TV REVIEW : Think Your Commute’s Bad?

Are you dreading that freeway commute today? Regretting already those wasted 45 minutes? Agonizing over the new dings that await your car in the parking lot?

It could be worse: You could be a commuter in New York City.

And if you find relief in other people’s misery, then tonight’s “48 Hours� (CBS, Channels 2 and 8, 10 p.m.) is for you as the telemagazine takes a mostly humorous look at the insane world of New York City traffic in an episode aptly titled “Driven to Extremes.�

A “48 Hours� crew travels along with a commuter who leaves her suburban home at 7:28 a.m. and, 90 minutes later, arrives in Manhattan, still many blocks from her workplace. She admits that she is considering quitting her job for one much closer to home.

Her car is one of 880,000 that enters Manhattan each weekday. Host Dan Rather warns: “You are entering a jungle. You’ve already made your first mistake: You brought your car.�

There they write 13 million parking tickets a year and tow 400 vehicles a day. (“All of New York City is a tow-away zone,� warns a traffic officer). Retired judges come back to serve in the Traffic Violations Bureau, and they have heard it all. One tells a motorist: “It’s hard to believe that all six summonses fell off your car.�

The program visits a class that teaches English to immigrants who will become taxi drivers and also attempts, without complete success, to explain that bizarre New York ritual: alternate-side-of-the-street parking.

Commuting in big cities is difficult almost everywhere, but if there is anything that will make you appreciate driving (and parking) in the Southland, it’s this edition of “48 Hours.�