Couplets (one-way streets) are not about people, bicycles or retail.  They are about moving vast numbers of cars.  Cities all over the country are changing one-way streets back to two-way streets to bring back retail and pedestrians.

The Return of the Two-Way Street
By Alan Ehrenhalt | December 03, 2009

Downtown Success is a Two-Way Street
February 28, 2009

One-way to two-way
The Post and Courier | August 25, 2009

Two Way Streets Rev Up Retailers
“Converting three downtown streets from one-way to two-way appears to have done what a multimilion-dollar mixed-use makeover has not: breathe some life into the tired thoroughfares.”
Oregonian | January 26, 2009

Trucks, One-Way Streets ‘Killing the City’: Urbanists
Raise the Hammer May 14, 2009

What Lexington Needs: Two-way Streets
Ace Weekly | March 20, 2009

The Return of the Two-Way Street
Why the double-yellow stripe is making a comeback in downtowns.

Many Cities Changing One-way Streets Back
USA Today | December 20, 2006

ESCONDIDO: Valley Parkway, Second Ave. may become two-way streets
Goal is to make downtown more visible, pedestrian-friendly

Decoupling Foster and Woodstock
There is a movement in the Lents neighborhood to de-couple the business district because “the couplet changed the function of the business district core from a locally oriented ‘Main Street’ to one which now functions more like a transportation corridor”…