SAN FRANCISCO — Day 3 of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District strike found commuters learning to cope without the trains that 275,000 people normally ride every weekday.
Even as Mayor Willie Brown declared Tuesday that the strike was "already a crisis" for San Francisco, and an Oakland Tribune headline said, "Life without BART: It stinks," people were finding creative ways to carry on.
Commuters plugged in home computers, joined carpools, piled onto ferries or packed themselves into standing-room-only buses as Brown hosted a second round of talks between BART officials and the three striking unions.
Those determined to drive left home early, awakening in the dark and creating rush hour at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge by 4:30 a.m. In a repeat of Monday's commute, long lines of cars backed up for miles from the bridge's toll plaza on the Oakland side of the bay.
But this time, motorists seemed to get through faster than they did the day before, said Colin Jones, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
"People get creative. They've adjusted their commute," Jones said.
There has been a 63% increase in the number of carpools and van pools using the bridge's four carpool lanes, Jones said. Commuters reported cutting commutes that took a nightmarish three hours Monday to an hour or less Tuesday.
Kin Ho, California Highway Patrol supervisor at Caltrans' regional transportation management center in Oakland, said he was amazed to see traffic clearing on East Bay freeways by 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.
"I think we need to give the motorists more credit than some have given them," Ho said. "They are planning ahead, and they are digging in for the long haul, finding alternate routes and alternate transportation."
Ferry lines added more and bigger boats to carry the thousands who crowded the vessels to cross San Francisco Bay. Thousands more riders shared their cars with strangers they met through one of several carpooling hotlines that were jammed with calls Monday. And still more waited patiently for buses that were running far behind schedule.
"People in the Bay Area are pretty resilient," said Bill Hein, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the regional board responsible for coordinating public transit in nine counties that ring the bay.
