You have a point with respect to parallel parking on two-way streets, but not on one way streets with curb parking on both sides. And all lanes stop in order to yield right of way to a pedestrian crossing at an uncontrolled intersection.

More importantly, as any cyclist who regularly makes vehicular left turns on high speed busy multi-lane roads knows (hi Al), the most difficult merge step is from the bike lane or margin into the center of the rightmost lane. Once you have slowed traffic in the rightmost lane and established right of way there, negotiating for right of way in the adjacent lanes is even easier.