Khan’s Oxford Street pedestrianisation plan is missing important details

This weeks’s surprise announcement by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan of his intention to pedestrianise Oxford Street by taking control away from Westminster Council has been tall on grandstanding and short on detail. So what is he up to?

Khan has said that he will create a Mayoral Development Area (MDA) and Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) that would wrest control of the street from Westminster Council and that he has the backing of Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister. This would first have to undergo a public consultation and consideration by the London Assembly.

With the creation of the MDA the Mayor intends to pedestrianise the whole street from Marble Arch to Tottenham Court, with the section west of Oxford Circus to be completed first followed by the eastern section at a later date; and that cyclists will also be banned from using the street.

The first of the changes would be done within two years. That’s about all he has said. His original statement is here.

However, any fool can pedestrianise a street — the clever part is how you manage the traffic that you are removing and how you access the street with (surface) public transport and safe routes for people getting there by walking, wheeling and cycling.

Khan has had more than eight years to think about the project so we should expect him to tell us shortly just exactly how he is going to achieve all this — and without just moving all the traffic into the surrounding narrower streets where around 30,000 people live.

What is to be done with the buses and taxis? That is the nub of the problem and the reason why there has been so much resistance from community groups in Fitzrovia, Soho, Marylebone and Mayfair.

Previous plans for pedestrianisation would divert buses, taxis and other vehicles along a parallel route, namely: Wigmore Street in Marylebone, and Mortimer Street and Goodge Street in Fitzrovia; with taxis serving Oxford Street off ranks in the side streets.

Khan now wants buses and taxis along with other motor vehicles off the street to improve pedestrian safety and boost the coffers of Oxford Street retailers. But people living in the surrounding neighbourhoods — the majority don’t own a car — fear all that traffic will be dumped in front of their windows.

Westminster Council leader Adam Hug is quite rightly seeking answers to the missing detail in Khan’s proposal. Among the ten questions he has asked are:

“How can a fully pedestrianised scheme be delivered in a way [which] does not lead to significantly increased traffic congestion in the nearby, narrow residential streets or worsen air quality by displacing buses and taxis?”

And:

“What is the size of the MDA, the purpose of the MDC and are either of them necessary?”

The first question is the more obvious one to ask but it is the second that is likely to be the more important and one that Camden Council should also be asking — how far does the “red line” of the MDA extend into the neighbourhoods surrounding Oxford Street?

If Khan intends to force through his plans he may be thinking about drawing that all important red line of the MDA to include Wigmore Street, Mortimer Street and Goodge Street — creating a new “red route” for buses, taxis and other traffic, as well as taking local development plans away from Westminster and Camden Councils.

And to hell with any resistance from the people living here. Because the way Khan has gone about this does not bode well for local democracy and the future of the neighbourhoods surrounding Oxford Street.