Mishmash on Wheels : Transportation: Drivers are staging a slowdown on Bus Line 7, where working people and tourists frequently find themselves sharing seats with the curious and the oddball, but none of the assorted passengers seem to mind.

Every day of the week, Gary Hood sees the young and the old, the black and the white, the poor and the not-as-poor. They climb on the bus Hood happens to be driving that day--always on the No. 7 line, busiest in the city--and his eyes follow them to their destinations.

They might be students, riding past San Diego High to an after-school job. They might be tourists from Virginia, or Tokyo, or New Zealand, looking for the San Diego Zoo, as if, at that moment, nothing else existed.

They might include Mike, a shirtless day laborer, who hopes his biceps impress the teen-age girl on the bus. Finally, with a sigh and a thank-you as loud as a cheer, he gets her telephone number.

They might be as fearless as Roseanna, who rides the 7 late at night, from her job at a Dairy Queen in Mission Valley, back to her home in Normal Heights. It takes a transfer or two, even at shadowy stops, peopled by strangers who don’t look kind.

“I have my guardian angels surrounding me, there and there,” she said, pointing to the seats on each side. “On this route, faith is my constant companion.”

Dependability, and faith that the bus will be there, have made the 7 the most popular route in San Diego.

The line now operates every six minutes during weekdays, from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., said Roger Snoble, general manager of the San Diego Transit Corp.

Snoble said the increased schedule has contributed to a 14% jump in ridership, from 14,000 to 16,000 riders a day during the week, since the change took effect Feb. 3. But in recent days, the route has been hindered by a new complication.

In a labor dispute with management, San Diego Transit drivers have employed a tactic since April 8. On that day, drivers began following the company rule book and the California Vehicle Code to the letter. Their interpretation is literal, so what’s emerged is a slowdown.

A very serious slowdown.

If the speed limit says 35 m.p.h., drivers drive 35 m.p.h. If a light is yellow, they never go through it. The rule book says the bus should not be in motion until every oncoming passenger is seated. The drivers try to follow suit.

The tactic was visible last week, when buses on the 7 were piling up three and four at a time at various stops. A few customers grumbled but not many. The bulk of the discontent was clearly with the drivers.

“Our contract expired three years ago!” bellowed one, who asked not to be quoted by name. “One of our biggest beefs is that they (management) write the schedules real tight. What’s going on now wouldn’t be possible if the schedules were written properly.”

A.E. (Gene) Napier, president and business manager of the San Diego Bus Drivers’ Union, offered the official version:

“We need to get proper running times, where schedules can be made without breaking laws and rules. Far too many drivers have to go out on disabilities. We only get 15-minute lunch breaks and essentially are given little or no time to relieve ourselves at the end of a run.

“So, what we’ve decided to do is follow the book--management’s book--to the letter. The effect? It’s causing some problems in scheduling. Buses are stacking up at certain stops, especially when you have a 6-minute headway, as you do now on route 7.”

A spokeswoman for the San Diego Transit Corp. declined comment on the drivers’ latest move.

Adrienne Anderson, 17, said she felt confused recently, wondering which No. 7 to choose at various stops downtown. She takes the 7 from her home in East San Diego to San Diego High and then back again. She sometimes rides it to an after-school job.

“No. 7 is just funner than the other buses,” Adrienne, a high school junior, said. “And it’s faster, because now it runs every six minutes. Even though they been stackin’ up, I haven’t had a problem catchin’ one--just figurin’ out which one.

“The kind of people that get on the 7 are more exciting than on any other line. They like to talk. There’s lot of chattin’ goin’ on every day. You can meet a lot of real interesting people.”

And then she laughed.

Adrienne said that one day recently the man in front of her lit up a pipe-load of marijuana, and no one seemed to mind, or even notice the aroma wafting over the rows.

“He just smoked the whole thing right in front of everybody,” she said with amazement.

Adrienne boards every morning around 7 and comes home every afternoon around 2:45. The 7 follows a circular route through the Centre City area, moving from the Santa Fe Depot to Seaport Village to the Convention Center before barreling down Broadway to Park Boulevard.

Customers on the downtown portion are generally “more touristy,” to use Adrienne’s word, than those on the tired, commuter-bound eastern leg. The 7 snakes past the San Diego Zoo, turns right onto University Avenue and rolls all the way to 69th Street in La Mesa.

It turns around and makes the same trip on the return route, Monday through Friday and on the weekends. (The new schedule includes more frequent runs on Saturday and Sunday as well.)

Mike McGill, 28, said he rides the 7 twice a day. He said the 7 is often “SRO”--standing room only--but he likes it that way. McGill said he loves to get on, sans shirt, and see how many women wish to engage in conversation and an exchange of phone numbers.

McGill was asked what else he liked about the 7.

“Do you realize we have one of the finest zoos in the world?” he said.

Does he ever get off and visit the zoo?

“Well, no . . . . I just like driving by, knowin’ it’s there. It’s real, real pretty, even from the outside, and I’m a man who enjoys beauty.”

Barry East, 22, from New Zealand, and his pal, Frank Simpson, 20, from Amherst, Mass., were on the 7 to get off and see the zoo.

So were Harry and Muriel Yang from Richmond, Va. They said the 7 was the most convenient line for anyone attending a convention, as they were last week.

The 7 is also convenient for those in fear of driving. Angela Lange, 29, from East San Diego, said she believed all the figures about driving being more hazardous than flying. She takes the 7 out of a concern for safety and security.

“I’m flat-out scared to drive,” she said, as the bus moved past bench signs reading “FAST DIVORCE? BANKRUPTCY? and DON’T BE STOOPID STAY IN SCHOOL.”

Lange works as a home-care nurse for the elderly. She never has to be any place at a set time, so the bus is hardly a liability. Raquel Traylor, 19, said that since her car was wrecked, she’s been forced to take the bus, and getting to work on time hasn’t been easy.

“You meet the strangest people on the bus,” she said, as the 7 zipped past the tortillerias, tire stores and TV repair shops of University Avenue, heading east. “One night, there was the strangest little man, with very small eyes . . . Oops, well, there’s my stop!”

And off she got, without finishing the story.

Those who fear driving are often joined on the 7 by those too poor to own and maintain a car in Southern California. Luis Urrutia, 23, and his wife, Carmen, 19, were riding the 7 with their month-old daughter, Jeanette, taking her to the pediatrician. They boarded in Hillcrest and got off in City Heights.

Lewis Ruth, 63, rides the 7, via transfers, from his home in Oak Park to a supermarket in East San Diego that he says is the cheapest in town.

“My only income is Social Security,” Ruth said. “Buses and low-cost supermarkets are the only way this old boy gets by.”

Monica Releford, 23, from East San Diego, rides the bus to work each day, or to medical appointments with her children, ages 5 and 2. On a recent morning, Releford and her children were dressed immaculately, as she said anyone should be en route to a doctor.

“I love the bus,” Releford said. “I used to ride all the time, back home in New Orleans . . . .”

She looked out the window, and stayed quiet for a while.

“This No. 7 here is sometimes crowded, but isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be, now that they’re runnin’ ‘em every six minutes,” she said.

A few minutes later, Releford got out, her children scampering alongside. As she walked by, her son waved to the driver.

“See you later,” the driver said. “See you later.”