Braude Proposals for Minibus, Rush-Hour Lane Gain Support

Proposals to spend $1.2 million to start a fixed-route minibus service between Sherman Oaks and Studio City and to make a lane of Sepulveda Boulevard reversible to speed rush-hour traffic were unveiled Thursday by Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude and quickly endorsed by Mayor Tom Bradley.

Braude said the money would come from funds raised by the countywide half-cent Proposition A sales tax, which is supposed to pay for transportation improvements.

The City Council, which is debating how to spend the Proposition A funds, must approve the spending.

Braude, who represents the Ventura Boulevard area in the west San Fernando Valley, said he was hopeful that the projects would easily win council approval because the city’s Proposition A fund has a surplus.

“The money is already there, sitting in the bank and not being used,” the lawmaker said.

In a letter to Braude, Bradley said the projects were similar to ones that he had urged the city to adopt in March, 1988.

Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council’s transportation committee, said he wanted to review the status of the Proposition A fund surplus before taking a position on the Braude proposals.

Southern California Rapid Transit District board member Nicholas Patsaouras, who joined Braude in introducing the projects, said the minibuses could be running within three months.

The shuttle buses would require a $1.1-million subsidy in the first year.

That project calls for six buses to run 15 hours daily along a route that would pick up passengers at several stops within the Van Nuys Civic Center, at Valley College and along the Ventura Boulevard commercial corridor.

An RTD staff study found that the route, one of five studied, would have the most ridership and would best supplement the existing RTD routes, Patsaouras said.

Passengers would pay 25 cents and would be able to transfer to regular RTD buses without paying any additional fare.

The reversible lane project would cost $100,000 annually and would have the effect, during the morning rush hour, of adding an additional lane for cars traveling south on Sepulveda Boulevard between the Ventura Freeway and Westwood.

In the afternoon, the direction of traffic in that lane would be reversed.

The two projects would help bring equity to the distribution of the transportation funds, Braude said.

“The Valley has not had its fair share of Prop. A funds in the past,” he said.