.</p>
<p>That was a good answer, but this might be simpler: </p>
<p>It is at least 60 miles, depending what part of Bklyn you are going to. Traffic shouldn’t be bad, unless it’s rush hour. Rush hour is roughly 6:30 AM-9:30 AM and 3:30 PM-7 PM. There are a lot of commuters on L.I. going west in the morning and east in the evening, but a good amount of people commute the opposite way too. Figure about 90 minutes with average traffic.</p>
<p>Train is the LIRR to Jamaica, or maybe Manhattan. Again, all depends what part of Bklyn you are going to and which subway you need. Figure about 2 hrs. each way.</p>
<p>I am from california. I commuted from brooklyn to SBU for a semester.</p>
<p>Let me make this easy-get a car if it is easy for you to get one. … </p>
<p>The train takes way too long to get into brooklyn.</p>
<p>I was able to go from Midwood in brooklyn to SBU in 1 hour 15 min on a good day using Southern State in the early AM. the commute using public transport is twice as long and it is expensive… you are talking about approximatley 25-30 dollars and 2 hours later… it is faster and cheaper to use a car.</p>