Afternoon reads: New York City goes on road diet

Bloomberg does it; will Villaraigosa?

New York City announced it's taking one to two lanes on Broadway through midtown Manhattan and creating a bike lane and expanded pedestrian areas, reports the New York Times. Many urban planners have been saying for years that if you want to promote alternative modes of transportation, it's important to provide space for cyclists, pedestrians and buses.

"The plan also makes clear that the Bloomberg administration, after losing its bid in Albany for a congestion-pricing plan that would have fought traffic by charging drivers to enter the area of Manhattan below 59th Street, intends to push ahead with smaller-scale initiatives to wrest at least part of the street from cars and trucks," wrote the NYT's William Neuman.

The Big Apple is working with a well-known designer from Copenhagen, a city famous for its cycling appeal.

The obvious question is can such a thing ever happen in L.A. or other parts of the Southland? The only place offhand that I can think of where it happened was in Santa Monica, which in the last year took away a lane of Ocean Park Boulevard (pictured, at right) between Lincoln and 24th Street and converted it to a bike lane -- in addition to building some left-turn lanes.

The other fun part of this story is that it was New York City's loss of a $300-million grant from the federal government for a Manhattan congestion pricing plan that resulted in Los Angeles County being awarded $213 million.

Metro gets security grant

The agency put out a news release today saying it will announce a significant security grant from the Governor's Office of Homeland Security. That's intriguing, given the fact that trains and buses have, of course, been terrorist targets overseas.

But few details are out today. Neither Metro or the Governor's Office of Homeland Security want to release the dollar amounts today because there is a news conference scheduled tomorrow morning with Villaraigosa.

Metro spokesman Rick Jager said some of the money will be used on the new gating system that the agency intends to build in the subway and some of its other rail stops. The idea came about to stop fare beaters, but Jager said some money will go to security cameras and other enhancements of that ilk.

Jay Alan, of the Governor's office, said that money will also go to several area bus agencies. Speaking in generalities, he said such funds in the past have gone for tightening security at bus and train maintenance facilities, better fencing around some rail stations, lighting improvements and something he called a "tunnel-intrusion detection system."

More details tomorrow.

'Don't buy gas day' returns

This happens every so often when the price of gas climbs -- an e-mail chain begins circulating urging people not to buy gas. I received one over the weekend and July 15 is now the target date. "If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION)
out of the oil companies pockets for just one day," says the e-mail.

There was another big push in May of last year for such a day. Probably the best retort then came from Kerry Trueman in the Huffington Post, who wrote that it's basically a stunt that doesn't attack the underlying problem -- our whole society is built around getting around by cars. "So give the gas pumps a pass for today if it makes you feel good, but take a moment to think about tomorrow, and the next day," Trueman wrote.

More Teslas on California roads

The very expensive electric car startup is finally starting to ship its high-performance roadsters to clients. In an e-mail to customers over the weekend, Tesla said that nine cars have arrived in California and will arrive at the rate of about four a week for the next month. Tesla says its roadster will go from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds and can go 220 miles on a charge. Sounds great except for the base price: $109,000. If the Chevy Volt ever comes to market, it will be interesting to see how it's priced. GM says the car will be able to run for long stretches on electric power, but will have a gasoline motor to help extend its range.

-- Steve Hymon