London wants traffic-free Oxford Street

London’s plans to create a traffic-free Oxford Street have received a major boost, because the citizens also back the idea. Nearly two to three Londoners want to ban cars from the capital’s busiest shopping streets.

First proposal by end of next year

Between April and June 2017, 12,000 of Oxford Street’s inhabitants, retailers and visitors have expressed their view about how the street should become traffic-free. 62 % is in favour of the idea and another 30 % oppose it. Those that do not back the idea fear the shopping street’s accessibility will suffer and that additional traffic jams will arise.

There was another enquiry in November and there will be a first proposal by December 2018. The plan is to turn Oxford Street into a traffic-free area by 2021 and a study will investigate how the pedestrian area will impact the surrounding streets.

Flemish citizens not in favour of pedestrian area

Brussels also opened a pedestrian area in 2016, but the feedback was mostly negative. Retailers felt they were not consulted enough and consumers complained about how difficult it was to reach the city center. Research had shown retailers were pretty much all in favour of a pedestrian area, but only one that was well prepared.

Radio 1’s De Stemming also questioned its listeners recently and it seems that two out of three Flemish citizens is not in favour of a traffic-free city center. 60 % of people who live in cities with more than 100,000 citizens are in favour however. The smaller the city, the fewer citizens want a traffic-free center, which is not that surprising. Smaller cities do not have that much traffic and also have fewer alternative routes, which is a reason not to clear the city center.