does not hold much importance. However, the issue is a daily problem for Angelenos (that is the name of Los Angeles’s inhabitants) who are unable to purchase or rent a car. They must leave early to get to work on time, and they return home late. The commute bleeds into work‐life balance, making it difficult to have significant personal or family time after getting home.
In 2008, city officials put forward Measure R, a piece of legislation that would raise sales taxes by a half‐cent for 30 years. The measure was then extended in 2012 with the name of Measure J. The publication The Huffington Post reported that the money would go toward transportation projects and improvements promoted as a way to “improve the environment by getting more Angelenos out of their cars and into the region’s growing subway, light rail, and bus services.” By 2039, Measures R and J will have been responsible for the funding of the construction or expansion of a dozen rail lines in Los Angeles County. The specific projects that Measure R is intended to fund include: the “Subway to the Sea,” which will run through Beverly Hills; the Green Line light rail, which will run to LAX International Airport; the addition of carpool lanes (accessible only to cars driving two or more people) to major freeways; and the widening of the I‐5 freeway. Angelenos have met these projects with a variety of emotions: one of the more notorious reactions has been dissent, even outright hostility.
To those who had initially been opposed to Measure R, a significant event in Los Angeles transportation history provided some perspective: the so‐called “Carmageddon.” The Sepulveda Pass is a 10‐mile stretch of the I‐405 freeway, with Sepulveda Boulevard winding along next to it, which connects drivers to the San Fernando Valley and to the west side of Los Angeles, as well as Mulholland Drive. As part of the Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, the I‐405 was closed on the Sepulveda Pass to all drivers for an entire weekend in 2011 in order to expand one of the bridges that connects Mulholland Drive across the hills of the Santa Monica Mountain range. The expansion was necessary in order to introduce an extra lane to the I‐405, a project intended to alleviate the high levels of traffic that occur in the Sepulveda Pass on an almost