Oxford Street is a good step for Sadiq Khan, but more will be needed

17 September 2024, 17:23 | Updated: 17 September 2024, 17:25

The plan only partially deals with Oxford Street, doesn’t consider the broader areas around it and is likely to ban cycling along Oxford Street.

Of course, the London Cycling Campaign would support the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street – who wouldn’t want a greener, healthier and safer place for visitors, residents and workers that opens up new social, commercial and cultural opportunities in the heart of the city?

It would be a huge leap forward for a West End struggling to remain relevant in an age of Westfield and internet shopping.

Of course, also, a campaigning organisation such as ourselves would ask for “more, please” – it’s in our nature.

The plan only partially deals with Oxford Street, doesn’t consider the broader areas around it and is likely to ban cycling along Oxford Street – a corridor that TfL itself recognises as having one of the highest potentials for ‘mode shift’ to cycling, from cars, in London.

So there’s “more please” for this scheme specifically, from the evil cycling lobby (TM), or put another way – folks who support fewer unnecessary motor vehicle journeys and a nicer, healthier London support schemes which take good steps to deal with the motor traffic we all put up with.

But there’s more to this “more, please” story than just “more cycling please”.

London, if you’re a fan of facts and evidence, faces joined-up crises of climate, pollution, inactivity, road danger and congestion.

Can you spot the common link between all these?

Cars.

A majority of private motor vehicle journeys in London could be done relatively easily by other modes, says TfL’s analysis – saving time spent in traffic for those who need to drive.

The Mayor has repeatedly committed to not only reducing pollution (shh ULEZ expansion), but also to reducing carbon emissions and road danger.

In that context, it’s great to see Oxford Street back on the table sweeping away Westminster Council’s alternative and long-in-the-tooth plans for the street, essentially a many-millions re-run of the Marble Arch Mound in transport terms.

But this alone goes nowhere near far enough and he’s already way off the pace on his own targets in these areas.

We need big ideas from Sadiq and bold action over these next four years to keep London competitive with Paris and the other global and European upstarts.

Dusting off a half-baked plan from 2017 is nowhere near enough. So what next?Cut cars dramatically across the whole of central London? Outer London town centres to match Waltham Forest’s award-winning ‘mini-Holland’ programme?

Fixing it so that people can cycle in Brent?

We need some bigger ideas, Sadiq.

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