The Los Angeles County registrar finished counting ballots on Friday, and here’s the final line score for Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase for transportation projects — including the start of the Westside subway extension — in Los Angeles County:

Yes: 2,039,214 votes, 67.93%

No: 962,569 votes, 32.07%

Measure R needed two-thirds votes to pass, meaning it won by a raw vote total of about 37,000 votes. The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to declare the results official at its meeting on Tuesday.

Woo hoo! With all the hurdles this had to overcome it truly makes me happy. Los Angeles has voted for and invested in its future.

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Keep smiling all Measure R supporters. Friday’s total makes it better and better.

In my view, the express line would travel non-stop from Ventura/Sepulveda to Sunset/Church via 405, then stop again at UCLA Ackerman Union, UCLA Med Ctr, Wilshire/Westwood, SM/Westwood, and Pico/Westwood. Notice that it would be a different routing in the Westwood area, by avoiding the longer routing along Sunset and Hilgard and traveling instead along the west side of UCLA’s campus.

The local line will travel from Ventura to Sunset via Sepulveda Blvd making stops at the Skirball, the Getty, and even local stops along Sepulveda that serve Bel Air Crest and Mountaingate. It would serve the same routing as the express line between Sunset/Church and Pico/Westwood (and would also have limited stops south of Sunset)

I’d eliminate the 761 and have another to be determined line can do local service at Skirball, the Getty and Church Lane.

961 could skip the local stops in the Valley and Church Ln in Brentwood and go straight to Westwood from Ventura Blvd

There probably does need to be a stop somewhere near Church Lane or the Getty and one up at Skirball.

Whatever is done to increase the speed and “rapid” nature of the 761 will probably result in upsetting someone.

Oh, boy, I sure can. The 761 gets bogged down in providing local service in the back end of Brentwood and Westwood. Turn that service over to a reconsituted MTA21 or turn it over to the Big Blue Bus, and rapid times would improve. I’d also split the Van Nuys Blvd. portion of the 761 off and have two stops in the Valley only (Orange Line and Ventura Blvd.) If there was demand, there could be a stop a Van Nusy Metrolink as well.

I guess MTA will have to run the numbers on who makes up most of the ridership on the 761, but having ridden it for a few years now, I can tell you that, on the way north at ~6pm, there are a large number of people that board at Church Ln. That’s the only stop I could imagine you’re referring to when you say the back end of Brentwood. Most of those riders appear to be domestic help, if I may try my hand at profiling, and they clearly need to get from Brent/Westwood to the valley. There is a huge offloading of passengers at Ventura/Sepulveda, and Ventura/Van Nuys so I’d be all for an express service that starts at Van Nuys/Ventura, stops at Ventura/Sepulveda, and then doesn’t stop again until UCLA. . . but there would need to be another option to meet the demand of the large number of people going from Church Lane north.

I dunno. I guess I’m saying that any of the options you or I suggest on how to improve the 761 will probably require an additional bus line anyway that goes between the valley and west side, and I’m not sure that adding more buses on the same corridor will be all that helpful. I guess we’ll see.

YES 1,806,657 67.23%
NO 880,564 32.77%

No lost ground. Woo hoo!

Dan you just went through exactly the same calculation and got the same trends and yet you object to my analysis?

No, I don’t “object” to your analysis. Analyze away. I just do not agree with your assumption that the “likely” ratio will be 60-40 or less. The provisional ballots are going to be similar to the other election ballots which favor measure R more than the early absentee ballots.

I guess my point is that I can’t imagine an express bus system that does much better than the 761 already does.

Oh, boy, I sure can. The 761 gets bogged down in providing local service in the back end of Brentwood and Westwood. Turn that service over to a reconsituted MTA21 or turn it over to the Big Blue Bus, and rapid times would improve. I’d also split the Van Nuys Blvd. portion of the 761 off and have two stops in the Valley only (Orange Line and Ventura Blvd.) If there was demand, there could be a stop a Van Nusy Metrolink as well.