Pedestrianising Oxford Street will be good for business
'Oxford Street ought to be the finest thoroughfare in the world.' To try and live up to that potential, it’s going traffic-free tomorrow. This does not foreshadow the end of Western civilisation, nor another front in the Mayor of London’s war on cars. It is just good business. The line that opened this article is not mine. It was written in 1879 by Charles Dickens Jr. We have had 150 years to think about it and now have the evidence base, growth agenda, and political leadership to make it happen. Like Dickens Jr., I am a lifelong Londoner. As such, I avoid Oxford Street like the plague. Today, the experience consists largely of dodging traffic, ducking scaffolding and avoiding shops selling cheap t-shirts and expensive sweets.
