Freeway Congestion Drops Slightly, Caltrans Reports : Driving: For the first time in decades, L.A. County’s traffic trend has reversed. The reasons are unclear.

Rush-hour drivers may not realize it, and highway officials certainly can’t explain it, but Caltrans District Director Jerry Baxter said Monday that Los Angeles County freeways are less congested now than they were in the recent past.

The difference overall is slight, and the change is mainly that rush hours are shorter, if not less severe, but Caltrans is excited because it is the first time in a couple of decades that the trend has been toward anything but worse congestion.

Along the “bellwether� westbound San Bernardino Freeway at Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park, the number of cars on the road during the morning rush hour Monday was 15% below a typical Monday in December, said Caltrans spokesman Russ Snyder. Even after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations caused by summer vacations, the drop is 50% more than expected.

The reason why rush hours are shrinking is still being researched at Caltrans headquarters, but several ideas have been advanced:

* Commuter Transportation Services Inc. reported earlier this year that more commuters than ever are car-pooling in Los Angeles--a cost-saving, congestion-busting trend that runs counter to what is happening in the nation.

* Earlier this month, Caltrans, together with the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, launched the Freeway Service Patrol, which helps to unclog jammed freeways by swiftly aiding motorists whose cars break down or run out of gas.

* Alternative work schedules, such as those that allow employees to work out of their homes or the “four-day, 40-hour� workweek, also are making a measurable contribution, especially on Fridays, when many such “4/40� companies are closed.

* Layoffs and fewer orders of goods because of the sluggish economy also may be contributing to reduced traffic.

Whether the change indicates a long-term trend or a short-term anomaly, the fact that traffic volumes have fallen below the usual summertime vacation dip has generated a lot of smiles at Caltrans.

“I don’t have a lot of people beating down my door asking me to build new freeways,� said Baxter, “but people always complain about congestion. . . . I think we’re finally starting to use existing freeways better.�

Baxter said he thinks the nascent downturn in rush-hour congestion indicates that the department’s $300-million Traffic Management Program to make freeways more efficient will succeed in reducing peak-time traffic by 3% in three years--enough, he suspects, to halve the length of morning and afternoon rush hours.

Some elements of the program, such as ramp meters and electronic message signs, are familiar to motorists, but they will come into much wider use over the next three years, Baxter said. The number of message signs will grow from 44 today to 144 by 1994.

Caltrans also plans to expand its broadcasting empire by setting up low-power informational radio transmitters along every freeway in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The broadcasts, which can be received on car radios in a limited area, will give drivers detailed information about congestion, accidents and alternate routes.

Closed-circuit television surveillance of freeways also will be expanded. Currently limited to the Santa Monica Freeway and key interchanges downtown, miniature TV cameras are scheduled to be installed across the county to let Caltrans officials see what causes the congestion now being detected by electromagnetic sensors buried in all freeways.

The Freeway Service Patrol, which began July 1 on 71 miles of the most congested freeways and assists more than 200 disabled rush-hour motorists every day, also is a part of the plan. Baxter expects the patrol to be expanded to every freeway in Los Angeles County.

The patrol’s tow trucks roam some freeways looking for drivers needing help and responding to reports of disabled cars from roadside call boxes, CHP cars and the public. The trucks offer a free gallon of gas, a jump-start, or water for a radiator--and are authorized to tow cars off the freeway if they cannot be restarted in 10 minutes.

“When we finish this (Traffic Management Program)--and I hope to finish it in three years-- we will have by far the most advanced traffic-management system in the world,� Baxter said.

Visitors from around the world, most recently from France, routinely make the pilgrimage to the Caltrans Traffic Operations Center on Spring Street to see how it controls the electronic monitors and meters at the heart of the system.

Even with these innovations, Baxter said the days of a congestion-free rush hour are gone. The state and federal governments built only about half of the 1,200 miles of freeway once envisioned for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and they have now come to realize that trying to meet the ever-increasing demand for pavement is impossibly expensive.

Satisfying current demands on the Santa Ana Freeway would require 16 lanes of traffic at rush hour, Baxter said. That would effectively double the size of the roadbed, either by buying up and wiping out development on both sides of the road or adding a second deck at a cost of more than $50 million a mile.

“People complain about congestion, but I think it is always going to be with us,� he said. “The question is, how much?�

He said that that question will be answered with measures that include improving the efficiency of freeways by increasing the use of car pools, van pools and buses; building more mass transit facilities, such as commuter rail lines, and changing development patterns to let people live closer to where they work.