[subterranean]

As someone who has spent a lot of time on MSU's campus and frequenting the adjacent businesses across Grand River, I personally found it a hell of a lot easier to cross one-directional traffic, frogger style, with a median in the middle. This is especially true mid-block. Currently, the medians provide a level of safety for pedestrians where you can cross one side when it's clear, wait, and then cross the other side when that clears. Compared to say the area around Sparrow where kids, patients and other pedestrians regularly and dangerously cross mid-block via the turn lane, the safety of the boulevard design in East Lansing becomes more apparent. Just add 40,000 kids and thousands of faculty to the mix and I think this is kind of a no-brainer. Not only will two way traffic volumes remain virtually unchanged, they'll be right next to each other with no safety in the middle. If signaled cross walks are not part of this system, I think this could be a catastrophe.