MINNEAPOLIS - With both sides refusing to budge, this could be the start of the first full week of the Metro Transit strike.
When the strike began, some feared that a lack of busses would prompt more people to drive to work and cause highway traffic to soar. However, that did not appear to be happening Monday.
Twin Cities traffic engineers say area streets and garages are usually busier on Mondays and Tuesdays than on Thursdays and Fridays -- the days last week that Metro Transit buses didn't run.
Driving on Thursday and Friday was not bad, either. Some speculated that bus riders were ready with other transportation on the first day of the strike. And on Friday, some drivers could have stayed home because of the snow.
One state lawmaker is talking about a way for commuters to get around the strike. State Sen. Dick Day is asking Gov. Pawlenty's administration to turn off the ramp meters and open up the high-occupancy vehicle lanes for drivers.
Meanwhile, no new talks are scheduled. Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons says talks would resume at the direction of a state mediator.
The last Twin Cities bus strike was in 1995. Like the current strike, riders made do in the first week. Gibbons says people are good at sticking with their car pools and staggered work hours for a while, "but it gets old pretty quickly."
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