Cyclists will be banned from riding through the pedestrianised section of Oxford Street under Sadiq Khan’s plans to ban traffic from the thoroughfare.The mayor announced on Tuesday that he had secured Government support to re-boot seven-year-old plans to make the “nation’s most famous high street” traffic-free, starting with the stretch between Oxford Circus and Selfridges.He told the Standard that cyclists would be included the restrictions, which will also remove buses, cars, taxis and delivery vehicles and give priority to pedestrians.Mr Khan said: “I’m quite clear: in that part of the street we pedestrianise, I want it to be for people to walk around.“There will be places to lock up your bike. There will be alternative [routes], in terms of getting from one side of Oxford Street to the other.“I want buses off Oxford Street in this part we pedestrianise, [and] cars, minicabs, taxis, racing cyclists. What I do want is pedestrians walking around and going to the shops.”
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00:00I'm on Oxford Street, the nation's most famous shopping street.
00:04Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has announced that he wants to pedestrianise the street
00:09to get rid of the buses, get rid of the taxis, even get rid of the cyclists
00:13and hand over the roads to pedestrians.
00:16We've got shops that are empty. We've got proliferation of US candy stores.
00:22The flagship stores that I remember from Topshop and other stores are no longer here.
00:29House of Fraser is no longer here.
00:31Debenhams, my old shop I used to work in, is no longer here.
00:34And so it's no surprise that people are using online shopping.
00:38It's no surprise people are going to out-of-town centres, shopping centres.
00:42It's no surprise that flagship stores that haven't left are thinking about their future in Oxford Street.
00:46That can't be right. What you want to do is have a street that's vibrant,
00:49where if you go into Shop 1, you don't get what you want.
00:52You go to Shop 2, or you go and browse in Shop 3 and Shop 4.
00:56And that means the shops benefit, the restaurants benefit, the community benefits,
01:00but also our city and country benefits because of gross value added and tax receipts.
01:05I think for tourists, for anyone coming to London, it doesn't feel like bits of waste
01:09where necessarily people want to come, bring back the sort of stores that are going to bring people in.
01:15Then it becomes back to being a proper shopping destination.
01:18I need buses to get around.
01:21So to get from one end of Oxford Street to the other, how would I do it?
01:26You know, taxis, buses, they're fundamental to London and getting around London.
01:33So if you closed off Oxford Street, pedestrianised it totally,
01:40how would you get from one end to the other?
01:43Why are these plans so controversial?
01:45Well, the fact is that there are many thousands of residents who live either side of Oxford Street,
01:50either in Mayfair or Soho to the south, or Fitzrovia or Marleybourne to the north.
01:55And they are represented by Westminster councillors.
01:58Many of these councillors, even though they're in the Labour Party, like Sadiq,
02:02look after the residents' interests first.
02:04And these residents do not want buses diverted off Oxford Street and driving down their residential area.
02:11The other issue is actually the sheer number of people who come here
02:15and also getting all the businesses to agree on a master plan.
02:19I think it's really important to invest in streets like this,
02:23to invest in communities like this, but also to invest in Oxford Street.
02:27This used to be known as our nation's high street.
02:31How many people watching this or reading this would say to a friend coming to London,
02:36go to Oxford Street to shop?
02:37But it shouldn't be just on the shoulders of John Lewis and Selfridges.
02:40The responsibility of reinvigorating Oxford Street,
02:44there's got to be a role surely for the mayor and the government
02:47to support this really important part of our economy.
02:50Look, I'm going to transform this street.
02:52I want it to be greener and safer and more hospitable to visitors,
02:57to tourists, to residents, to businesses.
03:00When you look at the vacancy rates across London, roughly speaking,
03:04the vacancy rate in shops across London is about 10%.
03:08Oxford Street, 14%. Why is that?
03:10And that's why it's really important to recognise we're going to get growth
03:14by working with the government, by investing in this area.
03:17We're going to have a mayoral development corporation.
03:19We'll set out what the area is.
03:21That will mean we can have at least part of Oxford Street pedestrianised.
03:25That will lead to increased footfall, shops doing better,
03:28businesses doing better, attracting more businesses, fewer vacancies.
03:32Now, what will this involve?
03:33Well, initially in the first stage, it would involve the pedestrianisation
03:37of the section between Oxford Circus and Selfridges.
03:41This is an old plan that came out first in 2017
03:44that the mayor wants to bring back to life.
03:46After that, we simply don't know.
03:48The mayor hasn't announced how much money he would spend,
03:51exactly what else would happen.
03:53What's likely, though, is that he would expect businesses to contribute
03:56to this scheme, and the wider aim is to attract shoppers
04:00and big-name shops back to Oxford Street to put it on a par
04:04with the likes of Las Ramblas in Barcelona and the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
04:09Can he achieve it?
04:10Well, it's one heck of a task, but Mr Kan has made clear
04:13that he believes the status quo is not an option,
04:16so don't expect change quickly, but this could be something
04:19that could happen over the next few years if he gets his way.