RIDERS TOUGHING OUT STRIKE.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

Frustrated bus and subway riders car-pooled, hailed cabs, walked or took shuttles Monday, as the first workday of the MTA strike caused inconvenience but didn't grind the city to a halt.

Even with some 450,000 stranded bus and subway riders, the California Highway Patrol reported a normal Monday commute with no major traffic jams, despite 5 percent more vehicles on freeways.

``The increase in traffic that we're experiencing today hasn't really impacted the system yet,'' said CHP Officer Frank Sansone. ``So far, it's business as usual.''

Caltrans has agreed to hold off work on freeways until the strike ends, unless for an emergency, officials said.

Even though the strike was called at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, many bus and rail riders still ended up at bus stops Monday along one of the busiest corridors in the San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard.

Some riders hoped they had found one of 42 lines still operating. Some mulled over alternate bus and shuttle schedules. Others relied on friends, or loaded into vans that entrepreneurs or good Samaritans used to pick up and drop off groups of riders.

And then there were those who simply waited at bus stops for buses that would never come.

Latreyla Hawkins waited for nearly 90 minutes at a stop on Burbank and Van Nuys boulevards before finally giving up and calling in sick to work.

``I got up about 5:30 thinking maybe a bus would come,'' said the Sherman Oaks resident, whose car's clutch was on the fritz.

Anita Gringer, who works in Woodland Hills, waited in vain at a bus stop near Oakdale Avenue on Ventura Boulevard. She didn't know about the strike.

``I've got to get someone to take me home or I'll faint,'' she said in the blistering heat of the afternoon.

Gringer later found a co-worker to give her a ride.

For some, the strike has been an economic boon, among them cabbies, who reported tremendous increases in business.

``Everybody's taking calls. There's no lunch, and no break for anyone,'' said Asfaw Teferi, a manager at United Taxi of San Fernando Valley, who estimated the company saw about 40 more calls for service every hour.

For some, one day's worth of cab rides strained the budget, and others couldn't afford it at all.

``I can't take a taxi,'' said Tamara Vozuyuk, 60, of Van Nuys. She decided to stick it out and wait for a bus on Burbank Boulevard at Van Nuys, just in case one came. ``It's very expensive. I don't like the strike. It's not good for me.''

Some couldn't wait. Elizabeth Lockhart, 32, a manager at a Panorama City Togo's sandwich shop, decided to walk from a bus stop nearly a mile to work at The Plant.

``I'm so mad,'' said the Sherman Oaks resident.

Army veteran Jose Cuellar, 49, needed a bus ride to the Metrolink station to go to a Veterans Administration hospital downtown for his heart medication.

``I've had seven heart attacks and two small strokes,'' he said while waiting for a northbound Van Nuys Boulevard bus near Sherman Way. ``I've been catching hell since I lost my car. I use the subway a lot. The strike is going to destroy me.''

Others, like Sun Valley resident Tomi Yamada, 59, couldn't find a ride Monday to North Hollywood to the home of an ailing senior citizen.

She said if the strike continued Tuesday, she'd walk.

``I have to get there,'' she said. ``Tomorrow I will walk. It is very important to get there because she is very disabled. She really needs me.''

Sitting at a bus stop along Ventura Boulevard, east of Winnetka Avenue, 46-year-old Ruby Reyes of Van Nuys said she was waiting for a Smart Shuttle, adding that she had called the service and found out that the usual 5:10 pickup would be late because they were overbooked.

As Reyes waited, 24-year-old George Tunche of Los Angeles pulled up in a white van and offered a ride.

``I used to ride the bus, and I know how it is for people who go to work,'' he said. ``I'm coming from work right now.''

For the bus operators, the day was spent on the picket line.

About 40 bus drivers demonstrated in front of the MTA's West Valley division in Chatsworth.

Metro Rapid driver James Nowak said he can sympathize with bus riders and hopes for a swift conclusion to the strike.

But he also said the drivers must strike to get what he believes they deserve.

``I want to go back to work,'' said Nowak, 47. ``I'm not getting paid for this, and I don't like marching in front of the gate.''

Staff Writer Orith Goldberg contributed to this story.

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Photo:

A commuter who usually takes the bus to work accepts a lift from a sympathetic passer-by at a Van Nuys bus stop Monday.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

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