STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — When driving through Staten Island, it can feel like there’s traffic on just about every street.

But there’s no doubt there are certain roadways where the sheer volume of vehicles can lead to demoralizing, gridlock-like conditions that can infuriate even the most patient of drivers.

So which of the borough’s oft-congested streets is the worst of the worst? We set out to find out.

The Advance/SILive.com sent five reporters to drive roughly 4 miles each on one of the borough’s busiest roadways at the same exact time during a recent evening rush hour.

The drives began at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 8.

The roads we chose were: Victory Boulevard, Forest Avenue, Richmond Road, Richmond Terrace and Hylan Boulevard.

The traffic on the most congested roadway was so bad that it took us longer to drive those 4 miles than it did for Eddie D’Anna, Advance/SILive.com director of breaking news and visuals, to jog 4 miles at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk, which took roughly 35 minutes.

It’s important to note that the following experiences only represent that day’s traffic conditions, which can vary drastically based on the day of the week and the weather.

Below is what we found. The routes are listed from the least painful drive to the most painful.

Richmond Terrace, from St. George Ferry Terminal to Morningstar Road

Drive time: 17 minutes, 58 seconds

Average speed: 13.4 miles per hour

Reporter: Shaina McLawrence

I am not going to front, just the thought of tackling the busiest 4-mile stretch of Richmond Terrace during the evening rush hour was a thought that gave me an instant migraine.

However, as I departed from the St. George Ferry Terminal, I hoped that my drive would not be as headache-inducing as I thought.

My journey began fairly smoothly with light traffic and the ability to maintain the posted 30 mph speed limit using the cruise control feature on my car.

The first slowdown I encountered was near the intersection of Jersey Street and Richmond Terrace in New Brighton, where a few cyclists in the bike lane and merging vehicles caused speeds to dip to around 20 mph.

By the time I passed Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden and Bard Avenue in Livingston, traffic had thinned out once again, offering a short stretch of relief.

However, around Richmond Terrace and Broadway in West Brighton, I hit a major slowdown with bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go traffic that included cars blocking intersections. That slowdown reduced my speed to the teens.

I pushed through and eventually reached Morningstar Road in Elm Park after about 18 minutes on the road.

I’d like to think that the Staten Island traffic Gods spared me during roughly half of my trip up from the St. George Ferry Terminal to Morningstar Road.

And for that I must say, “Thank you!”

Victory Boulevard, from Bay Street to Woolley Avenue

Drive time: 21 minutes, 11 seconds

Average speed: 11.3 miles per hour

Reporter: Erik Bascome

As a lifelong North Shore resident, I’ve driven Victory Boulevard more times than I can count.

While the traffic volume is nowhere near as high as some of the borough’s other main roadways, the one-lane nature of the boulevard from Bay Street to Willowbrook Road, coupled with the various bus lines that run along the route, has left me stranded in stand-still traffic on many occasions.

However, Thursday’s drive went about as smoothly as possible.

As I made my way down from Bay Street in Tompkinsville, the first half of the drive was a breeze, with few other cars and only a handful of buses and bicyclists sharing the road.

I reached Clove Road, which is about 2.2 miles into the 4-mile drive, in just 7 minutes.

But as is often the case, that’s where things started to slow down.

Cars began to build up just outside the WWII Veterans Memorial Ice Skating Rink in Clove Lakes Park, with it taking me about five minutes to cover the half-mile stretch from the rink to Slosson Avenue.

Truthfully, that’s not too bad for that area given my previous experiences on the boulevard. The stretch of road tends to be busier earlier in the afternoon when PS 29 and St. Teresa-St. Rita STREAM Academy in Castleton Corners dismiss their students.

It then took just two minutes to get from Slosson Avenue to Manor Road in Castleton Corners, even after I was slowed by the new traffic light that was recently installed at Hodges Place, between Costello’s Ace Hardware and Castleton Hill Moravian Church.

Four minutes later I had reached Jewett Avenue, the point at which traffic tends to lighten up on Victory Boulevard as drivers exit the business-laden commercial stretch of the road.

By 5:21, I had made it to Woolley Avenue in Willowbrook and completed my 4-mile drive, which was one of the quickest, smoothest rides along Victory Boulevard I’ve experienced in years.

Forest Avenue, from Victory Boulevard to South Avenue

Drive time: 22 minutes, 30 seconds

Average speed: 10.7 miles per hour

Reporter: Scott R. Axelrod

Shoving off from the corner of Victory Boulevard and Forest Avenue in Silver Lake was a pleasant enough start to my journey as a picturesque view of Silver Lake Park featured parents chasing children, joggers enjoying life and dogs doing their business.

Heading down Forest, there was volume, and that herky-jerky, start-stop of easing on and off the brake already made me want to put my fist through the steering column.

I had to stop myself from screaming profanities like I’m the little girl from “The Exorcist,” as there were enough cars ahead of me to classify this as traffic and they all were stopping every few inches.

The issue with Forest Avenue is that the traffic light sequence is not programmed in a way to keep things flowing, so you’re sitting at a red light at almost every intersection.

When the light did turn green, I barely moved up before it changed to red again, and I threw up my hands hoping for some validation from the guy next to me who wouldn’t even look over.

When I did start moving, somewhere near Forest and Jewett avenues in Port Richmond, I turned my head and thought to myself “Oh, that’s where that restaurant is that I didn’t realize was over here.” That’s when I almost rear-ended the SUV in front of me.

A few blocks later I hit that lucky light streak of greens as far as my sun-squinted eyes could see, and it was a smooth ride, except that I kept getting stuck behind someone stopping to make a left.

Things got worse when I hit Willow Road West, where a turning lane enters the mix, and I had to hold myself back from saying bad words while I mustered the courage to change lanes away from the drivers clogging things up.

Free from that mess, I eventually passed Richmond Avenue; the volume had dissolved, except for a pickup truck in front of me swerving in a way that someone probably should have gotten involved. I flipped my blinker and turned left onto South Avenue as if a spirit had suddenly taken over the wheel.

My admittedly unnecessary road rage magically melted away.

Richmond Road, from Van Duzer Street to Rockland Avenue

Drive time: 24 minutes, 38 seconds

Average speed: 9.7 miles per hour

Reporter: Luke Peteley

Hey, anything beats Hylan, right?

I never thought I’d willingly desire to sit in traffic, but I wanted to see for myself if these alternate routes really make a difference.

As we discussed in a special podcast , Hylan is a mess. And I already know what you’re thinking: “Thanks, Captain Obvious.”

So to avoid that mess, some residents elect to take Richmond Road, which runs parallel.

But is it worth the effort?

I set off from where Richmond Road starts, at the CITGO station in the vicinity of Van Duzer Street and Vanderbilt Avenue in Clifton.

At first, it was predominantly smooth sailing, given that I used to take Richmond Road home after a day of courses at St. John’s University on Grymes Hills. I was pretty familiar with the lane changes, of which there are quite a few; some lanes suddenly become mandatory turning lanes that need to be avoided.

I’m well aware of the chaos on Richmond Road outside of PS/I.S. 48 in Concord at dismissal and I know that on many days the parked and stopped cars outside the restaurants near Four Corners Road can shut down an entire lane and trigger a surge in bumper to bumper traffic.

But in my case, the ride was steady until I reached Hunter Avenue in Grant City, where traffic was backed up from where Richmond meets Todt Hill Road.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the prior travel was painless. I encountered a driver who felt the world should wait for them and decided to try and cross a double yellow so they could stop at the deli and maybe get a soda or something — but hey, not like the rest of us have anywhere to be. Otherwise, it was just another ride in which I swapped lanes a handful of times to avoid turning lanes and a parked car or two.

As I said, the traffic slowed down from Todt Hill Road to Hunter Avenue. Why? Truthfully, it just seemed like there were too many people. But again, what else is new?

Traffic eased up a bit going around the bend along Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, but it was maybe a minute before that brief period of freedom was snuffed out by the crawling traffic backed up from where Richmond Road meets Amboy Road.

That was the worst of it: It must have taken me another eight minutes to get from Altamont Street to Amboy Road.

Once the Amboy Road traffic split off from Richmond, there was another backup to get to Rockland.

Now the problem here is that this stretch of Richmond is treated like a two-lane road when there are no lines indicating such. Those in the makeshift “left lane” wish to turn onto Richmond, those in the imaginary “right lane” are heading for Rockland. It’s a miracle to me that I have yet to witness a car accident from someone unaware of the “unspoken” two-lane stretch of Richmond.

Once I reached my destination at Rockland in Egbertville and checked the time, I was surprised to find that it only took nearly 25 minutes.

Knowing what my colleague who drove Hylan Boulevard sat through, I count myself lucky.

Hylan Boulevard, from Fingerboard Road to Guyon Avenue

Drive time: 49 minutes, 43 seconds

Average speed: 4.8 miles per hour

Reporter: Mike Matteo

I mean, what else would it be?

Not trying to say I drew the short straw here but I think we all expected this one to be the worst.

What’s always deceptive about driving during the evening rush hour on Hylan is that there’s usually a stretch where things are moving as they should. For me, this was essentially the first mile and a half, or so.

Starting from Angels’ Circle in Grasmere, the drive to around Burgher Avenue in Dongan Hills only took a few minutes — no more than five.

Around Cromwell Avenue, not far from Rab’s Country Lanes, it seemed like traffic was getting more dense but was still moving reasonably well, considering it was the p.m. rush hour.

Near Naughton Avenue, basically in front of the Staples on Hylan Boulevard, is where I hit a wall of start/stop traffic.

I couldn’t see how far things were stretching out in front of me, because of several SUVs and pickups that were much taller than my humble 2002 sedan.

But in that moment, I had a good feeling that traffic sprawled out well past Midland and probably past New Dorp Lane as well .

I’d like to say that this traffic was because of a specific, fixable issue. However, after a lot of time sitting in it and thinking, I don’t know if there’s a reason besides the sheer number of people on the road at the same time.

The worst of the traffic on this drive came between Jefferson Avenue in Dongan Hills and Lincoln Avenue in Grant City.

To me, this says that the worst traffic happens when all the cars already on Hylan have to merge with all the vehicles taking side streets to come up from Capodanno Boulevard.

Another contributor — and something I saw a lot of during this drive — is when the through traffic on Hylan tries to cheat a yellow or red light and ends up blocking intersections.

While I was also guilty of it, I saw this behavior a lot and it leaves traffic turning from the cross streets completely in the lurch.

After running the gauntlet from Jefferson Avenue down past Lincoln Avenue, things did ease a touch.

Near the NYPD’s 122nd Precinct stationhouse in New Dorp, traffic was still constant but was no longer stop-and-go. Then past New Dorp it eased even more.

Eventually, I made it past Tysens Lane and was driving back above 30 mph for the first time in a long time.

Finally, I was past Guyon Avenue. I stopped my timer and when I looked back, the tide of traffic that had been with me for so many miles had broken and rolled back. And much how I started this drive, I felt like the only car on the road.

Staten Island traffic SOS