Techniques and systems are disclosed for measuring arterial transit delay using pseudo- continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) with variable TR and interleaved post-labeling delays. In one aspect, a magnetic resonance imaging method for measure arterial blood flow and transit delay using arterial spin labeling (ASL) includes applying an ASL pulse sequence. The ASL pulse sequence includes a pre- saturation pulse, and a labeling pulse. The method includes performing data acquisition to measure a transit delay, which represents a time needed for labeled blood to arrive in an imaging slice.