As MTA Strike Continues, Many Commuters Take to Their Bikes

Dressed in jeans and a denim shirt, black cowboy boots hooked into the pedals of an old 10-speed, Jose Sandoval is not your typical Spandex-wearing cyclist. But these are not typical times.

As the second week of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority strike drags on, many Los Angeles-area mass transit riders, such as Sandoval, are tooling around town on two wheels. While recognizing that the strike is having serious consequences for working people, bike advocates are hoping it will introduce some to the joys and benefits of cycling.

But on a torrid afternoon in the San Fernando Valley, Sandoval was not so enthusiastic. The 36-year-old Van Nuys resident pedals an hour to his job in Canoga Park.

“This is bad,” Sandoval said Tuesday as he rode down Van Nuys Boulevard. “There are no buses. And it’s really hot.”

Although police in various neighborhoods report no Beijing-style bike jams, employers from Childrens Hospital in east Hollywood to the Warner Center Hilton & Towers in Woodland Hills say more workers are filling up company bike racks. Regular bike commuters have seen an unusual number of riders on major streets. And bicycle stores, especially those trading in used bikes, report increased sales in the last two weeks.

Marco Calzadilla, co-owner of the Bike Wrench in Canoga Park, said he has seen an increased number of customers wheeling in old beaters to have them fixed up for commuting. Although the strike has been good for business, Calzadilla said he is worried about the safety of inexperienced cyclists on the hurried streets of Los Angeles.

Riding to work, he said, “can be kind of unnerving for someone who doesn’t ride regularly, especially in the morning. It can be pretty hairy out there. But after a couple of days, people started getting desperate.”

As more MTA customers are exposed to the realities of biking in L.A., the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition has seized the opportunity to call for a more bike-friendly region. Last week, the advocacy group staged a “demonstration ride” through demanding urban cycling terrain--South Figueroa Street and West Adams Boulevard--as well as streets that benefit from dedicated bike lanes.

“A lot of transit-dependent people who can’t take the bus or rail anymore are turning to the bike as their means of transportation, but they’re finding the conditions less than ideal,” said Ron Milam, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition. “I’ve seen a lot more people on the roads. There aren’t many bike lanes, and there are hardly any bike paths. There’s not much room on the road for cyclists. A lot of them are riding on the sidewalks, which creates a pedestrian-cyclist conflict.”

Rigoberto Maldonado, 35, rode on the sidewalk of Reseda Boulevard on Tuesday after buying his shiny blue bike for $100 the previous day. He said his 40-minute bike trip to work in Van Nuys from his home in Northridge was not easy.

“It’s a dangerous ride because the cars don’t respect you,” he said.

While the focus has been on buses for the last two weeks, the MTA is also responsible for bicycle projects in the county. The Bicycle Coalition wants to persuade the agency to spend at least 1% of its annual budget--or about $25 million a year--on bike paths, lanes and other improvements, Milam said.

The MTA currently funds about $6.9 million worth of bike projects a year, said Lynne Goldsmith, an MTA transportation planning manager. But many cities do not have room on their roads for dedicated bike lanes, she said.

“We don’t get many applications for the lanes that are on the street,” she said. “We’d like to see more of that, because the serious commuters want to be in the street in a bike lane. But the streets are so congested that it’s hard to find a place where a lane will fit.”

Michelle Mowery, the city of Los Angeles’ bicycle program coordinator, said the city has more than 300 miles of bike routes, lanes and paths, with 300 more miles planned. That amounts to more lanes than are found in bike-crazy Portland, Ore., which has 213 miles of lanes. But, Mowery noted, the city of Los Angeles encompasses 469 square miles and Portland is only 144.

“I think people think it’s a lot worse than it is [for cyclists],” Mowery said. “With that said, we’re not Portland--but that’s because we’re physically very different than Portland.”

For MTA riders relying on bikes, distance is often the biggest challenge. Chris Ziegler, a 35-year-old systems analyst from Monrovia, rode his bike to El Monte then hopped on a bus to his job downtown before the strike. Now he bikes the entire distance. It takes him one hour each way--about the same amount of time as his old commute.

“I’m not a huge fan of the MTA,” Ziegler said. “But I do miss them somewhat, because for me to cycle every single day is tiring.”

Joe Linton, president of the Bicycle Coalition, took the train from his home in Koreatown to his consulting job in Long Beach before the strike. Now he occasionally makes the 2 1/2-hour trip by bike, but he also telecommutes.

For house painters, such as 34-year-old Javier Jaco of Van Nuys, telecommuting is not an option. Jaco said his old bike is his only alternative.

“It makes life more difficult,” he said. “But at least I already had this bike, for emergencies.”

Although the Bicycle Coalition would like more commuters to think of their two-wheelers for more than just emergencies, it may take more than a strike and a few bike lanes to change Angeleno culture.

Stephen Foster, 18, has been riding a bike his mother bought him since the strike began. Will he continue cycling post-strike?

“No,” he said. “I want a car.”