I have always wondered about the 2 way street dilemna. Here we keep talking about converting the one way streets to two way as a cheap and effective way to promote ease of use, per se, of downtown. However, I have never seen a downtown of a major city that has more 2-ways than 1-ways (granted I haven't been most places). Successful cities that utilize 1-ways: New York, DC, Atlanta, Philly, and I never really paid attention elsewhere, but these cities come to mind. It seems as if most core streets in these cities except for cross streets (and even then) are 1-way.
Are we positive that creating 2-ways would benefit downtown more than inhibit it? I think 1-ways are easy...if you are walking (or even driving) you know which direction the cars are coming from. If you are driving you can get anywhere by making all right hand turns. Intersections don't need turn lanes or turn signals and lights can be more easily timed.
