TRAFFIC WATCH : Light Brigade

For millions of Americans now living and indeed for generations yet unborn, today--whether they appreciate it or not--is a cause for solemn thanksgiving and joyous celebration.

For scheduled to take place in Santa Barbara today is an event that is certain to speed the progress of masses of humanity along the great highway of life, or at least that pleasant portion of it known as U.S. 101. Today in Santa Barbara, where Anacapa Street intersects 101, the last remaining traffic light on the 435-mile length of freeway between Los Angeles and San Francisco is to be removed.

It has taken almost 40 years of argument and painfully slow construction to reach the point where a newly ready underpass will finally eliminate the need for any stoplights. But good things come to those who wait--and wait, and wait--and in the fullness of time the construction work has been completed, and now the last hated light is to be extinguished.

No more will cars idle for up to eight minutes waiting to cross the intersection, wasting countless gallons of gasoline and pumping tons of exhaust pollutants into the air. No more will parental sanity be put to the test as youngsters in the back seat discover ever more imaginative ways to vent their boredom.

In the history of transportation the removal of the last stoplight on 101 may not quite rank up there with the invention of the wheel, the domestication of the horse or the Wright brothers liftoff at Kitty Hawk. But for all who travel this indispensable north-south route, it is an occasion to be cherished.