EDITORIAL : THE 101-405 HORROR; EVERYONE KNOWS IT'S A DEVIL OF AN INTERCHANGE, BUT NOW ASSEMBLYMAN WALLY KNOX GIVES A VIEW FROM BEHIND THE WHEEL.

ASSEMBLYMAN Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, really asked for it when he invited drivers to tell him their personal experiences of gridlock at the 101-405 freeway interchange.

In more than 1,000 postcard responses, Knox learned just how bad it is for motorists navigating the San Diego and Ventura freeways in Sherman Oaks.

Not surprisingly, most were horror stories about the impact of lengthy delays.

Caught in intolerable traffic jams, drivers arrived at their destinations too late to see loved ones before they died, see friends married, deliver babies, take final exams. The anecdotes go on and on.

Knox, whose district includes the interchange, will use the complaints to show that it is messing up people's lives. It's not just the economy that is suffering because trucks can't carry cargo fast enough from Los Angeles International Airport to the north, or vice versa.

Knox's strategy to use the personal stories to keep the pressure on transportation officials in Sacramento and Washington is brilliant. It's much more difficult to say no to people than to toss aside a piece of paper with a request for funding.

That's not the end of it. On Thursday, Knox's Select Committee on Traffic Congestion Relief will convene near the interchange, at the Radisson Hotel in Sherman Oaks, to discuss the problem and what can be done about it.

Ever since the Daily News highlighted the problem, legislators from City Hall to Sacramento and Washington have been trying to fix it. We hope they listen to the motorists' accounts and put the 101-405 upgrade in the fast lane.