EDITORIAL : THAT'S THE TICKET.

IT'S encouraging to see so many San Fernando Valley political and community leaders respond so positively to the Daily News' reports Sunday and Monday documenting the urgent need to improve the increasingly hazardous and congested 101-405 freeway interchange.

That's precisely what's needed to mobilize the necessary support to turn matters around.

Here is some of the reaction:

``I think it is absolutely unconscionable that the state has acquiesced to this problem and hasn't done anything,'' said Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, chairman of the council's transportation committee. Alarcon's district includes the central and northeast portions of the San Fernando Valley.

Assemblyman Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, said he would send a letter to the California Transportation Commission urging it to immediately study ways to improve the interchange.

``For those of us in the Valley, this is what we need to focus on,'' Knox said. ``This is a practical thing the Valley should be doing.''

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes southern portions of the Valley, was especially critical of the Haskell Avenue ramps on the Ventura Freeway near the interchange. ``It's really a risky situation,'' she said.

``If we're not going to get a Metro Rail in the next 20 years, we need to get Caltrans to solve the traffic problems,'' said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. ``Otherwise, we're going to, economically as well as traffic-wise, strangle.''

``It certainly needs as much priority in our region as seismic retrofit and replacement of important bridges in Northern California,'' said Nate Brogin, vice chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.

Those are all excellent points. The interchange is a mess now - it's the fourth-busiest in the state. Matters certainly will become worse if the population, as predicted, continues to grow.

But first the Valley must overcome the political and bureaucratic inertia that allowed the situation to deteriorate. We believe this can happen if other concerned individuals join those Valley leaders who already have spoken out in forging a broad coalition to make improvement of the 101-405 junction a top priority for Caltrans.