EDITORIAL BATTLING GRIDLOCK CHP PROJECT SHOWS SMALL FIXES CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.

IT doesn't take much to start a traffic jam, just one stalled car, a fender-bender or a large piece of debris. And it doesn't take much to ease traffic jams, either, as a recent California Highway Patrol pilot project on the Ventura Freeway has shown.

There's hope for gridlocked Los Angeles commuters, even though state highway funds are likely to dry up in the lean times ahead. A little traffic improvement can go a long way.

For the last year, the CHP assigned 15 officers to a five-mile stretch along the Ventura Freeway between Van Nuys and Lankershim boulevards. The officers had one job: to clear accidents, stalled cars and objects off the freeway as quickly as possible, thereby easing up congestion.

It was a modest effort with immodest results. The average response time dropped from 21 minutes to five, and average time on the scene decreased from 37 minutes to 10. Traffic flow increased, even during the program's third quarter, when a rise in the number of collisions should have slowed things down.

Buoyed by the program's success, CHP officials have extended it beyond the pilot period, and plan to duplicate it in East Los Angeles and Baldwin Park by January.

It will take these and many more piecemeal reforms to help make L.A. commutes more tolerable. Although there's a pressing, long-term need for some big-ticket solutions - like a major redesign of the 101-405 interchange - local leaders must find more immediate ways to bring about maximum relief at minimal cost.

Some reforms are already under way, such as the much-needed, but frustratingly slow efforts to improve traffic flow at the 101-405. And Valley leaders have successfully negotiated a plan to get the California Department of Transportation to synchronize traffic lights on most Valley streets, thus speeding up traffic and keeping more cars off the crowded freeways.

Then there are plans to add east-west and north-south dedicated Valley busways, which will make public transportation a more viable option for local commuters. Busways, of course, are no substitute for subways or light rail (which the Valley once had the opportunity to get, but forfeited because of local infighting), but they, too, will serve the ultimate goal of reducing gridlock.

So would a Valley transit zone, independent of the bloated and inefficient Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Free of the MTA's overhead, the Valley zone could channel more money into creating faster, more dependable bus lines.

Staggered workweeks, wherein major employers offer workers a variety of schedules (in addition to the old 9-5), would help to spread traffic more evenly throughout the day.

Every little bit helps.

And for now, little improvements are the best we can hope for, with no big fixes on the horizon. The challenge for local leaders is to devise more small-scale reforms and come up with the funding to make them a reality.

With enough thought and creativity, minor public investments could produce major traffic relief for the San Fernando Valley region.