ORANGE IS VALLEY'S FAVORITE COLOR COACH TRAVEL LURES DRIVERS.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

When Metro Orange Line buses rolled out on Oct. 29, few knew whether L.A. motorists would park their cars for double-coach commutes across the San Fernando Valley.

They have - in droves.

Six months after the nation's first busway with articulated buses opened, ridership has rocketed along the 14-mile route and is running more than three times original estimates.

"Before I started this, I thought, What a waste of taxpayers' funds," said Robert Earley, 71, of Simi Valley, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher who is among the 20 percent of dedicated drivers to abandon their cars for the Orange Line.

"But it's great: I can go anywhere in L.A. The advantage to me is cost."

Orange Line ridership along the $350 million route between North Hollywood and Warner Center set records in March, and now approaches the 21,000 mark, not projected until 2020.

Injury accidents between motorists and buses, which made headlines in the months after its fanfare launch, have ceased since February.

Noninjury crashes have dwindled to a minor fender bender in April.

And near-misses have plummeted from 200 during the first month to 60 in March.

So many residents have forsaken $3-a-gallon gas for $3-a-day bus and subway commutes that transit officials are considering adding buses - or even triple-length coaches - to absorb the flow.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said commuters who ditch their cars for the 40-minute ride across the Valley can save $5,000 a year on the busway.

"It's an overwhelming success. It's exceeded anyone's expectations, especially my own," said Yaroslavsky, an early Orange Line proponent who sits on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.

"Riders, after their first time, become addicted to it."

They include Nina Mahjoub, who has commuted on the Orange Line from Day One between her home in Woodland Hills and her job in Van Nuys.

"It's very fast; much faster than a car," said the 23-year-old structural engineer, looking up from her book as a coach whined below.

Or riders such as Vache Dergevorkian, who would rather take the Orange Line en route to the University of California, Los Angeles, than drive his car.

"Driving would take less time, but I would spend more on gas and parking," said Dergevorkian, 18, of Winnetka. "On the bus, I can study, read a book and not worry about traffic."

For decades, many residents had hoped that transportation taxes would pay for an east-west subway or light-rail line.

But Valley NIMBYs fought the rail lines. And the MTA, reeling from a botched Red Line building fiasco, scotched rail construction.

It was only after their tour of a Brazilian busway in 1999 that Yaroslavsky, former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and then-Mayor Richard Riordan embraced bus transit.

But as building of the Orange Line commenced, so did opposition. One Valley group, Citizens Organized for Smart Transit, successfully sued to shut down the project before winning a $300,000 settlement from the MTA.

To transportation consultant Tom Rubin, a former executive of the MTA's predecessor agency, the MTA has built a $350 million boondoggle.

"It's not a very good investment of public funds," he said. "Rapid buses would be faster, would have cost a small fraction - and for the same expenditure ... could have been put all over the Valley."

Others complained about noise.

Lisa Cerda, a member of the Tarzana Neighborhood Council, lives near the Orange Line and says it sounds like living next to a truck stop.

Though the MTA has promised to retrofit some homes, Cerda and her neighbors want a soundwall like those shielding other residents along the route.

"We're fighting for all residents," she said. "They need what every other community got - soundwalls."

MTA officials say they are addressing these concerns, and that for every 100 riders who praise the line, they get five complaints.

Among improvements now planned for the Orange Line:

An interactive public safety DVD to be passed out in May to 30,000 residents and schoolchildren along the route.

A dozen photo traffic enforcement cameras to be placed by June atop key busway intersections.

A nearly 600-space parking lot at a new Canoga Park station expected to open in December.

And a Wi-Fi system to be installed this summer on all Orange Line buses, allowing riders to surf the Internet from their laptops.

Meanwhile, a half-marathon is in the works for fall.

And MTA officials still have long-term plans for north-south designated bus routes from the Orange Line up Canoga Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevards to Metrolink stations.

"We want to meet their needs," said Richard Hunt, MTA general manager for the San Fernando Valley service sector, who designed the swept-back nose and skirted fenders of silver Orange Line buses.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy John Sands, after issuing a traffic warnings from his BMW intercepter, said traffic citations have dropped dramatically.

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

6 photos, chart

Photo:

(1 -- color) Orange Line passengers ride across the Valley during a recent morning.

(2 -- 4 -- color) Orange Line bus driver Trevor Smedley, top, takes passengers across the Valley. Above, engineer Nina Mahjoub, 23, applies makeup while riding from Woodland Hills to work in Van Nuys. At right, Thom McFadden of Woodland Hills rides the bus to visit his sons in downtown Los Angeles.

(5 -- color) Metro system ridership average weekday boardings.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(6 -- color) Orange Line riders board a bus at the North Hollywood station Wednesday afternoon. The bus line remains busy after its first six months of operation.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

Chart:

Metro System Ridership

Source: MTA

Warren Huskey/Staff Artist