Filming Leaves Valley Bus Riders Stranded

Rerouting buses to accommodate film production crews may be routine for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but transit officials found the timing especially bad Wednesday night in Van Nuys.

As people were leaving an MTA-sponsored community meeting on bus service, many in the crowd of several dozen found that their buses were unavailable because Los Angeles police had closed a nearly one-mile stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard for the filming of a soft-drink commercial.

MTA buses, along with other traffic, were redirected away from the site.

“We’re stranded!” several bus riders cried.

The startled--and no doubt embarrassed--MTA officials quickly offered to chauffeur some of the residents to the nearest bus stop outside the closed area.

Others who found themselves looking for buses along Van Nuys Boulevard were angry and confused. Some fell asleep on benches, unaware that buses would not pass through the area for several hours.

“I have things to do,” said Debra Giron, 16, who needed to go to Studio City.

She sought information on a cardboard hand-written sign posted at the bus stop announcing a “temporary stop change” at Vose or Hatteras streets.

“Where’s Vose Street? Where’s Hatteras?” asked Giron, who was new to the area. The sign and a route map underneath offered no clues.

Trudging past with hunched shoulders, construction worker Juan Meneces said he had to walk 15 blocks to get home.

“These are the things bus riders face,” said Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition, a Sylmar-based rider advocacy group, just before he was offered a car ride home from the meeting. “It’s so Kafka-esque. Here we are working on bus improvements, and the city of L.A. and their filming is thwarting us trying to get home.”

Street closures result in the detouring, on average, of one bus line daily among the MTA’s 185 lines, agency spokesman Ed Scannell said. The Van Nuys Boulevard closure, which required rerouting buses on at least three lines for three nights, was scheduled to end today.

City officials estimate that other special events, ranging from parades to the Academy Awards, result in more than 1,000 street closures annually. City and entertainment industry officials said diverting traffic for rolling cameras is a fact of life in Los Angeles.

“The city and the county understand what this industry means to the economy,” said Morrie Goldman, spokesman for the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which helps production companies obtain filming permits that result in street closures.

“Unfortunately, sometimes it can be an inconvenience.”