4-3 street conversions

There's a thing I've read about. You take a 4-lane street -- 2 travel lanes in each direction -- and cut it down. 1 travel lane in each direction, plus an alternating central turn lane. Supposedly it's safer, and has about the same throughput -- driver's side turns mean that the inner travel lane tends to get blocked by waiting cars anyway. And of course the conversion gives you space to play with.

I'm pretty sure this has happened to Marin Avenue, north of me, at some point. I had noticed that crossing it was unpleasant even at corners, let alone jaywalking -- it's wide and busy. But when I paid attention, I discovered it only has 1 travel lane each way! But it _is_ wide: each side has parking, a bike lane, and the travel lane, and then there's a rather wide turn lane. So, curb to curb, it's like a 6 lane street.

I'm glad they were able to carve some bike lanes out of the old street, but I wish they had found room for pedestrian bulbs or a median-refuge as well. Or both: bulbs at the corners, say, and a refuge island in the middle of blocks.