Taking a Stand

Bus rider advocates launched their “No Seat, No Fare” campaign Tuesday, boarding some Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses during the morning and afternoon commute and urging passengers not to pay if they had to stand.

The protest was designed to call attention to continuing problems with overcrowding on MTA’s buses, but it was difficult to determine the fare strike’s impact on the transit agency’s operations.

Leaders of the Bus Riders Union said their efforts were concentrated on heavily used bus lines that serve the Eastside, South-Central, downtown, Pico-Union and the Hollywood area.

MTA spokesman Marc Littman said there were reports of protesters distributing leaflets on the buses, but there were no disruptions in service. Some passengers refused to pay the $1.35 fare, he said, but no figures on participation in the fare strike were immediately available.

Organizers of the protest said they were pleased with the first day results. “This is the beginning of a fare strike,” said Kikanza Ramsey of the Bus Riders Union. “For a beginning, it’s pretty darn good.”

Ramsey said the group’s supporters were given instructions to board buses and urge passengers not to pay for overcrowding and poor conditions.

On a crowded bus traveling down Western Avenue, organizer Geoff Ray led passengers in chanting “No Seat, No Fare” first in Spanish and then in English.

While many riders said they supported the protest, they also were reluctant to withhold their fare.

Rosa Castillo, 66, said she wouldn’t try it, although “it’s a beautiful idea.” Castillo said the bus is usually so crowded, she’s afraid that she will step on somebody’s toes and “make them mad, or a student will smack me with a backpack.”

Kamisha Cole, 14, a 10th-grader at Palisades High School, said she is sometimes late for school because the buses are so crowded they will not stop for passengers. But she wasn’t going to avoid paying the fare on her own. “The bus drivers are usually grouchy,” she said. “They would probably shut the door on my face.”

From now on, Charlotte Yarbrough, 51, from Inglewood, said she will not pay if she can’t find a seat. “Most working people like to sit down after a hard day’s work,” she said.

Yarbrough said the problem with the MTA is that “they put so much money on the trains they forgot about the buses.”

Although refusal to pay the fare is an infraction, MTA bus operators were instructed by the transit agency and their union not to get into a confrontation with those who didn’t pay.

MTA officials said the only incident reported to transit police involved a bus driver whose glasses were knocked off by a television newsman.

Littman said the MTA would not know until fare boxes are counted whether the strike had much impact on revenue. About $300,000 in cash and tokens are collected each day, but as many as half of the MTA’s passengers use passes.

In the San Fernando Valley, some riders who had heard about the protest were not interested in participating. “You look ridiculous protesting,” said Casandra Arredondo, 20. “Sometimes you get a seat and sometimes you don’t--that’s the way it goes.”

Arredondo, who travels on Line 223 from her North Hollywood neighborhood to her job as a baby-sitter in Van Nuys, said bus service in Los Angeles is bad, but not as bad as in Mexico, her home country.

“Back there, the buses are really packed,” she said.

But taking the threat of a fare strike seriously, the MTA last week asked a special master appointed by a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining blocking the fare strike. Donald T. Bliss Jr. issued a decision Monday denying the MTA’s request. He is responsible for ensuring that the MTA complies with a federal court order requiring a reduction in overcrowding and improvement in bus service.

Transit chief Julian Burke said Monday the MTA reserved the right to seek intervention. “We will closely monitor the threatened protest activities and will request the court’s intervention, if appropriate.”

The Bus Riders Union is demanding that the MTA buy 1,600 buses over the next two years to relieve overcrowding and replace its aging and breakdown-prone fleet. MTA officials say they plan to acquire 1,313 buses over the next six years.

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Times staff writer Jose Cardenas contributed to this report.