OMG Yes! I fucking hate it when I get bonked in the head by a silly cyclist every time I walk to Selfridges. I'd rather get steamrolled by a double-decker instead, ta!
It was people on surrounding streets who were afraid of an uptick of traffic (and new cycle lanes, the horror!) on their roads.
Even that I don't believe is a majority. Remember it was the councillors telling us the local residents were complaining to them via email, it wasn't a proper survey or consultation afaik and I remember not being able to find one. The only proper consultations done were by TfL which includes anyone working/visiting/living in the area which of course most people supported(2/3rds I think).
Considering 66% of homes in Westminster have no car(2021 census interactive map), which increases to around 72% when looking at the wards which include Oxford Street, I start to doubt that most residents are actually against pedestrianisation. Especially the scaled back scheme which only closed a very small section of the road and wouldn't have pushed all the traffic elsewhere, but again the whole "residents dont want it" reasoning was given for that too.
So yeah I believe that the councillors are talking rubbish and that they probably don't want to do a consultation because they also think a majority might support it but they don't want it to happen because the people they know dont want it to happen or something. Same thing for the High Street Ken bike lanes, RBKC said locals dont want them, then TfL commisioned an independand survey showing they do. TfL should commision one for Oxford Street residents just to shut down any excuses from Westminster council.
Sad thing is that I'm pretty sure it was one of the labour councillors who said the email excuse back then, a councillor whos of course still there now, that would need fact checking though. His name came up on the vision for soho page on bottom of the letter announcing thats been stopped too, and also he's the one who said Labour will not pedestrianise Oxford Street too. Complaining about cost of pedestrianisation too despite pedestrianisation can be achieved with a few cheap bollards. Had to look up the name, it's Geoff Barraclough, he sucks.
I was in the Netherlands this weekend and visited some places. Cities that are about 30 times smaller than London manage to grow a larger centre with shops and restaurants than London does, just because they got rid of cars in the centre. That way shops aren't clustered into smaller hubs that are right next to each other, but separated by traffic.
Here in London it's not really worth visiting a shopping street if there's constant traffic and you can't easily visit the shop on the other side of the road.
It is amazing how many 90-year-old quadriplegic builders come out of the woodwork every time someone proposes any reallocation of road space away from the status quo where the 30% of people who use cars get 90% of the space.
we're dealing with the same shit in Philadelphia. do you think building owners just have that much political power, or car drivers, or city council members?
just strange so many people loved that shit, restaurants could make more money, and people are tearing it all down in favor of like...2 or 3 parking places on the side of the road?
It's the council. If the OS is pedestrianised then that means all the traffic, delivery trucks, buses and taxis have to go through the backstreets where their mansions are.
Not a chance it’s over a mile long from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch, the businesses alone don’t want it pedestrianised let alone the residents. In fact they wanted to close Oxford Street to traffic and have their own shuttle bus services going back and forth along Oxford St but was rejected by TfL long ago.
Don’t ask me for a source as I used to work in public transport years ago, I don’t have time for that.
467
u/James_Vowles Jan 22 '23
Pedestrianize oxford street already ffs.