Ignoring the bus lines is pretty wacky. I grew up in Queens, and rode the bus all of the time. My dad took the bus to the express train to manhattan for several years.

The bus isn't sexy, but it works and is often less unpleasant than the subway.

Also, you need to remember how places like Queens developed. It was mostly little downs until about 100 years ago. The house I grew up in was part of a 120 acre farm as late as 1897! It developed into a sort of inner suburb... And as density increased, the cost of acquiring land and building infrastructure hockey-sticked upward.