THE PERFECT EXCUSE FOR BEING LATE IN L.A. ... ... IS SURE TRUE NOW.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

In the hit movie ``Sideways,'' the lead character arrives terribly late for his buddy's bachelor party getaway and proceeds to blame the traffic - horrible traffic, he says - to empathetic nods from friends.

Except, of course, there was no gridlock. Miles overslept, stopped for coffee, then blazed down the open freeway.

Traffic, that bane of Angelenos' existence, sure comes in handy in a pinch.

``When I'm late, that's usually the first thing I pull out,'' said Javier Acuna, a 23-year-old college film major from Sylmar who interns at an architecture firm downtown. ``The traffic excuse? It's kind of the norm in this society.''

Southern California's legendary traffic is just about everybody's favorite excuse.

Late for work? ``I got stuck in traffic.''

A half-hour past your dental appointment? ``Congestion was just terrible.''

Rolling in late for dinner with friends? ``You should have seen the 405.''

Traffic has become such a perfect excuse because there's so much of it.

Southern Californians waste more than 90 hours a year stuck in the worst traffic in the nation. We crawl along freeways at average speeds of 37 mph. Traffic reports on the radio routinely note that a typical 15-minute trip is taking twice that long.

Most of the time, traffic really is bad. You climb behind the wheel, same time as always, and pull onto the freeway, only to see the line of cars ahead grind to an infuriating halt.

A 30-minute commute today might take an hour - or longer - tomorrow.

As in ``Sideways,'' when Miles oversleeps on his buddy's big day, a little white lie seems preferable to 'fessing up to the truth.

``They did that really well, didn't they?'' said CSUN psychology professor Ron Doctor, also a clinical psychologist. ``He's kind of coasting along: 'I don't have to worry. I've got an excuse.'''

Psychologists say the traffic excuse gets so much traction because most of us seek approval and don't want to own up to our shortcomings.

``We're living in a culture that's very appearance-oriented. It's all about trying to look good - or not look bad,'' Doctor said.

And the traffic excuse works because everyone has been stuck in gridlock themselves.

``You could certainly hypothesize that since we all have had traffic experiences, we provide each other a degree of latitude here,'' said Jerry Shaw, a fellow psychology professor at California State University, Northridge. ``We understand the shoe could be on the other foot. We could be the one who's judged for being late.''

He also said that blaming outside forces is common among those who are worried about failing.

``If we break our word - such as, we make a promise we'll be somewhere at a particular time - we fear the other person will negatively evaluate us. We can self-handicap by pointing to the traffic as an impediment as to why we can't get there on time and meet our obligations.''

The California Highway Patrol knows all about the traffic excuse.

Officer Rebecca Estrada says the Los Angeles-area office routinely gets calls from employers wanting to check out their workers' excuses.

Employees, too, call to prove their case to their bosses.

Some workers and employers even ask the CHP to write a letter, attesting to the conditions, she added.

``We can't do that. We'd be doing that for millions of people who use that as an excuse,'' she said. ``There's so many other emergencies going on.''

The CHP can't release accident reports because they contain personal information about the parties involved, so officers just verify if an incident occurred at a certain time and location, she said.

The CHP usually refers callers to the agency's Web site, a rolling log of incidents throughout the day.

Those who use the traffic excuse say it's important to know its limits.

Cari Moore, who sometimes fibs when she's late on her commute from her home in Camarillo to her retail job in Thousand Oaks, figures it's no secret what's really going on.

``I think everyone knows it's a lie,'' she said.

Others know their bosses will only stand for so much.

``Two to three times, tops. After that, I'm not working anymore,'' said Yesenia Cardenas, 19, who works at a North Hills supermarket and studies math at Mission College.

At that point, it's all about leaving earlier, finding other ways to get around or choosing trips more carefully.

Traffic experts predict freeway speeds will only continue to plummet, which means it's only going to take longer to get where we want to go.

Every year, average speeds are declining so that in 20 years they are expected to hit 19 mph, which means today's trip will take twice as long.

San Fernando Valley attorney Michael Rapkin, who commutes from his home on the Westside to his office in the Valley, said Angelenos simply fail to realize it's going to take longer than they think to drive from one end of the city to another.

``Of course you're late - you left 40 minutes late. This is L.A.,'' he said about those who don't plan ahead for the trip. ``There is traffic and so I don't accept (that) as an excuse.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

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