Road Scholar : Welcome to the freeway of the future-an intelligent, automated highway system that does just about everything to keep cars moving along safely at a decent clip. : Next L.A. / A Look at issues, people and ideas helping to shape the emerging metropolis.

We take the freeways for granted, even though they are signature L.A. architecture and a cultural icon both despised and admired.

“The most awesome works of design in the daily lives of most of us,” wrote David Brodsly in his 1981 book, “L.A. Freeway, An Appreciative Essay.” “ . . . Surely the structure the archeologists of some future age will study in seeking to understand who we were.”

When the first freeway was built through the Arroyo Seco in 1940, motorists streamed between Pasadena and Los Angeles just because they could. The driving experience was spare--slick pavement, no frills.

Ever since, tinkerers have tried to improve on the basic idea. We got Sigalerts and Bott’s Dots, grooves etched in the lanes and emergency call boxes, even bright red signs warning against going the wrong way on off-ramps.

In the never-ending search for the perfect freeway, the latest emerging concepts use technology paved right into the roadway to smoothe out the daily commute.

Imagine a car smart enough to avoid crashing. Magnets keep you centered in your lane like a trolley guided by an electric rail. Invisible gadgetry in the road grabs your car and hooks you to a convoy of other vehicles, whisking all of you single file--just a few yards apart--down the fast lane.

The Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans, working with a host of private companies, are working on a prototype of the next-generation freeway. It’s an automated, intelligent highway system that does just about everything possible to keep cars moving along safely at a decent clip.

But as a multimillion-dollar project in a time of scarce resources, the research has also drawn criticism for being a costly showcase of gee-whiz technology. Others doubt whether government agencies can realistically expect to install such wizardry on a wide scale.

“The revolutionary approach, in my opinion, is a little overly optimistic,” said Professor James Moore, co-director of USC’s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology.

On one point everyone agrees: Southern California’s freeways are perilously near capacity. If not for the recession, which put a lid on population growth, traffic would have swollen to intolerable levels.

With new freeways too expensive, financially and socially, current research focuses on making better, more efficient use of those we already have--528 miles in Los Angeles County.

The key is minimizing the fallibility of us humans who get behind the wheel, zip along at too-high speeds, brake at the last minute or barrel into other cars through inattention or recklessness.

Radar devices built into car bodies can warn drivers with a beep when they get too close to other vehicles or stationary objects such as center dividers. The sensors, about the size of computer chips, use technology developed by the defense industry and have already been installed in some Greyhound buses.

Researchers are also working on “adaptive cruise control,” a mechanism that allows a motorist to set the car at a particular speed, but then adjusts the speed automatically when the car closes the gap between it and the vehicle in front.

And Caltrans engineers are testing devices to anchor autos in their lanes and to link up cars in fast-moving platoons.

Keeping cars centered in the lane would allow narrower lanes--10 feet instead of 12--and make it possible to squeeze in more lanes. “It’s kind of a magic bullet for us,” said John West of Caltrans’ New Technology and Research Program.

Along an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 15 in San Diego, Caltrans is testing the convoy idea. The aim is to reduce the single biggest cause of major traffic tieups--crashes.

USC’s Moore and others may have reason to be skeptical of Caltrans’ ability to deploy the new wave of technological advances. Despite projections that it would be up and running by now, the agency has had trouble putting its vaunted “smart corridor” in place along the Santa Monica Freeway.

The system is designed to meld the freeway and surrounding streets into one cohesive unit. In theory, a commuter heading from Downtown to the Westside should experience a hassle-free ride along the Santa Monica or, if the freeway becomes snarled, be guided onto parallel boulevards like Olympic or Washington.

Publicly funded tow trucks patrol the freeway, removing stalled cars or clearing up accident scenes. Ramp meters regulate cars merging onto the freeway.

Radio updates, based on data gathered from electronic sensors embedded every half-mile in the asphalt, warn motorists of backups ahead. Overhead message marquees and other signs point the way onto surface streets, where computer-controlled stoplights would expedite the flow of traffic.

Officials had expected the $48-million smart corridor to be on line by last year. Mechanical and computer problems bogged down the project. Now the agency projects implementation for this fall.

If the smart corridor performs up to expectations, officials hope to install similar systems in the San Gabriel Valley, the South Bay and the San Fernando Valley.

Meanwhile, motorists can expect to see more metered transition ramps, which have been deemed a success along the Century Freeway, and more diamond lanes.

Already, car-poolers enjoy 70 miles of dedicated lanes in Los Angeles County, with 58 more under construction and 222 miles in the design or planning stages.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Freeway Technology When L.A.’s first freeway opened in 1940, it sported a ribbon of pavement and not much else. Now L.A.’s freeways are wired with meters, sensors, phone lines, message signs and remote- controlled cameras. Soon, technology may allow traffic to be locked into high- speed convoys with computer chips and magnets preventing accidents. Here is a look at high- tech innovations already in use or in development. *

CHP receives and dispatches call box information. *1. Emergency call boxes. 2. Smart computer chips in cars. 3. Underground magnets center vehicles with lanes. 4. In- pavement traffic sensors linked to Caltrans. 5. Traffic status signs. 6. High- occupancy vehicle lanes. 7. Highway advisory radio. 8. Closed- circuit TV. 9. Microwave transmitters sending traffic information to remote Caltrans operation center. 10. Sound wall.