Oxford Circus re-design

Looks like there will be more pedestrians to weave around come November:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7997569.stm

Speaking as someone who used to live round the corner (next to the Crown and Sceptre in Great Titchfield Street) I say about bloody time. Oxford Circus's profusion of barriers and prevention of diagonal crossing is a gigantic embuggerance to one and all and a nice example of horribly vehicle-centric street design, in which a vast horde of peds is held up for long periods for the convenience of the relatively small amount of traffic. (Check a driving map BTW - you'll note that Oxford Street is a minor road as far as motor vehicles are concerned).

Oxford St should be ped-only. Bikes can find an alternative route from that shopping shit hole.
Job done.

Looks good.

Wigmore St FTW.

That looks like chaos. I'll be interested to see how it works. Yeah the Japanesse make it work because most people there are japanesse. At oxford circus you've got alot of ass hole tourists and stupid idots wondering arround.

Something does need to be done for that junction, but i'm pesemistic about this solution.

Oxford St should be ped-only. Bikes can find an alternative route from that shopping shit hole.
Job done.

I agree, but that's not what is happening.... this is the worst thing they could do for people who already travel along the road. The only good thing is clearing the pavement space.

Gotta say, if it works as well as the one in Shibuya it will be a blessing, I hate Oxfords street but this part I really hate!!

It's going to be chaos when they're doing the building work.

Speaking as someone who used to live round the corner (next to the Crown and Sceptre in Great Titchfield Street) I say about bloody time. Oxford Circus's profusion of barriers and prevention of diagonal crossing is a gigantic embuggerance to one and all and a nice example of horribly vehicle-centric street design, in which a vast horde of peds is held up for long periods for the convenience of the relatively small amount of traffic. (Check a driving map BTW - you'll note that Oxford Street is a minor road as far as motor vehicles are concerned).

I used to live just up on the left from the Hat and Stick....

Ox Circus Junction is ridiculous, but I genuinely believe that if they remove the street barriers, peds are going to get splatted by buses bigtime. It's one example of how people do sometimes need protecting from themselves.

they're currently re-planning the city centre in brighton to make it safer for pedestrians & cyclists - the model they're following is i think based on scandinavian city centres - where they remove the kerbs, creating a more seamless transition between the road and the pavement. as a result it slows traffic and makes drivers more aware of peds and bikes. what they've done so far works really well. i'm no expert, but seems like a good idea. perhaps this should be considered for Oxford st too.

they're currently re-planning the city centre in brighton to make it safer for pedestrians & cyclists - the model they're following is i think based on scandinavian city centres - where they remove the kerbs, creating a more seamless transition between the road and the pavement. as a result it slows traffic and makes drivers more aware of peds and bikes. what they've done so far works really well. i'm no expert, but seems like a good idea. perhaps this should be considered for Oxford st too.

High St Ken and Exhibition Road too.

Not sure Dancing James would vouch for the increased safety bit though.

The pics are a bit small. Anyone got bigger ones?

embuggerance

new favourite word

The pics are a bit small. Anyone got bigger ones?

I used to live just up on the left from the Hat and Stick....

Ox Circus Junction is ridiculous, but I genuinely believe that if they remove the street barriers, peds are going to get splatted by buses bigtime. It's one example of how people do sometimes need protecting from themselves.

Lordy! I thought I was the only one still calling it The Hat and Stick. I actually "corrected" my post to the proper name :-)

I think it should be OK providing the pedestrian phases are long enough and there's some enforcement against amber-jumping.

new favourite word

An armyism (I was TA infantry about a decade ago). You come across a lot of them in the infantry, and usually end up carrying them somewhere steep and muddy, at night, while being sleeted on.

They should re-surface it too, the bit between OC and TCR is abominable.

They should re-surface it too, the bit between OC and TCR is abominable.

amen to that, its horrible

Lordy! I thought I was the only one still calling it The Hat and Stick. I actually "corrected" my post to the proper name :-)

I think it should be OK providing the pedestrian phases are long enough and there's some enforcement against amber-jumping.

Yup! Have to admit to not visiting it much after it turned into a coke-snorting ad-whore venue - The King and Queen was more my tip!

How many days a week did you have Efes? ;)

This redesign is a good scheme. Most of the initiatives of this style are a very belated result of the influential Gehl report (which was fairly rubbish on cycling but excellent on walking):

http://www.gehlarchitects.com/?#/165291/

so what happened to the trams idea? I thought they were fixing up the tram station under holborn/southhampton row..

I thought oxford street was going to be pedestrianized with a tram down the middle - surely they're not going to spend money doing this only to rip it up in a couple of years to lay down tram lines??

The current Mayor of London has scrapped funding earmarked by the previous Mayor for the Cross River Tram and the project is currently on hold:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/2043.aspx

This does not mean that it won't happen in the future, but there is likely to be a long delay.

Yup! Have to admit to not visiting it much after it turned into a coke-snorting ad-whore venue - The King and Queen was more my tip!

How many days a week did you have Efes? ;)

Aye - it's for shit since the refurb. I used the Yorkshire Grey and The Ship mostly. Efes a couple of times a week - one of the world's few kebabs good enough to be delicious sober.

already got one mate...

This appeared a while back at the end of our road, lord knows why?
I've never seen anyone use the diagonals and although I have had to queue at the vets once on this corner it ain't Shibuya - Tokyo made me feel like an ant when on the ground, it seems like chaos but actually works really smoothly. Scramble crossings are from the US I believe, like much of Japans post war urban environment.
I doubt it will work well here especially on the tourist/bus hell of Oxford St. which I loathe cycling down.
More chaos to try to avoid on the way home.
Boris should have stuck to telly and scribbling.
DS

such a busy place these days.....
Here's pic I failed to attach earlier:

1 Attachment