Traffic Lanes

Riverside Drive will be temporarily narrowed from four lanes to two as part of the first phase of the Rancho Neighborhood Protection Plan. Burbank Mayor Robert Bowne strongly opposed the plan, approved by the City Council in a 3-1 vote this week. Councilman Michael Hastings abstained, saying he lives close to Riverside Drive.

The city put an emerald road outside my office. Well, it's more of a radioactive green, to be honest. But there it was, greeting me last week upon my arrival at the Times building downtown: a six-foot wide strip of paint running inside the traffic lanes on Spring Street. It's the city's newest bike lane, an inspiration that comes to Los Angeles via the Netherlands, where the people love getting around their cities under their own power so much, they're constantly giving bicycles more of the road.

A 39-year-old motorist was arrested after his car struck and killed a 75-year-old woman who was walking in the traffic lanes on Pacific Avenue, police said Sunday. Doris Klatt of Westminster died at the scene of the accident, which occurred about 5 p.m. Saturday, police said. The driver of the car, Sherwood Crane of Westminster, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, police said.

The shutdown of the 405 is a story that can be told in numbers: 500,000 drivers, 53 hours, 10 miles and eight words. Plan ahead. Avoid the area, or stay home. As a slogan, it hardly has the stirring eloquence of Madison Avenue behind it. Dutiful, plain-wrapped and direct, it has become over the last two months the bureaucratic catch-phrase for the closure, and its formulation — and dissemination — captures the difficulty of delivering an effective message to a region intent upon its travels.

A motorist who may have deliberately driven into opposing traffic on Telegraph Road in Santa Fe Springs crashed head-on into another auto, killing himself and two people in the other car, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported. Four people also were injured, the Downey Fire Department said. "The detectives are treating this as a possible homicide," said a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Traffic on the Simi Valley Freeway came to a halt in Simi Valley on Wednesday evening when cattle from a nearby ranch wandered into traffic lanes and caused at least four minor accidents, authorities said. No injuries were reported in the accidents, which occurred about 6:45 p.m. near the Erringer Road interchange, said a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman. CHP officers, assisted by a lasso-wielding rancher, helped round up the cattle, the spokeswoman said.

Former Sen. John V. Tunney (D-Calif.) has been charged with drunk driving after he was pulled over on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, officials said Friday. Arraignment for the 52-year old Tunney, who served a single term in the Senate, had been scheduled Friday, but was put off until April 28. Tunney was arrested at 2:10 a.m. on March 6 by California Highway Patrol officers who alleged that his 1985 Mercedes SEL was speeding and weaving down the coast road, CHP Officer Ernie Garcia said.

That little roadway experiment on 4th Street east of downtown is more important than you might think. The city's first automated reversible street allows the center lane to be used by inbound traffic in the morning rush hour and by the outbound crush in the late afternoon. In other words, commuters get an extra lane when they need it most. This is not a new concept.

One of the best things about driving on the new elevated roadway on the Harbor Freeway is that you don't even notice that you're five stories above one of the nation's busiest roads. You can't see the traffic below. Nor can you hear it. And, you move a lot faster! Best of all, you're on the top. You don't have to worry about being under the imposing concrete structure in an earthquake, despite Caltrans' assurances that it is safe.

Three people died as a result of traffic accidents in Orange County over the weekend, according to authorities. John Cordaway, 34, of Orange died a short time after he was struck by two cars as he tried to cross the street in the 2600 block of North Tustin Avenue in Orange shortly before midnight Saturday, police said. Richard P.

Plans to create exclusive busways from downtown Los Angeles to the Westside have hit another bump in the road. Wilshire Boulevard was supposed to get almost nine miles of bus-only lanes stretching off and on from MacArthur Park to Centinela Avenue. Then in December, transit officials cut a mile out of the proposal in Westwood to ease the concerns of high-rise residents who fear that it would push already heavy automobile traffic into even fewer lanes. Now Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl wants to downsize the project again to 5.4 miles, stop it at Beverly Hills and eliminate not only the Westwood section but the remaining route to Santa Monica.

You can't help but hurt for the family of Conor Lynch. The 16-year-old Notre Dame High School student was struck by a car and killed last week as he jogged across a busy Sherman Oaks street with teammates headed to cross-country practice. Conor was "the perfect kid," a grieving aunt said at his curbside shrine. Hundreds mourned Monday at his funeral Mass. Cardinal Roger Mahony sent condolences, calling his death "a terrible tragedy. " Conor's handsome face, displayed on posters and TV screens, only magnified the tragedy.

A dozen notables mounted bikes outside the entrance to Long Beach City Hall late last year for the unveiling of a metallic bicycle sculpture with a lofty proclamation: "Long Beach, the most bicycle friendly city in America," it reads in bold steel lettering under the likeness of an antique bicycle. It was a little premature, leaders admit. "But we're striving for that," said City Manager Pat West, a longtime cyclist. While other cities spin their wheels, Long Beach is joining the ranks of places such as Portland, Ore., San Francisco and New York City that have made safe passage for bikes a priority, even at the expense of traffic lanes.

Brent Roath quickly recast the question. Yes, he agreed, the U.S. Forest Service scientists who have spent the last two weeks in the San Gabriel Mountains examining the effects of the Station fire are like forensic pathologists combing a crime scene. Except in this case, the patient is still alive. "We're more like doctors, and our patient is ill. We're trying to figure out how to make it better," said Roath, regional director of post-burn analysis and a 33-year Forest Service veteran.

You're stuck on the 405 freeway. All lanes have come to a dead stop, when suddenly a motorcycle roars past at high speed, inches away, scaring the wits out of you. It's called lane-splitting, a harrowing maneuver by motorcyclists to break through freeway traffic jams and bypass slow-moving vehicles. Although motorcyclists love it, motorists often find it annoying and dangerous. California is the only state that allows motorcyclists to drive between vehicle lanes if it is done in a safe manner.

Over about eight weeks, three ships pulled into Northwest ports with a fin whale draped over the bulbous bow, a fuel-conserving device projecting into the ship's path just below the waterline. The first dead fin whale -- it is the world's second-largest creature -- arrived at Seattle on the bow of the container ship Tokyo Express on Aug. 9. The second came into Portland, Ore., on the auto-transport vessel Ruby Ray on Sept. 2.

These are the sorts of traffic cops you want to see in the rearview mirror. In an unusual tactic, the California Highway Patrol has assigned 14 motorcycle officers and one patrol car the sole responsibility of keeping traffic moving on a 5 1/2-mile stretch of the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley. They are not there to write tickets or fill out accident reports.

The city put an emerald road outside my office. Well, it's more of a radioactive green, to be honest. But there it was, greeting me last week upon my arrival at the Times building downtown: a six-foot wide strip of paint running inside the traffic lanes on Spring Street. It's the city's newest bike lane, an inspiration that comes to Los Angeles via the Netherlands, where the people love getting around their cities under their own power so much, they're constantly giving bicycles more of the road.

"Changing Lanes," with Ben Affleck, replaced "Panic Room" as the No. 1 film in theaters over the weekend, taking in approximately $17.6 million. "Panic Room" was second, with $11.3 million, followed by the comedy "The Sweetest Thing." Story, F4

A woman waiting for help in her disabled car in the middle of the westbound Riverside Freeway in Yorba Linda was killed Monday when the car was struck by a pickup truck and burst into flames, authorities said. The woman, whose identity was not released, died at the scene. She was talking to her parents on her cell phone when the crash took place shortly before 7:30 a.m. Her car was stuck in traffic lanes with a flat tire near Gypsum Canyon Road, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher said.