I will happily support the idea to get MTA more money from other sources like vehicle registration fees, highway tolls, etc. Feel free to keep advocating for that. But the fact is none of that has been successful (as far as I know) for decades. If you get it on the ballot or through a committee vote, more power to you. But I predict that won't happen, and point to the fact that it hasn't for decades as evidence.

So, in the end, you have things like Measure R: a possible source for more funding that will enable expansion and better services for mass transit. OR, you could not bring in that extra funding, and watch your transit system suffer as a result, and somehow claim victory for bus riders.

The emperor has no clothes. You want better service and expansion? Put up the funding or shut up. We need to be thinking about the big picture, and stop shooting down ideas that would improve the system just because you'd prefer an unrealistic alternative that has no chance of passing.

No, everybody does not make the same amount. We're not the USSR, there is no government giving us the same $x. This is a country where you succeed with your hard work. Yes, doctors, lawyers, politicians, et al do work hard; just like people who work at the lower pay jobs. That's the truth. So, I don't buy this regressive tax bs. .25% increase for somebody making $100K plus, will have the same linear effect as somebody taxed at .25% of their $5K salary.

Mechazawa: "And another thing this does not say is that it will improve for wealthier ares that don't need it as opposed to the service cuts they are planning "somewhere".

Is the Crenshaw Corridor, Green Line extensions to LAX, Eastside Gold Line extension to Whittier, etc.. all "wealthier areas"? Where is most of the rail located right now? Is it unfair that people who pay the higher taxes (West LA) have NO RAIL? Is that fair? Are you telling me that somebody in East LA will have no use for the Purple Line extension to Westwood, Century City, West LA? Are you serious? Then, you're being racist yourself if you don't think people in the 'poorer' neighborhoods would take a train to work/play in a 'wealthier' neighborhood.

You know, I would love to support the BRU, because I believe in bus advocacy. However, with stupid positions as "no rail, no Rapid bus, no money to the 'wealthier' areas", makes me know this organization is a job. Mechazawa, y'all probably go around calling everybody a racist (which is the worst insult you can give somebody), but yet don't realize that you are hurting your own members by always arguing with the MTA in ADDING Rapid service and building rail extensions. It's good y'all don't mean much anymore.

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I agree with a Purple Line simulator bus line. I send in a suggestion to the MTA that the 920 Rapid, which is so often empty, be converted into this. If they added a Century City stop between the Beverly Hills and Westwood stops and I think ridership would dramatically climb.

Measure R was the only funding mechanism on offer that would have provided billions for buses. Theoretically, that is what the BRU t-shirts state they want. I was beyond basic reason for the BRU to have opposed Measure R. But then the BRU gave up reason years ago.

Fortunately, there are a growing number of transit riders no longer willing to let the BRU claim to speak for us.

Enjoy the bus service today that Measure R saved.

You know, the miles every driver gets out of the moderate investment they make to the highways? Are we ever going to shoot for breaking even on that one? For all the air quality trouble that car transportation causes, you'd think that making it pay for itself in transportation fees would be a no-brainer.

Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe the people in charge of the fare boxes are putting them in the wrong places (i.e. at freeway onramps and not at train stations).