Traffic jams

At 4 pm, Mayor Villaraigosa will emcee the ceremonial rollout of his Gridlock Tiger Team on Wilshire between Normandie and Ardmore. The office all but promises the media that they will see somebody get towed.

Just across the line in Orange County, the Register notes that the car-pool lane on the Riverside (91) Freeway will close for four years, starting Wednesday. The westbound car-pool ramp to the northbound I-5 car-pool lane will also close, as will the northbound I-5 car-pool lane from the 91 to near Manchester Boulevard. It's all part of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway Gateway Project, "intended to reduce congestion in the two-mile bottleneck near the Orange and Los Angeles county lines, where five lanes cut down to three lanes."

And if you use the Pearblossom Highway to rip across the Mojave Desert on your way to Vegas or the Angeles Forest, beware. Caltrans is adding lanes in each direction near the ruins of the old Llano community, from 146th Street East to 165th Street East. State route 138 is gradually being expanded and modernized into non-recognition. But it's due, considering the stretch's reputation as a "blood alley." "It's more than just a local road. Highway 138 has become such an important bypass. Many people are using it to avoid coming through the Los Angeles basin," Caltrans official Douglas Failing told the Daily News.

Photo of northbound 405 at Palms Boulevard: LA Observed