Stealing Some Signals to Beat Traffic Crush

You can blame Eastern Daylight Time for the monumental traffic jam sure to encircle Anaheim Stadium this afternoon as fans try to reach their seats for the 60th baseball All-Star game.

So that Eastern TV viewers need not stay up too late, the game is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

That’s 5:30 p.m. local time, when Anaheim’s freeways and surface streets are choked with commute traffic, even on an ordinary Tuesday.

City traffic engineers are expecting up to 20,000 additional cars in the city. Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, city police and traffic engineers and stadium officials say they will do what they can to minimize traffic bottlenecks, but they concede that, at best, the situation could be horrendous for motorists.

Tactics to Avoid the Worst

Is there a way to avoid the worst of it?

Here is the advice of traffic planners:

* Come early.

The parking lot gates will open at 2 p.m., considerably before the commute traffic begins. The stadium gates will roll up at 2:30 p.m.

Coming early will also ensure you a parking spot in the stadium lot. Phil Larcus, the stadium parking manager, said the lot’s approximately 15,000 spaces could be full by 4:30 p.m.

Stadium parking will cost $5, a dollar more than usual. Latecomers will have to find street parking, which is quite scarce near the stadium, or pay $10 or so at nearby private lots.

Snack and souvenir stands will open at 2:30, and some shows will be flashed onto the scoreboard screens for early fans. But there will be no official pregame enter

tainment until 4:50 p.m., when a Disney-produced program will begin. (For those with portable TVs: “The Flintstones” are on at 3 p.m. on Channel 11, and “Gidget” is at 4 on Channel 5.)

* Stay away from State College Boulevard.

It has the heaviest traffic of all stadium entrances.

Instead, come in the back way. Take the Orange Freeway (California 57) to the Katella Avenue off-ramp, then head east. Turn right almost immediately onto Douglass Road, which heads right into the stadium parking lot.

The advantages of this route is that Douglass Road is little used except by experienced locals, and it can handle lots of traffic. Before a game, its lanes are one-way into the stadium; after a game, they are one-way out.

* Take the train.

You can drive to an Amtrak station, park, then take a train to the Amtrak station at the edge of the stadium parking lot.

Trains will arrive at the stadium from the north (Los Angeles and Fullerton) at 1:29 p.m., 3:29 p.m. and 5:29 p.m.

Trains from the south (San Diego, Del Mar, Oceanside, San Juan Capistrano and Santa Ana) will arrive at the stadium at 1:39 p.m. and 4:43 p.m. (The 4:43 p.m. train will pick up passengers at the San Clemente Pier, as well).

After the game, trains will head south from the stadium at 9:29 p.m. (no stop in San Clemente) and north at 8:37 p.m. and 10:37 p.m.

Amtrak reservations and schedule information are available by calling (800) 872-7245.

* Take your bicycle.

The stadium lies beside a veritable freeway for bicycles: the Santa Ana River Bicycle Trail. Virtually any major street in Orange County that crosses the Santa Ana River has a entrance to the trail. Get off the trail at Orangewood Avenue, and you’re right at the stadium.

Cyclists will be going to the game in daylight but returning in the dark, so they will need night-riding gear. They may also wish to haul their bikes close to the stadium in a vehicle, park, then cycle only a short distance to the stadium, locking up both in plain sight and out of the crowd traffic.

A Guide To Anaheim Stadium Parking, LYNETTE JOHNSON / Los Angeles Times

What: All-Star Game Where: Anaheim Stadium When: Today, 5:35 p.m. Gates open: 2:30 p.m. Sellout, (64,000 seats); up to 24,000 cars expected; 14,000 on-site parking spacesavailable at $5 each. Tips Arrive at the stadium between 2:30 p.m., when parking lots open, and 3:30 p.m., before commutertraffic builds up. Enter the Big A via the back entrance off Douglass Road, rather than the entrances on StateCollege Boulevard and Orangewood Avenue. ALL-STAR TELEVISION AT A GLANCE

Air time: Pre-game show, 5 p.m. Game, 5:38 p.m. Channel 4.

Announcers: Former President Ronald Reagan, one inning of color commentary. Vin Scully, play by play. Former pitching great Tom Seaver, analysis.

Staff: Production, technical and management crew of about 90 people.

Stations carrying game: 210.

Audience: Estimated 17.6 million households; 51 million viewers.

Equipment: $8 million worth, including 14 stationary cameras, which are shown below, one hand-held minicam that will roam the stadium, one camera in Goodyear blimp, one camera in the bowels of the stadium for post-game interviews, one unmanned camera behind home plate to show radar gun speed readings, one other unmanned camera in the NBC booth for shots of announcers, etc., 13 videotape machines for replays, one still-frame storage device, two Cyphers for character generation and animation, two mobile units of four 40-foot trailers, one 40-foot mobile unit for videotape, 3 miles of camera cable and 3.5 miles of audio cable.

Stationary Cameras

Source: NBC