Attn.: Speeders, road hogs, tailgaters, horn-honkers, headlight-flashers,...

Attn.: Speeders, road hogs, tailgaters, horn-honkers, headlight-flashers, quick lane-change artists, boom-box blasters, obscene gestures and irritating-bumper-sticker owners.

Mayor Tom Bradley has singled out today as Drivetime Day in an effort to induce local motorists to be more courteous to each other. If it succeeds, maybe we can try for 48 hours next year.

The event is the idea of Abe Levy, director of the Drivetime Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes highway safety.

To bring drivers closer together--in an emotional, not vehicular sense--commuters are invited to attend a breakfast featuring Levy, some California Highway Patrol officers and KRTH-FM radio disc jockey Steve Morris between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. at a Hollywood restaurant.

But you’ll have to get out of your car to participate--it’s at a Denny’s, which is freeway-jam close on Sunset Boulevard. Tips on courteous driving will be dispensed along with free continental breakfasts and commuter cups.

That someone should call for a roadway armistice isn’t surprising.

The spate of shootings of two summers ago is over. But the roads aren’t exactly overflowing with love. One survey of freeway drivers conducted by a UC Irvine professor found that 17% reported yelling at one or more drivers during the week. And the study said that 6.3% “gesture obscenely on a weekly basis.”

Speaking of life behind the wheel. . . .

Every once in a while, a state Department of Motor Vehicles office temporarily becomes a drive-through. Last March, for instance, a woman taking a driving test at the Glendale headquarters accidentally accelerated while executing a turn and plowed into the building.

In September, however, the DMV is going to open a real drive-through--a kiosk window operation at Kester Avenue and Vanowen Street in Van Nuys. It’s the first of its kind in the state. The kiosk will offer service for registration renewals as well as handbooks and general information. Odd isn’t it, that there’ve been drive-throughs for just about everything except drivers’ legal paperwork?

Motorists in the Van Nuys area can only hope that the automobile lines at the new drive-through will consist of fewer people than the number who stand in line on foot at other DMV offices.

One consolation: the DMV drive-through will not be used by novices wishing to take the driver’s test.

The subjects of the exhibit range from Martin Aguirre, who pulled 19 people out of the Los Angeles River during the flood of 1886, to Sherman Block, who used actor Ray Milland’s toupee to fake out prostitutes during his colorful career as an undercover cop.

They are two of the 29 bosses honored in the recently completed Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Museum on the corner of Colima Road and Telegraph Boulevard near Whittier.

Constructed by nonpaid volunteers working on their own time, it’s open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The museum, which covers the department from horseback days to motorcycle days, features a Department in Action Gallery that recalls operations involving murderer Charles Manson, the Watts riots and the “Twilight Zone” helicopter tragedy.

Aguirre (1858-1927), who is depicted by a wax dummy in his office, was one of Los Angeles’ first law enforcement heroes, preferring often to arm himself with just a knife--he said he was more accurate with that weapon.

He was best known for his heroism during the 1886 flood, which sent humans and livestock tumbling down the Los Angeles River as well as houses torn from their foundations with smoke still escaping from their chimneys.

Beginning at 1st Street, Aguirre rode into the river again and again to pull out victims. On his last try, he lifted a woman and little girl onto his horse but a piece of timber toppled the three of them into the water.

Aguirre came ashore at 7th Street. The woman survived, but the girl did not and it was said that the lawman grieved over the memory to the end of his days.