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Comment by possiblelion | Hacker News Reader

I studied in London for two years out of by three year BA program (2018-2020), and due to COVID had to move back to Estonia to complete the last year remotely. Recently I visited London again to catch up with old friends and was really bamboozled by these "candy shops", they all had the distinct air of suspiciousness around them. I've never really liked Oxford Street however, even before the flood of US candy. Shopping malls are much better than high streets for actually buying things imho.

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Oxford Street would be a much nicer environment if it were closed to traffic from TCR to Marble Arch, perhaps with a thoroughfare for Regent Street. It's been proposed many times over the years, but Westminster council are against it. If the street were pedestrianised, and furnished with seating areas, landscaping, and perhaps some small cafe/restaurant units in the former roadway, it would be a much more pleasant environment to shop.

>TCR

Tottenham Court Road

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tottenham_Court_Road

The large amount of traffic going through it has to go somewhere. On top of that, given the huge number of pedestrians on Oxford street I’d bet that with restaurants spilling out it would just become an even more awful place to walk through. Any of then streets that I saw pedestrianised during covid actually became worse. Between tables, cyclists, and crowds congregating getting through them became more difficult.

Induced demand is a thing, make driving less convenient, and more people will take the tube/crossrail/bus.

There are plenty of examples of successful pedestrianised shopping streets, e.g. Stroget in Copenhagen, Buchanan St closer to home in Glasgow, La Rambla in Barcelona.

Doing some rough measurements in Google Maps, Oxford St is roughly the same width (if not slightly wider based on the samples I measured) than La Rambla. And our weather is marginally better than Cophenhagen and Glasgow, so one can't attribute success only to nice weather.

The traffic on Oxford St is largely bus traffic anyway, so I'm not sure induced demand is the slam dunk it might be in other areas. I am in favor of the pedestrianisation, mind you.

On top of that, induced demand is effected already by congestion charge/ulez.

It's up to the local council to allow (or not) outdoor seating for restaurants. Likewise for allowing (or not) cycling.

Plenty of cities have pedestrianised streets with a similar width to Oxford Street, and I find them very pleasant.

I lived in London pre congestion charge and learnt to drive there (I'd passed my test, but that's where I did most of the real learning). It would appear that the congestion charge didn't reduce congestion at all and was only a tax on tourists and the unaware?

Bamboozled means the shops tricked you, maybe you mean you were befuddled (confused)?

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