The bridge news is interesting and I hope you will update us on how it goes. Bridge access is an important issue and one in which cycling advocacy groups have played an important role where I live. I don't think it would ever be feasible to take over a car lane here, but getting access to the bridge at all is important.

I don't see NYC's car-free Broadway as having anything to do with biking. I don't even know if bikes are allowed (they may be; I don't bike in that area so I don't know). In any event, the newly car-free space will be so full of pedestrians that it won't matter.

Closing streets creates so many problems --more delivery trucks double-parked on the adjacent streets, emergency vehicles doing who-knows-what to get access, etc. It's not a simple issue. Closing a single lane on a bridge, of course, is probably a bit easier, unless traffic backs up and causes some other problem.