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The San Francisco transit strike that has stranded 400,000 commuters, snarled traffic, and all but crippled remaining public transport systems this week is costing the Bay Area at least $73 million a day in lost worker productivity, economists say.

It all started on Monday, when talks broke down and more than 2,000 workers representing two of the Bay Area Rapid Transit鈥檚 (BART) largest unions went on strike. The train operators, station workers, and mechanics 鈥� who service America's fifth-largest rail system 鈥� are demanding a 5 percent annual raise for each of the next three years, arguing that management has failed to meet their demands on health care, safety, and pensions.

Despite BART providing additional ferries and buses to try to blunt the strike's impact, workers say that traffic has choked roads and ground Bay Area commutes to a halt. Commutes were three times as long as usual on Monday. With some workers having given up getting to work altogether, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute estimates that $73 million is a 鈥渃onservative鈥� estimate of the strike鈥檚 economic impact.

The Bay Area is 鈥渞eel[ing] from the loss of its most critical mass transit system,鈥� the institute said in a statement Monday. 鈥淭here is an additional hit to economic activity that we know is happening but which we can鈥檛 easily quantify 鈥� which could add tens of millions of dollars to the total.鈥�

One glimmer of hope came Tuesday when BART management said it would meet with union officials and mediators to restart talks later in the day.

While BART unions say they sympathize with those who have been inconvenienced by the strike, they insist that they must press on.

鈥淥ur members aren鈥檛 interested in disrupting the Bay Area, but management has put us in a position where we have no choice,鈥� Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, told the AP.

Amid the transit system鈥檚 shutdown, however, at least a handful of technology-driven rideshare startups have been thriving.

Just hours after the strike began, Avego, the creator of an app that allows iPhone and Android users to find carpoolers, launched a massive campaign 鈥� complete with a 鈥淏ARTSTRIKE鈥� website, 10,000 handout cards, and TV appearances 鈥撀爀ncouraging commuters to download its app.

The cherry on top: Each day, the company said, it will fly three Avego users to work by helicopter.

As the strike continued, other ride-share start-ups began receiving attention from stranded commuters. Uber Technologies Inc., a venture-funded start-up that lets passengers reserve luxury rides through a mobile app, saw up to 50 percent more cars in use on Monday than it did a week earlier, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

Even more traditional transportation companies have had a particularly good week. Intelligent Transportation, which provides companies corporate buses, shuttles, and limousines for $800 a day, gave about 30 companies鈥� employees rides to work on Monday, Bloomberg reported.