LANE PARTS WALL OF TRAFFIC.

Byline: Erik N. Nelson Staff Writer

It's been a motorists' holiday on the southbound San Diego Freeway the past two weeks after the new high-occupancy-vehicle lane opened up through the Sepulveda Pass.

A holiday, that is, compared with what it was like for motorists in the maddening morning crawl along one of the nation's most congested stretches of freeway - between the Ventura Freeway and the closed Waterford Avenue exit - before the new lane opened for vehicles with two or more occupants in each one.

The question now is whether the relief from traffic headaches will be fleeting or the shape of things to come for many of the 290,000 commuters who use the pass each day.

Like the parting of the Red Sea, the opening of the new lane on Jan. 8 created a wondrous route. Car poolers wheeled freely through one of the nation's worst rush-hour logjams while commuters and traffic reporters rejoiced.

``This morning's opening of the HOV lane of the 405 at the 101 is the most miraculous transformation of a traffic tie-up I've ever seen,'' exulted Jeff Baugh of news radio station KFWB as he hovered in a helicopter above the 405 and watched cars moving into the pass.

In its first week, the new lane carried an additional 1,500 vehicles and more than 3,200 people per hour during the morning rush, as well as more than 800 vehicles and nearly 2,000 people per hour during peak commuting hours in the evening.

``We have numerous reports from commuters getting back to us, saying they've saved as much as 20 to 30 minutes (per trip),'' said Caltrans spokesman Dennis Trujillo.

Another sign of the lane's success was reported by Los Angeles World Airport officials to the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, which had long championed improvements to the notorious segment. Operators of the Flyaway bus service have reported faster trips from the Van Nuys commuter lot to Los Angeles International Airport since the lane opened, VICA leaders were told.

The opening of the freeway's new relief valve was such a watershed that Gov. Gray Davis eagerly issued an election-year statement on the completion of the $20 million Caltrans project: ``This week Los Angeles commuters received much-needed relief on the most heavily congested corridor in the state.''

Trujillo noted that the new lane was opened even before all of its signs and permanent lane markers were in place.

``We felt it was important to let commuters take advantage of this right away, even though we have finishing touches left to put on it,'' Trujillo said.

But experience has shown that the San Diego Freeway's new luster may dull with time.

It could remain free-flow for a couple of months, and then commuters might give themselves less time to get to work, causing more traffic to crowd the road later during the morning rush, Trujillo said. Once the traffic clogs up again, commuters should again start leaving earlier until a more permanent traffic pattern emerges, he said.

The governor also made a point of announcing that other relief is on the way sooner than on the glacial time frame that commuters have come to expect for freeway improvements.

Additional projects costing about $600 million are scheduled for construction beginning as soon as spring. They include widening of the northbound 405 connector at Ventura Boulevard and construction of new connectors between the southbound side of the 405 and both northbound and southbound sides of the 101.

And the northbound high-occupancy-vehicle lane, sister project to the southbound diamond lane that opened last week, is scheduled for construction beginning in 2004.

If the schedule holds up, the diamond lanes on the 405 will extend from the Santa Monica Freeway north to the freeway's terminus at the Golden State Freeway by the end of the decade.

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Photo:

Cars in the new southbound diamond lane move past congestion on the San Diego Freeway.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer