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.

Ross Lydall explains the new plans, and why the issue is so controversial.

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37 Comments

  1. An ' expert ' in urban and policy science . It is proven that closing streets into outdoor malls is the death knell for retail and a hell of a destination for homeless encampments…Get ready

  2. ULEZ & LTNS & Congestion Charges have Killed London. Nobody is interested in entering any city where you pay almost £50 to enter and park.

    No thanks go bankrupt 👍

  3. as some know hes a muslim and goes by the quran ,which goes against smoking drinking gambling ,eating real food and for women not to be seen or heard thats why the burka.peace and love all

  4. Hopefully lots of jewelers selling mostly gold. Stayed in Luzern for a time and many people would go window shopping, just to look at the watches.

  5. For God sake why doesn’t he spend the money witch he hasn’t got on tackling knife crime or something people actually want
    The tiny little mayor is useless and should have gone years ago

  6. Serious stores are gone, its stuff like curries and trainer shops now, nothing you cannot do online.
    For a lot less.
    I see a plan to turn it into 'something else' use wise.

  7. One reason why I stop going to London was ULEZ.. Train is to expensive to get there plus spending money.
    Is cheaper to fly for weekend to Prague, Budapest …

  8. Business will drop dramatically, especially for those in the middle (it's 3 miles long) and in a few years they'll scrap it and change it back to the way it was.

  9. This scheme dumps the traffic, the e-bikes and e-scooters, and people on their own bikes, into the residential communities south and north of Oxford Street. What were relatively quiet and safe mainly residential side streets have been turned into dirty city servicing alleyways, littered with litter and dockless e-scooters and e-bikes lying around the dockless parking bays. Delivery vans visit day and through the night. Recycling and waste vehicles grind around the streets several times a day, noise crashing and echoing all around the neighbourhood. ASB has already increased, and this scheme will make all these unsustainable environment problems far, far worse. Pedestrianisation also discriminates heavily against the less-able, whether they live next to Oxford Street or are visitors. There is no mention at all of alternative transport for the less-abled along Oxford Street, and to and from the distant bus stops. Already TfL has overkilled the bus numbers and routes, removing bus tops and services that residents relied on to get to Oxford Street shops, to 'local' health and community services, and to hospitals. This situation will now become much worse. Mayor Khan forgets that voters live in this area.

  10. He's so wrong… the buses need to stay, some people can't walk from one end to the other, especially the elderly and small children. He's already destroyed London and especially the centre…He's an absolute horror of a Mayor, and obviously wants to destroy England's capital city. I guess he's never walked from one end of Oxford st to the other as he's driven everywhere. Dreadful, dreadful little man. He doesn't want to save Oxford st, he wants to destroy it. He seems really happy with the destruction so far. If only Londoners would get their act together and vote this man out, but apathy seems to rule everywhere.

  11. We visited london a few weeks ago, what are these candy stores, selling sugary drinks and fake stuff? You need to build proper infrastructure like Europe such as trams, using electricity, quiet and affordable tickets. Also there lots of crimes at night

  12. Increased pollution in other areas: While air quality would improve on Oxford Street, it could worsen in neighboring streets due to displaced traffic.

  13. Increased congestion on nearby roads: By restricting vehicles from Oxford Street, traffic could be redirected to adjacent streets (e.g., Marylebone Road, Regent Street, and Wigmore Street), leading to heavier congestion in those areas.

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