Gypsy Cabs Fill Void--Some for Profit, Some Just to Help

In transportation as in physics, nature abhors a vacuum, and Angelenos are moving quickly to fill the one created by the 4-day-old MTA strike.

Whether driven by need or greed, they have taken to the streets in their cars, vans and buses, providing a makeshift jitney service for a price--if not always for a profit.

From the San Fernando Valley to South-Central Los Angeles, from Westlake to the Westside, so many drivers plied the streets during the morning and evening rush hours in private vehicles that a windfall some licensed taxi drivers had expected has yet to materialize.

Floyd and Diana Jones, who own a charter bus company, pulled into a transit terminal at Rimpau and Pico boulevards in the Mid-City area about 3 p.m., and desperate commuters swarmed their plush 49-seat shuttle bus, outfitted with crushed-velvet seats, air-conditioning and a television set.

“I catch the bus and I realize that these people need to get where they’re going,” said Diana Jones, who collected a $1.25 fare from each passenger. “Yesterday, these people begged us to come back because the vans out there are charging $4 a person, and that’s just a rip-off.”

The Joneses said they decided to use their bus, which they usually rent for $50 an hour, to shuttle passengers after they went to the terminal Monday to pick up their son, 13, and riders pleaded with them for a ride.

“They were just begging us,” said Floyd Jones, adding that all the money from fares is used to buy gas. “To be honest with you, we’re not making any money.”

And when some passengers don’t have the fare, Diana Jones said, “we just let them get on anyway.”

Along Wilshire Boulevard, between Western Avenue and downtown, Miguel Gonzalez, 56, and his wife Rosa Maria, 45, began giving rides Monday afternoon after she had gone to the hospital that morning for a routine diabetes checkup and heard the stories of people who had struggled to make their medical appointments because of the strike.

“Many people who need to go to the doctor or take their children somewhere can’t go because they don’t have the money,” he said.

He generally charged $1 a person but said he would give a free ride to those who couldn’t pay. In two hours of driving, he picked up about 20 people. But he said he had spent $10 for gas, leaving him with little profit.

The growing cadre of jitney and gypsy cab drivers generally charge between $1 and $2, but some passengers said drivers in outlying areas are charging double that.

Javier Solis charged $2 on a route along Wilshire that he and a friend drove. That fare, Solis said, is a lot less than MTA executives have been stealing from the city.

“Apoyamos la huelga! (“We support the strike),” Solis yelled as his full car raced off.

Another driver, Miguel Cardona, said he was charging $1.

“It’s important to work together,” Cardona said, gesturing to the people waiting for a ride. “I’m poor too.”

The willingness of many drivers to offer rides for what passengers consider reasonable fares has left some licensed taxi drivers with long faces.

Cabdriver Edward Jordan does not share the generosity some private drivers have shown. When contract talks stalled Saturday between the MTA and its drivers, Jordan went to bed early with visions of extra money dancing in his head.

“It was like we were kids waiting for Christmas,” he said.

But Christmas has not arrived.

His business is up slightly, he said, but most of his fares are for short distances, and his passengers are not people stranded by the strike.

“It hasn’t been what everybody thought it would be,” he said. “Everybody thought we were just going to drive down the streets and fill up our cars. It’s not like that.”

What it’s like is better reflected at the Metro Red Line stop at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, a busy pickup and drop-off point for stranded riders.

Starting about 8 a.m., someone in a battered sedan, van or sport utility vehicle pulls up every few minutes and passengers surround them shouting: “How much?”

Fares at this stop range from $1 to $4, and there were lots of takers as passengers piled into cars well beyond their capacity.

Delivery driver Luis Valentan, 27, called those drivers “greedy.” He borrowed his boss’ utility van Tuesday to offer free rides all over the city.

Even though the van has a plywood floor and no seats, dozens of people readily accepted his offer and rode sitting on the floor.

Valentan remembered bandit cabdrivers taking advantage of him during the last transit strike, and he said he didn’t want that to happen to others.

“I see their faces,” he said. “They’re desperate. One guy, he jumped out in front of my car. He was waving his hands and yelling: ‘Wait! Wait!’ ”

Valentan said one well-dressed passenger offered him $5 for a ride from Alvarado Street to Vermont Avenue, but he refused it.

“I like to feel like I’m doing something for people,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re black or Asian or Latino. They’re humans. We’re all the same, no?”

But the bandit cabs and jitneys are not for every stranded commuter. At the corner of North Soto Street and Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, consultant Alonzo Villarreal said he chose to miss meetings and rearrange his work schedule rather than travel by bandit cab from his 1st Street office to appointments in West Hollywood.

“I don’t think they’re safe,” he said. “Lots of them don’t have licenses or insurance.”

Early Tuesday, he said he saw an eight-seat van loaded down with about 14 people.

One woman, who would not give her name, was ready to pay someone $10 to drive her from Panorama City to Calabasas, where she works.

“I saw the pirates [cabs] yesterday,” she said in Spanish, “so I hope one comes back today.”

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Times correspondents Piccalo and Wides and Times staff writer Irene Garcia reported this story. It was written by staff writer Edward J. Boyer.