LIFE IN THE FAST LANE SLOWS DOWN IN L.A., FREEWAY TRAFFIC CONGESTION IS A GIVEN.

Byline: Erik N. Nelson Staff Writer

In the end, you'll get there.

That could be the mantra of the freeway, along with, Make every mile and every minute count, because living in Southern California means living on the freeway.

At the San Fernando Valley's great crossroads the Ventura-San Diego freeways interchange 530,000 SUVs, sedans, coupes, trucks, buses and motorcycles pass by every 24 hours. It's built to handle much less traffic yet is one of the most congested freeway interchanges in the nation.

But none of that matters to motorists stuck on the southbound San Diego Freeway, as they watch for the cars to move with one eye, check the display on the wireless phone with the other eye, rest one hand on the steering wheel and punch radio station buttons with the other.

Here in the Valley and environs, on the 5, 118 and 405 freeways and on state highways 14, 23, 134 and 170, we drive to live as much as we drive to work, school or nights on the town.

There's a time when it's almost a joy to use them, said Dan Beal, transportation policy manager for the Automobile Club of Southern California. And there are times when it's less than pleasurable.

And there are times when Los Angeles and Ventura counties' 615 miles of freeways induce psychosis in the form of road rage, depression upon the realization that some of us spend more than 24 hours a week in traffic and envy for those who can afford to live near work or who whiz by us in the car-pool lane.

One of those times occurred back on Sept. 5, 1955, when traffic reporter Lloyd Sigmon declared the first of what came to be known as the Sig Alert. Not everyone knows exactly what a Sig Alert is - the California Highway Patrol defines it as an unscheduled lane blockage of more than 30 minutes that will cause great inconvenience or delay.

But the seasoned freeway driver knows it means: Don't go there, exit now before there is no exit, as Jean-Paul Sartre might have observed.

But getting off the freeway isn't always an option when the freeway is the main lifeline between the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles. The 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass and the 101 Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass (Where, in 1847, the Mexican Californios told the invading Americans, You can have it.) each have only one viable alternative surface streets, and those tend to get backed up quickly, too.

Generations ago, planners fancied they could run other freeways through the ravines that wind through the Santa Monica Mountains, such as Malibu Canyon and Laurel Canyon, but those areas are now the fiercely protected habitat of coyotes, recording artists and film producers. The last Valley freeway segment to open was on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in 1983. And for those intrepid souls who have purchased a piece of the good life for a low price in the Antelope Valley, some planners are still toying with the idea of a freeway connecting Palmdale with La Canada Flintridge. That would greatly speed commuters from the Antelope Valley to downtown Los Angeles, but homeowner opposition would likely block the plan.

All the easy stuff's already been done, Beal said.

The hard stuff would consist of building tunnels (too expensive) or double-decking freeways (too expensive and an eyesore for the local residents).

Caltrans, or the state Department of Transportation, is considering those options but is more realistically expected to add car-pool lanes, as it did three weeks ago on the southbound 405, or exit ramps, as is badly needed from the southbound Golden State Freeway to the westbound Ventura Freeway.

So how did the Valley and its inhabitants end up in this mess?

We have a lot of people. We have economic prosperity, Beal noted. The alternative to congestion is that you don't have people out there participating in the economy and society and the job force and educational opportunities.

All that nice weather and those nice jobs have conspired to make people move here and make rush-hour traffic 50 percent slower than nonrush-hour traffic, the most miserable differential in the nation.

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Photo:

(color) Car-pool vehicles passing the Skirball Center Drive exit make use of a diamond lane installed to relieve traffic along the San Diego Freeway.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer