Oxford Street revamp

This probably deserves its own thread. It's been discussed in various other places but really belongs here. Westminster have gone out with a consultation about plans to freshen up Oxford Street. I went along to a drop-in session, which was very interesting. There are still two sessions to come in August.

https://oxfordstreetprogramme.co.uk/index.html

Salvation Army (Regent Hall), 275 Oxford Street, W1C 2DJ

2nd August – drop in 9am-5pm (presentations at 10am, 1pm and 4pm)
9th August – drop in 9am-5pm (presentations at 10am, 1pm and 4pm)

Definitely recommended to go along, especially if you want to talk to the lead consultant directly.

There's a lot of material to plough through. The projects are basically the revamp of Oxford Street itself, plus a couple of associated side projects. Needless to say, there's so much wrong with this area that they couldn't possibly address it all. There are a number of very good aspects to the proposals, though, especially a commitment to returning one-way streets in the area to two-way operation, including the north and south sides of Cavendish Square, as well as parts of Margaret Street and Mortimer Street. This is extremely positive, and although there won't be two-way operation all along these streets (Goodge Street isn't included, for instance, as it's too far away and also in LB Camden), it's very much a step in the right direction, with the hope that more such projects will be undertaken in the future. Short of full two-way working, some contraflows are proposed in other streets, too.

The main criticism is that the proposed carriageway width in Oxford Street is meant to be a consistent 6.5m throughout (two lanes at the minimum possible width of 3.25m, just about enough for two buses to pass each other), similar to the 7m that currently exists for a stretch west of Oxford Circus. This is very poor provision for cycling and will make it all but impossible to get through. The number of bus routes has been greatly reduced, to 4 or 5 depending which side of Oxford Circus you're looking at, meaning longer dwell times for buses, in turn meaning lots of waiting behind them or difficult overtaking manoeuvres, in conflict with oncoming traffic and quite possibly drivers behind. While the street will remain largely bus, cycle, and taxi only (the access restrictions won't change materially except for a reduction in restricted hours east of Oxford Circus, and for the fact that they will be enforceable, which they are currently not), the proposed carriageway width would still maintain poor conditions for cycling.

Much better would be wide kerb lanes of 4.5m, i.e. 1.25m more each side. This would create greater flexibility while still increasing space for pedestrians along most of the length of the street except for the section that is currently narrower. There is a lot of nervousness around pedestrian footfall and overcrowding of Underground platforms, but the latter situation at least should be alleviated compared to the pre-pandemic situation because of Crossrail. While Crossrail (which I still think was a mistake to build) brings many more people to the area, it also provides more platform space. Were the carriageway width changed in the proposals, it would also affect the proposed redesigns of junctions, including Oxford Circus. It would make designing the junctions much easier and result inn fewer banned turns.

Most streets crossing Oxford Street will remain one-way under the proposals, unfortunately, there will be many banned turns, and traffic management will be largely by selective access restrictions, for instance in side streets, but overall, if the carriageway width issue is addressed, it's not a bad project in what is probably London's most difficult traffic environment, and where the scope of any project could easily grow beyond what is realistically achievable.

Also, this project certainly won't be 'once in a lifetime', as the Evening Standard article puts it. Oxford Street has been neglected for too long and a large backlog of issues has built up. It shouldn't be allowed to fall so far behind again, and there should be continuous work of a less spectacular nature on improving it and the wider area.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/plans-oxford-street-london-traffic-cars-consultation-pedestrians-westminster-council-b1094987.html