BackLife in the pedestrian fast lane?
Living Streets has called into question the announcement from the New West End Company for the creation of a fast lane for pedestrians. The New West End company was reported in the Evening Standard as saying that a "pedestrian motorway" was essential because the Crossrail link will bring an extra 50 million visitors a year by 2020.
“The idea of forcing pedestrians into slow and fast lanes in the West End is absolutely ridiculous. Oxford Street is already overcrowded and is frankly an embarrassment as this is one of London’s premier destinations for shopping and leisure," said Living Streets Chief Executive Tony Armstrong.
"As the street is set to be even more overcrowded when Crossrail is complete, we need to commit to pedestrianising Oxford Street as the first step in creating a pedestrian friendly network in the West End."
Living Streets has long campaigned for Oxford Street to be fully pedestrianised and submitted evidence of its benefits to the Greater London Authority Transport Committee. Around 220 buses an hour travel in each direction along the busiest section of Oxford Street, yet only 7% of visitors to the West End use buses to move around. Previous research carried out by Living Streets showed that 68% of people would like to see traffic permanently removed from Oxford Street. Surely it would make sense to ban motor traffic from the area rather than create a wacky ‘pedestrian motorway’ which will put pedestrians in regimented lines and will be completely unenforceable.”
Published on: 26/07/2010
