Oxford Circus re-design

We should totally include Oxford Street into the New Oxford Street Ride... This would be an excellent stop for lunch...

It might just be worth pointing out again that there is no offence of 'jaywalking' in this country.

@Object: Busy junctions like Oxford Circus tend to have very poor casualty records, anyway. There are bound to be fatalities almost every year. Might be worth checking.

Schemes like this are based on very sound research and explicitly designed to *reduce *casualties. They won't eliminate them.

I find the video heartening--at last, the dominant form of traffic at OC is recognised as people on foot. It's one of the busiest walking junctions in London. It's a very late follow-up to the Gehl Report of 2004 (which was very good on walking, although less so on cycling):

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

I look forward to the influence this scheme is likely to have on other public realm schemes throughout London. We have a few in Hackney for which we've agitated for a while, and it would be good to see them come to fruition.

It must be stressed that of course such a scheme will work less well in isolation than complemented with similar schemes up- and downstream, to characterise a whole area rather than a single spot.

I can't predict that it will reduce casualties, but casualty reductions through this sort of approach have been massive on the Continent, and it is to be expected that there will at least be some effect, even if the reduction is less than was achieved there.

I think it's awesome. I also think people will figure it out and once the "regulars" start navigating it safely the tourists will fall in line. Now just think about how much nicer it is going to make the junction this Christmas, and how we'll all avoid the area anyway.

bingo, chaos now, but eventually everyone get the hang of it.

Good job the Loproloco clown ride was held before this change. The old setup, allowed 2 laps of the the circus to be completed, before the cars tried to run Coco and friends down!

Page four of the Times has a piece on this today - apparently there have been 34 accidents there in the last three years, none of them fatal.

I like it, though.

RLJ will become hazardous down at that junction

then cyclists will just have to wait 20 seconds, poor things.

I would guess that happens on a regular basis even without the Xrossing™.

Read the post two above yours. About one a month, slightly less, but never fatal - at least in last three years.

I like the way there is a massive knot in the middle as people moving down both diagonals all want to move through the central point. But they can't. Brilliant. Seems to really ease the flow. 50 people stock in the middle of a huge junction with the countries angriest drivers all dashing off for the kill.

You couldn't make this sort of stuff up.

It's a very busy junction.

Busy junctions are slow to navigate.

This really helps improve the balance. The narrow fueling at busy junctions like that are horrible and dangerous especially if you say were in a wheel chair or had a walking stick, allowing people to spread out more improves this.

The issue with people crossing when the man is red is annoying but so is everything. I wonder if in the uk we have a longer red man lag between no traffic going and no pedestrians walking. It seems that some countries have a lot quicker swap over so people know red man means no because the traffic is about to go. This may however be me looking at crossings and traffic systems I am not familiar with and thinking the traffic lights change quicker abroad

The issue with people crossing when the man is red is annoying but so is everything. I wonder if in the uk we have a longer red man lag between no traffic going and no pedestrians walking. It seems that some countries have a lot quicker swap over so people know red man means no because the traffic is about to go. This may however be me looking at crossings and traffic systems I am not familiar with and thinking the traffic lights change quicker abroad

In Copenhagen the ped signals have a digital readout that counts down the green man so you know exactly when the cars are going to pull away. They also count down the time to the next green man so you know how long you have to wait.

That sounds like an excellent idea.

will the peds everywhere be over tomorrow?

just gave it a go this afternoon (twice it was so much fun)

it just works so well, its amazing.
or rather WTF have we been doing all these years to design it so fecked up in the first place.

The one outside Flinders St station in Melbourne has been there since the 50's apparently. They're also used in NZ, Japan, the US. Poor little England and the sweepy weepy road engineers.. have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and another little nap.. there's a good boy..

hahahaha I really want to try an RLJ there now!!1 after seeign that video of tis completion, just like Japan lol.

hahah at the video do we see a 3 step RLJ by an LAS (london ambulance service) cyclist??? on the left??

rode behind a guy who tried to jump this on my lunch today, foooolish sucka got bombarded by angry humans from all sides, but at least not a bus