MURRIETA - It's a Southwest County first -- and for a change, Temecula is not the one taking the bow.

Murrieta is the first community in Southwest County to have both high-occupancy vehicle lanes and signals controlling access on freeway onramps. The signals, which were recently installed on the onramps to Interstate 215 from Los Alamos Road, are expected to be operational in less than a month, but they may not be used immediately, a city official said.

The decision to add the new features was made by the California Department of Transportation, local officials say, and they were put in as part of a project to widen the bridge from two to six lanes across the interstate and expand the onramps.

Both the signals -- known as "meters" -- and the high-occupancy vehicle lanes are designed to make it easier for drivers to merge onto high-speed freeway lanes without interrupting the flow of traffic.

"We're finally getting our roads and our infrastructure up to date," said Warnie Enochs, a Murrieta City Councilman. "We're sending the trend for the valley. We got state-of-the-art stuff."

The meters allow either one or two vehicles in a lane to move onto the freeway at a time, while cars and SUVs in other lanes wait their turns. Meters are typically in operation during peak traffic hours only, and have been common for decades in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties.

The HOV lane will be especially useful for drivers with at least one passenger when freeway-bound traffic is backed up. But once on the freeway, vehicles with two or more people inside won't be rewarded for car-pooling; there are no HOV lanes on area freeways.

Murrieta may be the first to get the ramp meters, but that's not necessarily a good thing for the city, said Temecula Councilman Ron Roberts, who is a member of the Riverside County Transportation Commission.

In Temecula at Winchester Road, a long stream of vehicles is often found funneling into a congested one-lane ramp onto northbound Interstate 15 -- particularly at peak traffic hours. The same is true for both ramps at Rancho California Road.

But Roberts believes I-15 ramp meters would actually worsen traffic on Winchester Road.

"What (meters) are doing is regulating the traffic going on the freeway to have more open spaces between the cars coming on to the freeway," he said.

Fewer cars being able to get on the freeway would mean even more cars backing up on Winchester.

Meters, however, are inevitable at Winchester Road, said Greg Butler, Temecula's deputy director of public works.

Caltrans has included meters in the design of an overhauled Winchester interchange, he said. That project would coincide with the construction of the French Valley Parkway, which is a proposed new interchange at the Temecula-Murrieta line that is still in the design and review phase.

Winchester may be congested, but traffic typically is heavier on Newport Road in Menifee, as hundreds of drivers each morning await access to the single-lane ramps onto I-215.

Meters are probably headed there, and Scott Road as well, said county Transportation Director George Johnson.

"I fully expect we'll do that as we develop those interchange projects," he said.

Although not all area officials are excited about the new ramp meters, Murrieta residents Gracie Soto and Robin Carter are relieved state and city officials finally have begun rectifying the traffic nightmare -- particularly with the HOV lane on the I-215 onramp at Los Alamos Road.

Murrieta resident Frank Wood is a heavy user of HOV lanes -- when he's on a road or freeway where they exist.

"Everything takes a long time when it involves the state and cities," said Wood, 79. "If I was worried about how long it takes, I wouldn't be here, Just the fact that they're here before I'm in a wheelchair is a good thing."

Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or beckhouse@californian.com.