California drivers want smoother roadways and speedier clearing of accidents and debris, such as spilled couches and the like, according an Internet-based survey conducted by the state Department of Transportation.

The more than 12,000 motorists who responded to the department's maintenance-division survey also said they were increasingly frustrated with highway congestion. They blamed increasing commute times on poor planning that they said has led to a failure to build enough new highways to keep pace with the state's growing population.

Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said that they had to adjust their lives by leaving for work or home earlier or by changing their preferred route because of increased traffic.

Respondents gave the department good marks for road signs, graffiti removal and keeping roads passable during storms.

In San Diego and Riverside counties, transportation department representatives said the survey conducted in January and February will be used to help develop new highway plans. But a lack of cash at the state level means new highway construction will be the most challenging goal, the representatives said.

At the San Diego Association of Governments, the region's primary highway planning and funding agency, Executive Director Gary Gallegos said he feels the pain expressed by the more than 1,600 motorists in this county who responded to the survey.

"I understand their frustrations," Gallegos said Monday. "The commutes are getting worse."

At the Riverside County Transportation Commission, spokesman John Standiford said that the region's highway planners were doing their best to keep up with explosive population growth fueled by lower home prices than those of San Diego, Orange or Los Angeles counties.

"It's quite obvious that part of the problem in this area is that we are victims of our own success," Standiford said. "We are scrambling to do all that we can."

Transportation planners in the two counties cite a half-cent local sales tax passed by voters as the pot of gold that allows them to attempt to accommodate an ever-increasing number of cars and trucks on the roadways.

In San Diego County, a 40-year sales tax extension adopted in November will raise about $14 billion for highway projects over its lifetime. In Riverside, a 2002 extension of a separate sales tax will generate about $6 billion for road work.

Gallegos pointed to the ongoing work to add new lanes to Interstate 15 between Escondido and San Diego and plans for additional lanes on Interstate 5 as measures now under way to improve the commute. The I-15 project features reversible lanes to help ease the daily jam that drivers now face.

"Having that flexibility will give us something way different than anything else we have today," said Gallegos, who directed the transportation department's San Diego regional offices before joining the association of governments.

Rose Melgoza, spokeswoman for the transportation department's Riverside and San Bernardino region, said she found it particularly interesting that survey respondents placed graffiti and landscape maintenance as their lowest priorities. Those two subjects generate the most calls and complaints, she said.

Melgoza said department officials there are considering new methods and chemical treatments to improve the pavement and reduce potholes.

"We will do what we can, but funding issues will continue to mean we have to make our dollars stretch as far as they can," she said.

At its Sacramento headquarters, maintenance division spokesman Al Bailey said crews aim to have potholes patched within three days after they are reported.

Bailey put together the survey after budget cuts ended the department's past practice of hiring a consultant for the work. This is the first time it has been conducted over the Internet, which Bailey said generated far more responses than expected.

Plans to address the survey's major findings will be developed by the 12 transportation department regional offices and posted on its Web site sometime this summer, he said.

The department oversees more than 15,000 miles of interstate freeways and state highways and more than 12,000 bridges along those roadways.

For a complete look at the survey, visit the Web site at www.dot.ca.gov and look under the "What's New" section.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.