Fleet of Tow Trucks May Be Mobilized in War on Traffic Jams : Commuters: The county Transportation Commission will vote on a plan to authorize ‘freeway service patrols’ that would provide service to disabled vehicles.

Whenever a driver is stuck fuming in freeway congestion, there is a 50-50 chance that the traffic jam ahead has been caused not by too many vehicles on the road, but by an accident or disabled vehicles--or the rubbernecks who slow down to gawk at them.

Traffic officials have a plan to ease that crunch. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission is scheduled to vote today on whether to launch rush-hour “freeway service patrols” on Los Angeles’ most exasperating thoroughfares starting July 1.

Armed with money from a voter-approved transit sales tax and fines levied on lone drivers caught in car-pool lanes, the commission will weigh whether to join Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol in launching a fleet of tow trucks to cruise the freeways--aiding stranded motorists and clearing collisions.

Modeled after the 30-year-old Minuteman Patrol in Chicago, the $13.7-million-a-year Los Angeles Freeway Service Patrol program would fix flats, pour gasoline, tape leaking hoses and refill empty radiators, jump batteries and, if necessary, drag recalcitrant cars off the freeway during rush hours.

“We want to get the car off the highway as fast as possible to stop ‘gawkers’ block,’ ” said Diane Perrine of the Transportation Commission. “We not only want to help the stranded motorist, we want to help all the people stranded behind the stranded motorist.”

Freeway Service Patrol drivers would be assigned only for clearing automobiles, motorcycles, light trucks and small debris from freeways. Other problems, such as jackknifed tractor-trailer rigs, would continue to be handled by Caltrans and the CHP.

The service would be free to motorists and patrol drivers would be forbidden to accept tips or gifts. The drivers, private contractors working on a flat hourly fee for the state, also would be forbidden to recommend auto mechanics or body shops.

As proposed, the service would be offered during rush hours--Mondays through Fridays from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 3 to 7 p.m. The commission proposes to start on July 1, with 36 trucks cruising 71 miles of downtown freeways and on sections of the San Diego and Ventura freeways. By July, 1992, it plans to expand the service to 104 trucks roaming 256 miles of county freeways. Eventually, the service would cover 530 miles--every inch of freeway in Los Angeles County.

Transit planners say it now takes an average of 24 minutes for private tow firms to respond to a stalled car or freeway accident--once the problem is reported. The commission anticipates the new service would shave the response time to 10 minutes--which in turn, it says, would reduce freeway delays by 15% and improve air quality by getting commuters to their destinations more quickly.

Pollution reduced by keeping the traffic flowing should more than make up for the eight-hour-a-day cruising of 104 tow trucks.

“That’s how they can be on the scene so fast,” Perrine said. “They will already be on the freeway, not waiting on some off-ramp somewhere.”

Once a problem is called in, dispatchers using computers would find the Freeway Service Patrol truck nearest to the incident and send it on its way. The commission would ban independent “bandit” tow trucks that might try to arrive first on the scene and charge a fee for service, Perrine said.

Stalled cars would first be moved to the shoulder, where Freeway Service Patrol drivers, specially trained and certified by the CHP, would try to make simple repairs or provide a gallon of gas. The patrol drivers would spend a maximum of 10 minutes trying to get the car restarted.

If more extensive repairs are required, the car would be towed off the freeway and left at “drop spots” designated by the CHP. These secure and lighted facilities would have telephones to let motorists arrange for long-distance tows or rides home, Perrine said.

The CHP has been operating a similar, less-sophisticated driver aid program on a short stretch of the Harbor Freeway since June.

Chicago launched its “Minuteman Patrol” program shortly after it dedicated the Kennedy Expressway in 1960. Sixty people now cruise more than half of the area’s 150-mile expressway system 24 hours a day. They responded to 100,000 incidents in 1988: 60,000 disabled vehicles, 30,000 abandoned vehicles and other debris, and 10,000 accidents.