I mean, it's better than nothing, but it's not exactly a great conversion.
Both setups waste space like crazy that could be used much better.
- They are using a roundabout as a slow-down area. That's ok, though not exactly great. The road leading up to it is still straight and uninterrupted, which means crossing pedestrians still have to deal with speeding cars.
- There is a pedestrian crossing with an island, which is an improvement.
- They added a road-center green space. These things are a total waste of space. They can't be used for anything. They look nice when driving by, but other than that, they do nothing. If they had moved it to the side of the road, it would at least increase the space between pedestrians and cars, but this way, it does nothing but increase speeding, because it separates cars from the oncoming traffic visually.
- They added bike stands, but no bike paths even though there's more than enough space to do so.
- They added two lights. Well... Better than nothing I guess.
- Continuing with the motif of wasted space: That roundabout center island is a huge one.
Looks like a redesign by a rookie designer who has never been to a place that actually does it right. It looks like something that was built in the 60s in Europe.