A Lazy, Hazy Labor Day Weekend : Holiday: The last days of summer attract light beach crowds but traffic on freeways and at airports in the L.A. area is heavy.

Those lazy, hazy days of summer were still much in evidence as the Labor Day holiday weekend began Saturday with light beach crowds, but heavy traffic on some freeways and at airports in the Los Angeles area.

At Los Angeles International Airport, operations officers described road traffic as “light in the morning and moderate in the afternoon.” They said the crush of holiday drivers, however, forced them to operate parking lots on a “limited basis,” meaning that motorists were not allowed to enter until someone pulled out.

Crowds attended the Los Angeles Festival in San Pedro and Fiesta de Las Artes in Hermosa Beach.

At Castaic Lake, where county officials had closed the swimming area because of potential problems with high bacterial counts, “the crowds were very light because of all the publicity even though we really haven’t had a case of a sick swimmer all year,” said manager Charles Graham.

County lifeguards said beach crowds were light with few people going into the water and few problems with first-aid calls.

Local freeway traffic “was quite heavy but they’re behaving themselves out there and not banging each other up too badly,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Vince Zambrana.

However, local drunk-driving arrests were down to 175 compared to 243 in the same period last year, Zambrana added. Some of the reduction, he said, may have been due to a concentrated effort by Los Angeles police traffic officers Friday night in which 101 drivers were snagged at three sobriety checkpoints.

The weather was expected to remain warm, with temperatures climbing to about 80 with hazy skies. Moderate to unhealthful air pollution was expected in some inland areas.