London Group
September 2012
Position statement on Oxford Street
Submission to the West End Commission
The Campaign for Better Transport is the independent national body that seeks to
put people and the environment first in transport decisions and to find sustainable
transport solutions. We, the London Group, are pleased to have the opportunity to
put forward our views on the challenges that face the West End, specifically in
regard to the difficulties pedestrians experience on Oxford Street.
Oxford Street is the premier shopping street of Britain but suffers from severe
overcrowding and traffic congestion. The problem is well recognised and analysed,
by Jan Gehl in his 2004 publication ‘Towards a fine city for people’ and later by the
New West End Company and Westminster City Council in their 2007 report ‘Oxford
Street, Regent Street and Bond Street: An Action Plan for The Retail Streets’.
Summary of our proposals
Our suggestions for improving the pedestrian experience can be summarised under
two bullet points:
 Reducing the number of buses and rerouting taxis
 Widening footways and improving crossing points.
Challenges
1. Although private cars are banned from Oxford Street during the business day, the
road is permanently congested, mainly by buses and taxis.
2. The footways are too narrow for the number of pedestrians.
3. Opportunities for crossing the road are restricted by the traffic and by inadequate
crossing points.
4. The diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus is a resounding success and should be
replicated wherever possible.
5. There are inadequate areas for resting.
6. The entrances to side roads are all designed primarily with drivers rather than
pedestrians in mind.
To tackle these problems we propose a raft of measures.
1. Remove or drastically restrict buses. A number of suggestions have been made
how this could be done.
1.1. Recast bus routes so that the number of buses on the street is very much
reduced. This would involve diverting some routes or terminating them short of
Oxford Street. Taken to its extreme this would result in a totally pedestrianised
Oxford Street, creating the conditions experienced on the days in recent years when
the whole street was closed to traffic. Living Streets, surveying visitors on VIP day,
2007, found that 68% of people asked felt that motor traffic should be permanently
removed. This raises issues for people with mobility problems and arrangements
would have to be made to provide suitable vehicles for them.
1.2. Introduce a simplified network of city-centre bus routes to replace most through
routes with dedicated and clearly publicised interchange points on the edge of the
central area. The Copenhagen A-bus network is a model for this.
1.3. Replace all bus routes on Oxford Street with a light tram service. This would
necessitate diverting existing bus routes or terminating them at the west or east end
of the street.
2. Remove taxis from Oxford Street. This could be done by increasing the places
where taxis could cross rather than traverse Oxford Street and by establishing well
indicated taxi ranks in side streets.
3. Improve the environment for pedestrians. This could involve a number of
measures.
3.1 Widen the footway. This would be possible if traffic was much reduced as
indicated above.
3.2. Improve crossing points. If most traffic was eliminated there would be no need
for formal crossing points except at points where a substantial volume of traffic
crosses Oxford Street.
3.3. Remove as much street furniture as possible, combining, as far as possible,
different functions on one site, eg bus stops on lamp posts. Align all other street
furniture so as to leave clear pedestrian paths.
3.4. Remove barriers between the footway and the road.
3.5. Repave the entrances to side roads so that the footway carries across the road
rather than the road cutting through the footway.
3.6. Establish areas where it is possible to remove oneself from the moving stream
of pedestrians and rest, as far as possible with seats.
3.7 Further improve direction signs and maps.
4. Improve the environment for cyclists. Establish cycle storage areas. Permit cycles
on Oxford Street with pedestrian priority. If a tramway was established, cycles could
be encouraged to cycle between the tram tracks.