Area motorists find gas or find their way without it

Desperate motorists used their wits — and accepted the waits — in trying to work around Metro Atlanta’s ongoing gas shortage Monday.

Some motorists waited hours at empty pumps, hoping to be the first to find relief whenever a tanker truck arrived to replenish a station.

Others hopped on buses and trains, packing into crowded public transit for the long ride into downtown. Others still worked from home in a bid to ease demand.

MARTA officials say ridership has risen, though they don’t have exact numbers.

“People are doing what they can,” said Scott Haggard, government relations manager at MARTA, adding the transportation agency expects to see a “significant spike” in riders once final numbers are in for September.

MARTA has already seen ridership climb 10 to 15 percent year-to-year every month since spring, with 13.9 million trips in Fulton and DeKalb counties in August alone.

Operations officials have been constantly monitoring ridership so they can add extra trains or buses when reports of overcrowding occur.

Transit officials in Gwinnett County also did not have exact numbers but said they were aware of a similar spike in riders on three morning trips to downtown Atlanta.

Bill Reynolds of Lilburn has been taking the express transit from Norcross for two years and said he has seen the swell of passengers first-hand.

“When I first started riding, there were empty seats all the time,” Reynolds said. “But over the last six to eight months it’s been getting increasingly more and more full.”

Some of the biggest crowds, though, are still found around gas pumps.

By 3 p.m. Monday, Robert Johnson had been waiting four hours at the dry pumps at the QuikTrip in Sandy Springs. He and others in line were waiting on the next gas truck, though none knew when one would arrive.

At one point, managers tried to shoo away those in the queue. Johnson, who had gone inside for two hotdogs, a bag of chips and 2-liter bottle of Coke, was among those who refused to budge.

“I’m going to stay here until it comes,” said Johnson, a retiree. “I’ll just have to go back in there and get another hotdog, I guess.”

Russ King, who waited at the station for two hours, made arrangements for a friend to drive from the West End of Atlanta with gas in a five-gallon container.

King, a waiter at a rib restaurant, suggested politicians institute a staggered system for filling up, just like the outdoor watering restrictions, only based on car tag numbers.

“Why don’t we just go to odd and even numbers?” King said. “And then no one buys gas on Sundays.”

At AutomationDirect in Cumming, executives told its 150 employees to work at home if possible, for at least part of the week. Those who had to be in the office were encouraged to work flexible hours, and could sign up for a voluntary carpool system, said company marketing director Joan Welty.

Carpools are also in place for employees at DeKalb County schools, which this year began the first partnership in the nation for a school system with the Clear Air Campaign. The program includes incentives for up to $3 a day for workers who carpool, walk or bike to work.

More than 250 employees have signed up, logging more than 1,400 carpool trips, 146 walks to and from work and 143 bike trips, said system spokeswoman Julia Rhame. Plans are under way for a carpool network for parents whose children attend the same school.

The need for planning ahead for trips appears to have hurt business slightly at area retailers and attractions. The Mall at Stonecrest near Lithonia experienced a “soft weekend,” most likely due to the gas shortage and overall economic slowdown, said spokesman Donald Bieler. Fewer shoppers hit the Gallery at South DeKalb over the weekend, though general manager Tene Harris said traffic appeared normal by Monday.

Andretti Entertainment in Roswell has also seen a drop in walk-in traffic, though corporate business and parties have been steady, said finance director Sally Caplan. The facility’s gas supplier has come through so far, though Caplan said she wasn’t sure what would happen if that changed.

“In the past, we were able to go to a gas station and buy some,” Caplan said. “I guess we would have to stand in line with everyone else.”

— Staff writers Nancy Badertscher, Patrick Fox, Mary MacDonald, Doug Nurse, Ty Tagami and Kristina Torres contributed to this report.