County to Likely Stay at 55 M.P.H. : Transportation: Although higher speeds may become legal, the realities of L.A. traffic probably mean it won’t make a difference anyway.

Congress has voted to lift the 55 m.p.h. national speed limit, but don’t press the pedal to the metal yet.

Chronically rushed Angelenos are unlikely to see a return to the good old days when they could legally race across town in their big powerful Buicks at 65 m.p.h.

State officials say they probably will leave the posted speed limit on the most heavily traveled freeways in L.A. County at 55 m.p.h. Not much use to changing them; traffic jams have accomplished more than any black-and-white car when it comes to slowing us down.

“I’m sitting here speeding down the freeway at 25 m.p.h.,” San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said, creeping along the San Diego Freeway in midday traffic. “So who cares what the speed limit is raised to?”

In Los Angeles, “we think we’ve died and gone to heaven if we can go 45 m.p.h.,” he said.

Except for those rare and precious moments when the cars magically thin out and L.A. motorists feel a sprint at 65 m.p.h. or more is only their due reward.

A change in the speed limit would make those moments legal as well as liberating; it might not speed us up, but at least we could look at the road instead of the rear-view mirror.

Wide-open stretches of freeway, in the far reaches of the county--say Interstate 5 at the north end of the county or the freeways at the eastern end of the county--are the most likely candidates for 65 m.p.h. speed limit signs.

Before Congress established the 55 m.p.h. limit during the Arab oil embargo in 1973, California drivers could travel 65 on most freeways.

“We did not have anywhere near the volumes of traffic we have today in Los Angeles,” said CHP Commissioner Maury Hannigan.

Alex Carroll, California coordinator of the National Motorists Assn. which lobbied to repeal the 55 m.p.h. limit, said he will press state officials to raise the limit to 70 m.p.h. on all freeways.

It’s plenty safe to go that fast on the Santa Monica Freeway, for example, late at night, he said, contending that most drivers travel 65 m.p.h. or 70 m.p.h. when conditions permit.

“You have a few people out there who are trying to obey the law, and they’re basically traffic hazards,” Carroll said. “They’re obstructing the flow of traffic.”

The House joined the Senate Wednesday in voting to let states end the 55 m.p.h. speed limit over the objections of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, who has contended that the lower limit saves lives and hinted at the possibility of a presidential veto. The California Legislature has sent Gov. Pete Wilson a bill authorizing a maximum 70 m.p.h. speed limit on some roads. He is expected to sign it.

Nearly 1,400 miles of the 4,064-mile California freeway system are posted at 65 m.p.h. under a law passed in 1987. The law, allowing states to increase speed limits to 65 m.p.h. on rural highways, was passed in response to Prohibition-like claims that the 55 m.p.h. limit had made the United States a nation of lawmakers and assertions that deaths and injuries would not increase because people already travel at high speeds.

Ken Steele, Caltrans district director in Los Angeles, pledged to take a “good honest look” at every freeway. “If it’s safe to go faster, fine,” he said. “Our primary concern is safety.” While most freeways were originally designed for speeds up to 70 m.p.h., the addition of car-pool lanes near the median have changed roadway conditions.

While at least one state--Montana--is talking about having no speed limit, CHP chief Hannigan said he will take a “long hard look” before signing off on 70 m.p.h. speeds. The maximum truck speed has always been 55 m.p.h., and “I certainly will fight to maintain that,” Hannigan said.

Are officials concerned that if they raise the limit to 65 m.p.h., motorists will drive 75? “History doesn’t bear that out,” said Hannigan. “When it was 65, we had very good compliance. . . . When we got into speeds that people had been driving at for years, and the highways were designed for these given speeds, and the congestion didn’t justify the lower speed limits, then we started running into difficulty. I have a lot of faith in the motoring public.”