What if They Gave A Bus Strike and Nobody Noticed

One thing about living in the car culture of Southern California, mass transit doesn't play a major role (or any role) in the lives of most people. Case in point, yesterday the OCTA bus drivers went on strike and I didn't even notice it until I saw it on the news last night. In many major cities with good mass transit systems a bus strike would hit people of all economic levels, but not here. Unfortunately, a strike in Orange County only affects those who can least afford the disruption.

ORANGE – Thousands of residents who rely on Orange County Transportation Authority buses to get around were left stranded Saturday after more than 1,100 OCTA bus drivers left the negotiating table and went on strike — ending a 60-day cooling-off period order sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The strike reduced OCTA's schedule from 81 routes to 30 throughout the weekend. On Monday, administrators who are former bus drivers will run an additional abbreviated version of Route 43 from Fullerton to Costa Mesa along Harbor Boulevard. It will operate as normal, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

Officials said the strike will affect 225,000 riders during the week and about half of that on the weekends.

In the last couple of years I visited New York City and Washington D.C., both having excellent mass transit systems. Many residents in each city don't own cars because they don't really need to. The transit system is enough to get them where they need to go. The Los Angeles/Orange County area is very widely spread out and was pretty much developed for cars, with lots of freeways and surface streets, but not much emphasis on mass transit.

In all my life I've never ridden on an OCTA bus.